TPM Editor’s Blog

(Sorta) Debate Live-Blogging, Pt.2

And now Bachmann …

Okay, forget about Bachmann. She’s being silly. But the real stand-out here is Ken Cuccinelli, the very right-wing Attorney General of Virginia. With candidate after candidate he’s asking really sharp and probing questions and even more the follow-ups — pretty much in each case pressing candidates when it’s clear they don’t really understand or aren’t paying attention to the basics of constitutional law or really obvious questions about relations between the states and between the states and the federal government.

Like pretty much every Republican candidate, Bachmann says she wants to abolish the EPA. Then Cuccinelli asked, well, what about when states have a dispute between them? What about when Ohio’s plants are sending pollution into Pennsylvania? She vaguely said that this could be handled on a case by case basis. But a special law every time this happened, he shot back? Obviously that didn’t make sense. He didn’t press the point past the point when it was obvious She really hadn’t considered the question. He had a similar exchange with Perry. Maybe Cuccinelli should be nominee.

Josh Marshall

Josh Marshall is editor and publisher of TalkingPointsMemo.com.

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