VA Attorney General sues Internet payday lender, revealing a more conservative political bent

You have to love Virginia’s Attorney General (AG) Ken Cuccinelli for his overt willingness to use the office of attorney general for political ends. For instance, what’s a good way to signal that Mr. Cuccinelli is a man of the law while also conveying a sense of looking out for the average Virginian? I know, he should sue a payday lender! You’re absolutely on the mark!

Attorney General Cuccinelli is suing Jupiter Funding Group, an Internet payday lender “for offering payday loans without a valid state license from state regulators.”

In the great state of Virginia, lenders cannot charge more than 12 percent in yearly interest on a loan without a license. However, “the attorney general’s office says that according to the company’s terms and conditions, the interest rates on its payday loans ranged anywhere from 438 percent to 1,369 percent annually.” Yes, you’re reading that last number right, one-thousand, three-hundred and sixty-nine percent! This is a criminal offense in and of itself!

The latest suit by the attorney general’s office also illustrates Cuccinelli’s conservative political bent for upholding the law of Virginia above and beyond his libertarian rhetoric opposing government intervention in areas of private life that Cuccinelli believes is too intrusive.

This libertarian sweetheart is about as pure as fake gold and just as quick to rust in the public’s mind once they expose it to water. For all of his attempts to appeal to Virginia’s libertarian voting wing, Cuccinelli has shown time and again that he is just another conservative in superficial libertarian garb. For example, even though I know a few libertarians who disagree with homosexual marriage, their libertarian beliefs don’t allow them to propose state intervention to deny a legal union between two private citizens. How does Cuccinelli feel about homosexual marriage?

Needless to say, Fred Flintstone has a more up-to-date view of society than Ken Cuccinelli. Someone should let the AG know that this is a brave new world full of terrible things like an individual’s choice to live how he or she sees fit, not the government.