Culpeper Star-Exponent, Patrick James McGuire/Charles Glenn Andrews IV, Guy L. Abbott

Because not only was President John Tyler of Virginia the only president to be kicked out of his party but later defected to the Confederacy and was elected to its Congress, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

The bronze goes to whoever did Saturday's front page for the Star-Exponent of Culpeper. When headline writers try to be cute with sports headlines, sometimes it's just better to stay vanilla.

A teaser headline atop the front page said in reference to a high school football game: "Blackhawks Down Cougars." "Black Hawk Down" is of course the popular phrase for the tragic military operation in Somalia in 1993 that killed 19 Americans and wounded dozens others.

Maybe it was just an innocent mistake, and the editor on duty didn't see how a poor choice of verbs turned so distasteful. Or that person thought it was cute or amusing or fun to borrow phraseology – and a book and movie title – invoking American military dead for a football story when "Blackhawks Top Cougars" would've sufficed.

Well, it could've been worse. At least the headline wasn't "Blackhawks Scalp Cougars."

The silver goes to Patrick James McGuire and Charles Glenn Andrews IV of Virginia Beach, our dumb criminals nominees.

The Daily Press of Newport News reported Monday that Virginia Beach Police arrested and charged the two with burglary and grand larceny after looting a neighbor's damaged home in Sandbridge during Hurricane Irene on Saturday. Police say the duo swiped alcohol and stereo equipment.

Their plans for a clean getaway, however, when they were spotted on a live WVEC-TV report from the neighborhood, showing one of them trying to escape with a bicycle. Officers in the area responding to the storm nabbed them on foot after a pursuit. The stolen property was identified and returned.

Note to looters: Pick a neighborhood not being broadcast live on local television.

But our winner is another crooked cop, this time being Middlesex County Sheriff Guy L. Abbott. The Daily Press of Newport News (it must never be dull in that newsroom) reported Friday that Abbot was indicted on 25 criminal felony counts, including bribery, embezzlement, and misappropriation – the trifecta! – after a two-year investigation.

Over the course of eight years, he procured an inflatable boat, two other boats and a vehicle, misused county credit cards, and got money from an asset forfeiture fund, according to indictments. Abbott also took $1,200 total in bribes on three occasions.

County sheriffs are elected in Virginia, and the Daily Press says Abbott has filed for re-election for this November, although he faces three challengers. Maybe Abbott's slogan can be "Experience Counts!"

That's Middlesex County Sheriff Guy L. Abbott – talk about "taking your work home with you" – today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Correction: Video showed one of the looters leaving the scene with a bicycle, not riding a bicycle.

Latrell Scott, Ken Cuccinelli, Eric Cantor

Because the Old Dominion must've done something to deserve an earthquake, wildfire, and hurricane in the same week, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

The first is Latrell Scott, who is one and done as University of Richmond's football coach. He resigned Tuesday after being arrested for a DWI and refusing to take a breathalyzer test.

Scott was previously arrested for a DWI in 2004 when he was an assistant at Virginia Military Institute, an incident UR was aware of when they hired him in December 2009, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He is being replaced by the offensive coordinator in the interim.

This is an untimely end to Scott's career and 6-5 season with the Spiders, which started as an assistant in 2004 as Coach Dave Clawson was turning UR into a perennial playoff contender and laid the foundation for the 2008 Football Championship Subdivision championship with Coach Mike London.

It is unfortunate that unlike his predecessors who went on to coach at the bowl level – Clawson at Bowling Green and London at Virginia – Scott's single-season tenure at UR went in the opposite direction.

The runner-up is climate-change denier and bully Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and his assault on higher education. Between telling colleges that they cannot ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and trying to force guns on campuses, Cooch has harassed the University of Virginia over the phony "Climategate" scandal.

"Climategate" started in November 2009 when global-warming skeptics seized on hacked emails from a British university between scientists that they say proved global warming was a hoax concocted with bogus research. Cooch's ire was directly at then-UVa professor and "Climategate" figure Michael Mann, citing a taxpayer fraud law to investigate him for falsifying research with academic grants. On April 23 of last year, Cooch demanded that UVa turn over six years worth of files and correspondence, and that $485,000 in research grants be returned. It has been tied up in the courts ever since.

Cooch fully embraced the "Climategate" label in a Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial in February last year, accusing the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of "deception" and "unreliable" findings. "These materials suggest that a small group of academics who have received large grants and who are professionally invested in climate change aggressively manipulated the peer-review process to prevent the publication of contrary views," he wrote.

Mann, who has said he has received violent threats for his work, responded to critics saying that although there are some "minor" errors in his research, the overall consensus that global warming is at least partly man-made and has an impact on climate is solid. Well, Mann, now at Penn State, has been vindicated – again.

An independent report in Britain last July found that the scientists and their research were trustworthy. The Commerce Department this February concluded that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had not manipulated data. A panel at Penn State found last February that Mann individually did not falsify, suppress, or misuse data or information in his research. Additionally, just last week PolitiFact rounded up information on climate-change agencies and scientists, and argued that there is a broad consensus over the sources of climate change.

Now, on Tuesday, the Office of Inspector General for the federal National Science Foundation released a report that found no wrongdoing with Mann's research. "The research in question was originally completed over 10 years ago. Although the Subject's data is still available and still the focus of significant critical examination, no direct evidence has been presented that indicates the Subject fabricated the raw data he used for his research or falsified his results." Although debate over statistical procedures is appropriate, the NSF said, "Such scientific debate is ongoing but does not, in itself, constitute evidence of research misconduct."

One of the hacked emails portrayed climate-change skeptics as Gilligan's Island castaways marooned on a floating ice cap. That is completely unfair, and those scientists should apologize to Bob Denver's family – Gilligan has more intelligence and integrity than people like Cooch ever will.

But our winner is U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. The epicenter of the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the East Coast on Tuesday was in Louisa County, part of Cantor's 7th District.

Total damage caused by the quake is estimated at up to $300 million, and less than a third is insured. Locally, an elementary school may have to be condemned, and several businesses, homes, and older buildings were damaged. The Washington Monument and National Cathedral were also damaged.

But Cantor reassured his constituents and those affected by the quake by saying in Culpeper on Wednesday, “All of us know that the federal government is busy spending money it doesn’t have.” Wait, what?

Sure enough, Cantor told reporters that any federal relief would have to be offset by budget cuts elsewhere, although he wasn’t sure where. “When there's a disaster there's an appropriate federal role and we will find the monies. But we’ve had discussions about these things before and those monies will be offset with appropriate savings or cost-cutting elsewhere in order to meet the priority of the federal government's role in a situation like this.”

Because natural disasters can be scheduled and canceled like committee meetings, naturally.

Cantor tweeted last week, “It is critical that in the days and months ahead, we do our best to minimize unnecessary uncertainty, so America's economy can grow.” But “unnecessary uncertainty” when it comes to disaster relief? Not on Cantor’s watch.

Cantor said the same thing in May after a tornado killed 160 in Joplin, Missouri. He was rebuked by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican whose state has endured Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill in recent years. “I think disaster relief is not predictable. Emergencies caused by tornadoes, hurricanes are not predictable. ...,” he told reporters in June. “And if [Congress] didn't have a place to offset it, they should still go in and do it.”

Meanwhile, Hurricane Irene is headed toward the Tidewater region, and that damage would be considerably worse. Gov. Bob McDonnell has already declared a state of emergency, but Cantor’s still standing firm on the offset cuts. Cantor’s spokesperson told TPMDC on Thursday, “We aren't going to speculate on damage before it happens, period. But, as you know, Eric has consistently said that additional funds for federal disaster relief ought to be offset with spending cuts.” Well, his office did say “ought to be.” But where will these cuts come from? Will it be from programs like home-heating aid for the poor, Pell Grants for college students, or flood insurance for flood-plain residents?

This is the same man who in March, after the Japan earthquake and tsunami, defended a Republican proposal to cut $450 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The U.S. Geological Survey was also on the chopping block, according to the Richmond Examiner. "We've all got to do more with less here," Cantor said. Both agencies monitor earthquakes and seismic activity.

Cantor played a central role in exacerbating the debt-ceiling crisis that led to a downgrade in U.S. credit by towing the tea-party line (for his Wall Street donors, not for the tea party itself) on deep cuts to even entitlements but with no new revenue, the latter being a source of consternation for Standard & Poor in its decision to downgrade. Now Congress has a record-low approval rating of 13%. The quake may have damaged monuments in Washington, but Cantor is largely responsible for damage done to Congress.

That's Majority Leader – "leader" being just an ironic nickname – Eric Cantor, today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Bob Goodlatte, Ronald W. Williams, Michael Vick

Because someone thought "Virginia is for Lovers" would be a great tourism motto for a state named for the Virgin Queen, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

The bronze goes to Rep. Bob Goodlatte, who earned top billing on an unenviable campaign-finance report last week.   

News America/Fox PAC is essentially a central depository for News Corp. executives’ political donations, including boss Rupert Murdoch himself. The PAC has donated $21,000 to Republican-affiliated PACs so far this election cycle, compared to $3,500 for Democratic ones.

Well, Politico reported Friday that a Goodlatte, R-6th (Roanoke, Lynchburg, Harrisonburg), leadership PAC received the largest contribution from News America/Fox at $3,000 in the month following a phone-hacking scandal that has rocked the Murdoch empire. In the 2010 election cycle, News America/Fox donated $8,000 to Goodlatte’s PAC, second-most of all individual congresspersons' PACs.

And what is Goodlatte’s PAC awash with Murdoch money called? Good Fund. Seriously.

 

The silver goes to attorney Ronald W. Williams, an alum of the Fire and Brimstone School of Law, evidently.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia is considering legal action against the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors for starting meetings with prayers that invoke Jesus. The ACLU has warned that such sectarian prayers violate the First Amendment and federal appeals court rulings, but the board won't budge.

Courts have ruled that such practices are government speech, not personal speech. Nondenominational prayers are appropriate, the Supreme Court ruled 30 years ago, as long as "there is no indication that the prayer opportunity has been exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief," something even the ACLU concedes is reasonable.

However, Williams, a former Danville mayor, will have none of it. In a letter to the board cited Thursday by the Danville Register & Bee, he called the ACLU's position "idiotic," and "I want to help you in any way I can and I know your position is solid. We, for too long, have ignored our strength and, to me, this is just another assault by the devil."

The devil? And who's this "we," Kemosabe?

The Register & Bee reported Friday that, according to the ACLU's website, more than half the group's 120 legal actions are on behalf of Christians. In fact, the newspaper pointed out, a federal court in 2002 sided with the ACLU and a preacher's church by ruling that a part of the state Constitution that forbid religious organizations from incorporating violated the First Amendment. That preacher was the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Williams also told the Register & Bee that he is ready to do battle in the courtroom for this case: "I want to go down fighting in my last years as a lawyer, if I have to." Mr. Williams' expertise, as listed on his law firm's website, are motor vehicle accidents; personal injury; domestic relations; divorce, custody and support; criminal defense; traffic charges; and Social Security disability claims. First Amendment litigants and archangels need not apply.

But our winner is Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. The former Hokie and Newport News native gave an extensive interview for the September issue of GQ magazine with Deadspin founder Will Leitch, in which he talked about returning to football after incarceration.

Vick had to back away from interview comments inferring that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell steered him toward Philadelphia, which Vick said wasn't his first choice. "Michael Vick's decision on where to play to put himself in the best position to succeed was entirely his own," an NFL spokesman said Friday.

But Vick focused mainly on what he's taken away from the dogfighting convictions and their aftermath. Vick criticized reporters, who he thinks are too focused on his involvement, "As if he were a lone actor, a single rampaging menace, a canine serial killer with no context, motivation, or backstory. As if he is the only person in America associated with dogfighting," Leitch wrote. Well, Vick was the highest-paid player in NFL history once, so it should be no mystery why he gets the attention. Plus, Vick won The Associated Press's NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award last season, so sports editors must not think that his criminal past trumped his remarkable 2010 campaign.

Yet, his celebrity and recent history combine to turn him into an outspoken and useful advocate against dogfighting. Vick is keeping himself as a poster boy of dogfighting alive.

Vick expands on comments about the press by saying others are oblivious about his upbringing and those like him, where something like dogfighting is common. His collaborators were also friends he knew and trusted, Leitch noted, not moochers or phony friends who wanted to bathe in his spotlight. "I mean, I was just one of the ones who got exposed, and because of the position I was in, where I was in my life, it went mainstream," Vick said.  There is greater public awareness of dogfighting because of the attention his crimes and trial attracted, though.

However, Vick – currently armed with a team of "at least seven" PR professionals – reinforcing a perception that his crimes were an understandable mistake or a common, one-time lapse in judgment like drunk driving minimizes the extent of what he did. Vick helped host, fund, and organize a sadistic, interstate blood-sport operation for about six years. Whatever his background or upbringing, Vick could've said, "No, I have too much to lose, I won't do this."

When the Atlanta Falcons drafted him in 2001, he had the then-largest rookie contract in NFL history at $62 million with $15.3 million guaranteed. Nearly two months after signing his contract, according to his plea bargain, Vick said he paid $34,000 to buy property in Smithfield to use for dogfighting that a co-conspirator found. Vick and his friends started getting dogs and puppies from both inside and outside Virginia that would fight for purses in upwards of thousands of dollars. Bad Newz Kennels was founded in 2002, with Bad Newz Kannels shirts and headbands made. Vick helped test dogs to fight, the dogs competed in Virginia and the Carolinas, and Bad Newz Kennels hosted fights with parties as far away as New Jersey. He was aware his friends killed dogs that underperformed, and Vick helped his friends kill up to eight dogs by hanging or drowning them in April 2007. Authorities found 54 pit bulls at the site, some with dogfighting injuries.

Furthermore, based on his own words in GQ, Vick is either lying about his love of dogs or reveals an even more sinister side. Vick is allowed to own dogs again next July as part of his probation. He told GQ, "I miss dogs, man. I always had a family pet, always had a dog growing up. It was almost equivalent to the prison sentence, having something taken away from me for three years. I want a dog just for the sake of my kids, but also me. I miss my companions." But when he talked about his prison sentence, Vick said, "It's almost as if everyone wanted to hate me. But what have I done to anybody? It was something that happened, and it was people trying to make some money." (Vick did not place any side bets or collect any winnings, but he did provide most of the gambling monies.) He added, "It's not fair to the animal." But this issue is more serious than "fairness."

If Vick adores dogs as lifelong family companions, but his dogfighting operation was about "people trying to make some money," then he put Bad Newz Kennels' profits and success above his own personal sense of human dignity, his own moral compass. Dogs were important as pets but not as important as disposable byproducts of a horrific enterprise.

We are victims of our choices, and Vick did not choose to be the bigger, wiser man by breaking a cycle of violence and greed – and in the process sacrificed his humanity.

Michael Vick, co-founder of Bad Newz Kennels, today's Worst Virginian in the World.

Lawrence Transportation Systems, L. Douglas Wilder, Norfolk Police Department

Because Virginia was too crazy even for West Virginia at one time, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

Third place goes to moving company Lawrence Transportation Systems after a long, embarrassing legal mess over hiring discrimination.

In 2008, job applicant Christopher Woodson was turned away because he refused to cut his dreadlocks to comply with an 80-year-old appearance policy of Lawrence's. Woodson is Rastafarian and refused to cut his dreads on religious grounds, although he did offer to curl his hair up and wear a cap or head wrap. Lawrence said his hair wouldn't fit under a "uniformed hat."

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission then filed a lawsuit against the Roanoke-based Lawrence last September on Woodson's behalf for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964. An Employee Stock Ownership Plan committee told Lawrence, which is 100% employee owned, to stand its ground on Woodson, even though Lawrence admitted that the company could lose up to $400,000 in a lawsuit.

By doing so, Lawrence actually played the victim card: "The guy we're fighting is being represented with our tax dollars and he has absolutely, positively nothing to lose," the company said. The company suggested on its Facebook page on June 13 that as a private company it was above the law: "Do you think that a private business has the right to have and enforce a dress code?" it asked. Lawrence defended the policy, The Roanoke Times reported, because it said employees need to keep a professional appearance since they enter customers' homes and take their possessions. So a man with dreads is neither professional nor trusting?

The company even reached out to Rep. Bob Goodlatte for help. The congressman's spokeswoman was quoted in the Times in April saying that although he had concerns about the EEOC's handling of the matter, Goodlatte, R-6th (Roanoke, Lynchburg, Harrisonburg), could not intervene as a member of Congress, although his office did forward Lawrence's concerns to the EEOC. (Incidentally, Lawrence Transportation Systems has donated $2,500 to Goodlatte's campaign committee this election cycle.)

The original civil suit ended with a deadlocked jury in June. Finally, on Tuesday, Lawrence agreed to settle for $30,000 and to implement a slew of anti-discrimination initiatives.

Woodson said, "I hope that other employees, especially teenagers and young people, will take my experience as validation that the American dream still exists and that one’s faith does not have to hold a person back from working in a job that he is qualified to perform."

Yet, Lawrence pulled out the victim card again, with President Ron Spangler saying, "We still are convinced that we did not violate any laws, that we didn't discriminate. It just reinforces what the business community is saying about government regulations. We feel like this was a frivolous case taken to the extreme."

That's Lawrence Transportation Systems: "Dress codes" trumping civil rights and dignity since 1932.

The runner-up is former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, whose dream of a U.S. National Slavery Museum may be over.

The Silver Cos. donated 38 acres in Fredericksburg for the museum in 2002. A garden was formed but no building was erected. Experts believe fundraising has been a problem because the museum is not in Washington or Richmond, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened at the Smithsonian. Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, said in a blog post in February that the recession was to blame. "Just because the endeavor has become more difficult for us to complete, that does not mean this board will quit on what we believe to be an important American mission," he wrote.

Wilder believed the museum would cost $100 million for construction, but as of its last tax filing in 2007, the museum only had $115,000 in assets other than the land, even though $4 million has been raised since 2001 (about one-quarter of it from Bill Cosby). Now, Fredericksburg is putting the land on the auction block – a process that could take up to 6 months – to recoup $215,000 in back taxes and interest after the deadline passed on Saturday, the Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg reported Tuesday. Even worse, the museum owes $5.17 million to its architectural company after a court ruling in New York last year. Also, supporters who have donated artifacts are upset that they aren't being given clear answers on where they are.

University of Virginia professor and political guru Larry Sabato lamented last month, “Anyone who knows Wilder and who has listened to him about this understands that he cares about this. Why it’s ended up in this way I just can’t tell you, and I’ve never heard anybody explain it.”

An African-American who donated Jim Crow- and slavery-era artifacts was more blunt, calling Wilder's handling of the museum “a slap in the face of every African-American.”

But our winner is the Norfolk Police Department. Recruit John Kohn, a Navy veteran who served a tour in Iraq, died nine days after he fell unsconscious on Dec. 9 during one of many self-defense training exercises that involved a simulated assault. His widow Patricia filed a wrongful death suit Tuesday for more than $35 million against the former and current acting police chiefs, a training division administrator, and the officers involved in the training.

The suit alleges that Kohn received "repeated, violent blows to the head" that caused a brain hemorrhage. The city originally believed Kohn died after colliding with another recruit. However, The Virginian-Pilot of Hampton Roads reported Tuesday that a state Department of Labor and Industry report found that "the victim received multiple hits to his head that ultimately lead to his death. ... The final hits to his head were when the instructor was standing over the victim in the ground fighting test."

Patricia Kohn said the doctor who operated on John saw damage from head trauma from earlier in the week. In fact, John complained about the exercise to others and his wife, and asked around if they knew the symptoms of a concussion. The report also said another recruit suffered serious head injuries. The autopsy has not been released yet.

The police department has now banned direct head blows, and implemented better training and reporting procedures.

But it's too late for Kohn and his family. Patricia was pregnant with their daughter when John died. Baby Sara is now 4 months old and will never meet her father.

The Norfolk Police Department: today's Worst Virginians in the World.

Ken Plum, A. Barton Hinkle, Phil Hamilton

Because there's a boob on the Virginia state flag for a reason, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

The bronze goes to Del. Ken Plum, the latest casualty of PolitiFact Virginia slapped with a False rating. In attacking Gov. Bob McDonnell for declaring that the state has a budget surplus, Plum asked in an editorial on Aug. 2, "How could a state that has a responsibility to fund 55 percent public education costs get by with saying it has a surplus when it is funding just 41 percent?"

Plum, D-36th (Fairfax County), told PolitiFact that Virginia is responsible for 55% of all public education costs. Nope.

On Friday, PolitiFact reported that not only do Virginia localities pay a majority of their education costs, but state law says Virginia must foot the bill for 55% of costs to fund minimum state education requirements. Because it is law, the state is meeting that demand in its budget. Localities pay more because they are dissatisfied with just minimum requirements, so, also coupled with federal funds, the state only paid 41% of total education costs.

If there is anyone who should understand the budget process it's Plum, a former member of the House Appropriations Committee.

The silver goes to Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist and tea-party apologist A. Barton Hinkle. In a piece published Friday, he mocked criticism of British conservatives during the London riots and used that as a segue to sarcastically defend the tea party from cries of racism from Democrats and press coverage.

"To be fair, after the Taxpayer March on Washington on 9/12 [2009], Reuters did pause to wonder what the source of public anger was: 'Protests Against Obama: Race or Policy?' it asked, noting how 'former President Jimmy Carter said out loud what Democrats had been whispering for a while, that the protests against the country's first black president are tinged with racism.'

When conservatives wave signs, it's not 'unrest' caused by a 'sense of disenchantment.' It's because they're bigots. Society as a whole is not to blame; they are, individually. They need an attitude adjustment."

Not all tea partiers are racist, but yes, Bart, protesters waving signs calling the nation's first black president the N-word, picturing him as a tribal witch doctor, saying "Obama's Plan White Slavery," and calling him an undocumented worker is bigotry. Hate speech comparing President Obama to Osama bin Laden is in another league by itself.

Bart has a recent history of blinders on this issue. In other columns this year, he didn't acknowledge any bigoted overtones with birthers who think Obama is a Kenyan-born closet Muslim or Sharia Law panic fueled by Islamophobia, and instead used the topics as counterweights to call liberals conspiracy theorists and hypocrites.

Yet, this is the same guy who inferred that diversity programs and "voluntary racial balkanization" are a form of Jim Crow racism because both emphasize "racial identity."

Never mind tacit bigotry or academic exercises, how about actual racism, Bart, dehumanizing and insulting someone because of their race – is that racism? Or are you just upset at other people's double standards because you want a monopoly on it?

But our winner is soon-to-be federal inmate and former Del. Phil Hamilton, a candidate for the Worst Virginians Hall of Shame. He was sentenced Friday to 9.5 years in prison for convictions of bribery and extortion in May.

In 2007, Hamilton, R-93rd (County of James City, Newport News), obtained a $500,000 appropriation for an education leadership center at Old Dominion University. In exchange, he was hired as its director and was paid a total of $80,000.

E-mails showed that he was discussing his salary for the position with ODU even while he was still lobbying for the funds as an appropriations committee member.

When the media exposed the scandal two years later, Hamilton resigned soon after losing re-election, ending a 20-year career in the General Assembly. Now, he has filed for bankruptcy and is working at a golf course pro shop and reportedly living on hot dogs until he is to report to prison on Sept. 19.

What makes Hamilton's scandal remarkable, however, is that he is said to be the first state lawmaker in Virginia history to be convicted of public corruption. This is a state that produced many influential Founding Fathers, distinguished generals, and a record eight presidents. The Virginia General Assembly is the descendant of the oldest elective body in the New World.

Forget saying Hamilton has been tossed into the dustbin of history; he is the dustbin of history.

That's Phil Hamilton – "Virginia: 235 0 Years Without a Corruption Conviction" – today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Mark Center/BRAC, Morgan Griffith, Brenda Grubbs

Because Virginia is not too large to be an insane asylum, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

Third place is the Mark Center in Alexandria and the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) initiative for the carmageddon about to be unleashed. (BRAC is a federal program and not technically a Virginian, but it is to blame for this.) The gigantic office building for 6,400 defense workers is off the Seminary Road exit at Interstate 395, a main artery of Washington traffic from Northern Virginia with 200,000 commuters each weekday. That interchange also already has three levels of roads.

As the first few dozen employees arrive this week, everyone is bracing for the worst. Gov. Bob McDonnell has established a task force to help manage the traffic. Express buses are needed since the nearest Metro stop is miles away. Alexandria will station traffic police at six area intersections. There is only parking available for 40% of the employees, and there is no carpool-lane exit for that interchange. And the city estimates that it takes up to 15 minutes to drive through it.

Area residents are also nervous. They are worried about mixing traffic with an elementary and middle school, and a community college campus. Foxes, raccoons, and deer have fled the nearby botanical gardens and are invading neighborhoods. One resident said her friend was retiring rather than deal with the traffic!

Four-letter words are already common for I-395 during rush hour, and "BRAC" has just joined that list.

Our runner-up is climate-change skeptic Rep. Morgan Griffith and his ongoing crusade against the Environmental Protection Agency.

He was already called out in March for claiming that the EPA is regulating milk spills as it regulates oil spills.

While stumping for Del. Charles Poindexter in Stuart this week, Griffith complained that the EPA was going too far in regulating carbon dioxide.

"Everybody wants clean water and clean air," Griffith, R-9th (Roanoke, Bristol, Norton), was quoted Tuesday in the Martinsville Bulletin. But to totally eliminate CO2 pollutants, including natural respiration, "every animal has to die," he joked. "I’m against that."

Fossil fuel combustion is the top source of CO2 emissions in the U.S. by far – but Griffith is a contender for second.

But our winner is former Goochland County Treasurer Brenda Grubbs, who faces 410 years in prison for embezzlement. She pleaded guilty Tuesday to a 20-count indictment for stealing $185,000 in county funds.

Was she doing it to buy a house or pay off huge personal debts? No, worse. The indictment alleges Grubbs withdrew the funds between June 2010 and this February to wire the money to a Nigerian cabby she met on Match.com who claimed he and his friends had long hospital bills.

The money is likely long gone. "As you might imagine, an email address in Nigeria is all but impossible to track down," a prosecutor said.

In fact, this was after Grubbs drained her and her husband's bank accounts of up to $100,000.

That's disgraced former Goochland County Treasurer Brenda Grubbs, who made someone probably the richest taxi driver in Nigeria, today's Worst Virginian in the World!