The Virginia Triangle

There is a new novel climbing the NYT Best Seller List.

It has a great plot.

A Right Wing website releases photos of the Governor of Virginia from his Medical School yearbook in which he is either in blackface or in a Klan outfit.

A furor ensues and the Governor apologizes.

The furor continues and the Governor retracts his apology and denies that either picture is him.

But he does mention that he did blackface at another time and place.

Much to his surprise the frenzy demanding his head continues.

The Governor’s political party is OK with that because the next in line is the Lt. Governor, a popular African American of the same political party as the Governor.

If the Lt. Governor – an eminently electable sort of politician – were to take over he could serve out the existing term of the resigned Governor and then run for his own second term.

That would be an immense political windfall for the Governor and Lt. Governor’s party because that set of circumstances would do the impossible: give a politician a shot at two terms as Governor in Virginia, a state which has a one term limitation on the office of Governor.

The Right Wing web site strikes again.

The Lt. Governor is accused of sexual assault.

And his accuser has employed the services of the same law firm that tried to make the case against Bret the Beer Drinker recently.

Public opinion might not cotton to the spectacle of the testimony of another woman being slam dunked by the good ol’ boys for a second time in just a few months, so one might conclude that the lady’s law firm might win this one.

Or so the plot of the new novel seems to be indicating.

And the party of the Governor and Lt. Governor, looking at imminent statewide elections, can’t afford to look as if it is going to slam dunk the lady any more than they can not call for the resignation of the Governor.

It would appear to be a veritable quandary.

But wait.

The third in line to the line of succession to Governor is also a member of the Lt. Governor’s and Governor’s political party, so the quandary has a solution.

But wait.

The third in line spontaneously admits that he went in black face back in his college days.

Apparently most young men in Virginia go through that phase, and then go into politics.

The gloom of the veritable quandary returns: the fourth in line for the office of Governor is of a party other than that of the first three.

As a subtle tweak of the plot at this point, it turns out that the fourth in line is in that place as the result of ticket drawn out of a hat in the preceding year.

I can’t recommend this novel too highly.

The plot, of course is outlandish, but that’s what makes fiction so entertaining.