Terry McAuliffe, the political bagman who rented out the Lincoln Bedroom while Bill Clinton was in office, wants to be governor of Virginia -- in the worst way.

As McAuliffe wrote in his autobiography, governors "have all kinds of business to hand out, road contracts, construction jobs, you name it."  The governorship would be McAuliffe's favor factory, paving the way for Hillary Clinton's run in 2016.

At Hillary Clinton's "swanky northwest [Washington] D.C. home" on the eve of the government shutdown, she was busy raising money for McAuliffe.

Bill Clinton got into the act sending his own fundraising email for McAuliffe on the eve of the government shutdown saying, "Virginia's next governor gets to decide whether the Commonwealth accepts Medicaid expansion." Welcome back, era of big government.

Now McAuliffe is taking a page out of the Obama playbook, falsely criticizing his Republican opponent Ken Cuccinelli about the federal government shutdown, and resorting to the divisive politics that has been Obama's stock in trade. 

In a recent debate with McAuliffe, Cuccinelli was clear:  "None of us want to see a government shutdown."  He even repeated for debate moderator Chuck Todd of NBC, "I said I don't want the federal government to shut down."

McAuliffe is the first candidate ever not to have been at his own debate, or so it seems.  In a newly released statement McAuliffe said,

"As our nation is on the brink, Ken Cuccinelli (sic) silence has made it clear that he fully supports his extreme Tea Party allies' efforts to shutdown the government in an effort to advance their own ideological agenda . . . If Ken Cuccinelli really cared about Virginia's economic future and what's best for the Commonwealth, he would condemn his extreme Republican allies' efforts to shutdown the government over health care and cancel his fundraiser this week with Ted Cruz, the architect of the shutdown."

What we now know is that McAuliffe's politics are like Obama's. He is divisive. Like Obama, his leadership style is to use government to reward his friends, and he verbally attacks and denigrates conservatives he wants to govern.

Obama has created a government war on ordinary citizens who disagree with his ideology. McAuliffe obviously seems comfortable with that style of leadership. And, he's part of the Clinton Machine. That's an ugly combination if ever there was.

There have been 17 government shutdowns since 1977. America is still here. Like Ted Cruz, conservatives want voters to see how members of Congress would vote in this constitutionally required format -- government by elected representatives, not bureaucratic fiat -- and learn something about their character from something other than their lip service.

What we also now know is that progressives believe that our constitutional republican form of government is "extremism."

Contrast McAuliffe's ways with those of Ken Cuccinell.  In a half-hour taped speech, Cuccinelli sets forth his limited government policy positions in terms of our "First Principles."  (Full disclosure: my agency helped produce the film.)

On these First Principles, Cuccinelli says they "are the principles of freedom and opportunity that still make our country the world's shining city on a hill.  They are the principles that no matter your station in life now, you have control of your destiny, and that government can't restrict your personal achievements. They are the greatest principles civilization has ever written into law."

Washington's ways have already crept across the Potomac into the Northern Virginia suburbs.  On November 5, we'll see if they'll make it to Richmond.