The Trade is Finalized, Marcus For Saunders

Last night Virginia Democrats and Virginia Republicans completed the long negotiated trade. The Dems get Boyd Marcus, and the Republican's get David 'Mudcat' Saunders. From the Richmond Times Dispatch.

"Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a veteran smash-mouth Democratic strategist, says he is supporting Republican Ken Cuccinelli for governor, branding Democrat Terry McAuliffe a "corporatist."

"What these corporatists have done to us in rural America and in urban America ..." Saunders said in a telephone interview. "I can't support a corporatist. I just can't. This guy is not my kind of Democrat."

The move is the latest twist in Virginia's down-the-rabbit-hole election. Last month, McAuliffe announced that he had hired M. Boyd Marcus, a political strategist who has advised Republican campaigns in Virginia for more than 30 years.

"I'm not on the payroll," Saunders said Monday. "No, I'm not Boyd Marcus. I'm a Democrat."

But the move, first reported on The Washington Post's website, "helps to balance Boyd Marcus," said Larry Sabato, head of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "Now they each have a major defector in the army of political consultants," he said, laughing at the absurdity of the election."

Editors note, What is a Mudcat?