In Outing a Bribery Scheme, Mike Causey Is a Credit to His Office

Read WRAL reporter Travis Fain's wrap-up of the Greg Lindberg bribery case down in Durham. Read it and weep. Because billionaire Greg Lindberg is one of those "masters of the universe" who are single-handedly capable of shoving enough money at politicians to cast an ethical cloud over whole departments of government. For those public officials who accepted great heaps of his cash, they raise suspicions about personal integrity and suggest once again that the love/lure of money is the root of all evil.

Lindberg gave money to both the Republican and the Democratic parties. He gave money to Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer as well as to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. He gave 6 figures to Tim Moore, for his House Republican Caucus fund. He gave $50,000 to state Senator Wesley Meredith who was introducing an insurance law rewrite in the General Assembly that would have advantaged Lindberg (the law went nowhere). Most striking of all, Lindberg gave over $2 million to support Dan Forest for governor, a "strategic" expenditure in case Forest should become governor.

Lindberg isn't the first nor will he be the last, to grow his tendrils everywhere, from Raleigh power-centers to Mugstomp-on-the-Potomac. We've always had these guys who respect no bounds to get what they want. And elected officials with their hands out.

Except for NC Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey. (You can read about what Lindberg wanted out of the Insurance Commissioner on your own. I'm not going to summarize all that here. It's beside the point anyway.) Mike Causey, Republican, cooperated with the FBI to expose a bribery scandal involving both billionaire Lindberg and Robin Hayes, Chair of the NCGOP. Mike Causey resisted the attempted bribery and exposed it all. Mike Causey is a civic hero.

Travis Fain found evidence that the Lindberg gang thought Commissioner Causey was also "dense," a kind of Gomer Pyle lame-brain. That Causey always seemed to agree to their quid pro quos and then dragged his feet and appeared to forget his assigned duties and never delivered what Lindberg thought he'd agreed to. All the time Causey was playing Lindberg, wearing at various times both hidden microphones and videocameras and gathering the evidence that led to Lindberg's conviction last Thursday (March 5). Robin Hayes had already pled guilty for participating and is awaiting sentencing.

Some North Carolina Democrats get tarred with the same Lindberg tar. Nobody's accused them of wrongdoing, but it's not a good look. What's documented is some $750,000 that Lindberg gave to the NC Democratic Party in 2018 while it was chaired by Wayne Goodwin, the previous Insurance Commissioner. In fact, according to Fain, Goodwin was Lindberg's "first." Lindberg had spent "more than $340,000 between Goodwin's campaign [to become Insurance Commissioner] and a separate political action committee that supported his re-election."

That's what Fain documents. What's undocumented is the money Lindberg gave to "dark money" groups, of which there was apparently a generous helping given to both sides. Including an unspecified amount to a 501(c)(4) group supporting Gov. Cooper's 2016 campaign.

What set off the whole bribery scene?

Goodwin had given the Lindberg insurance companies an advantage that appears to have been out of the ordinary. Causey's department after January of 2017 began reversing that policy. Lindberg was putting pressure on Causey to go easy on him.

Under Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, the department allowed Lindberg's insurance companies to keep investing up to 40% of their assets, cash from policyholder premiums, into other companies that Lindberg owns. When Mike Causey took over as Insurance Commissioner, his team, led in part by Jackie Obusek, a senior deputy commissioner, insisted on "unwinding" what Goodwin had given Lindberg -- lowering that 40% and thus Lindberg's control over the companies' cash.

Lindberg wanted Jackie Obusek fired. That's what he was willing to buy from Mike Causey, along with of course a more generally lenient regulatory regime overseeing his activities.

Republican Richard Hudson (NC-8) Has a Democratic Opponent

Richard Hudson

Congressman Richard Hudson (R), who has represented the 8th Congressional District of North Carolina since the election of 2012, is pretty much a swamp creature. He's been hanging around Washington, DeeCee, and particularly Capitol Hill as a congressional staffer, for many years. He even did a term in hell as Congresswoman Virginia Foxx's chief of staff before moving on to other congressional offices and holding the bag for other congressmen. He knows how the place works -- or doesn't -- and that you go along to get a leg up.

Hudson worked for the now arrested and disgraced Robin Hayes when Hayes was the congressman from the 8th district. Hudson had moved on to DeeCee when Hayes was defeated by Democrat Larry Kissell in 2008. Hudson returned to North Carolina to oust Kissell in 2012. So the worm turns.

Hudson's association with Robin Hayes glows like a neon of his swampiness. Hudson also took lots of money from billionaire Greg Lindberg, the man behind Hayes's arrest for attempted bribery.

Among those associated with the congressman, the largest recipient of money from Lindberg was a joint fundraising committee affiliated with Hudson — the Hudson Freedom Fund. According to campaign finance reports, that group received donations of $44,300 and $33,900 from Lindberg in December [2018] and January [2019], respectively. [Josh Bergeron, Salisbury Post]

Scott Huffman

Hudson gave $15,000 of that to charities benefitting soldiers at Fort Bragg: "The GOP lawmaker says he didn't do anything wrong, but just wants to avoid the appearance of any impropriety" (Politico). The appearance lingers, as does the aroma of influence peddling.

Hudson already has a Democratic challenger in Scott Huffman, who tried once before in 2018 but lost the Democratic primary to ultimate candidate Frank McNeill, who took almost 45% of the vote against Hudson last year. Huffman is a Navy veteran and owner of a "technology business." His greater community involvement has come from founding and leading Indivisible Charlotte.

He has a website, a very active Twitter feed, and a Facebook group.

The Headline in What the NCGOP Submitted to the FEC

As I spend most of my time these sun-lit days distinguishing Stellaria media from Baptisia australis, and not (mos def) reading finance reports submitted by the North Carolina Republican Party to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), I'm perfectly and always happy for someone else to read them and then let me know what's what.

The NCGOP was left with just over 4 thousand dollars (no freaking way!) by the time Chair Robin Hayes' got himself arrested for attempted bribery and Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse got shown the door following him. At the end of the First Quarter of 2019 (April filing deadline), Woodhouse and Co. boasted a "balance (receipts – expenditures) of $4,137.09 at the end of the quarter."

Holy Implosion, Batman!

And with two special elections for Congress happening right now too, in the 3rd and the 9th districts. Some strong Democrats running in both. Meanwhile, the eventual Republican winners in the primaries will be dangling out there without strong party support.

What Sound Does a Hollow Log Make?

The Central Committee of the North Carolina Republican Party reportedly met for seven solid hours on Sunday, arguing over what to do about their top leadership. The state party chair, Robin Hayes, was recently arrested for attempted bribery of the state's insurance commissioner and is now under five federal criminal indictments. Hayes has been allowed to step aside from his duties, appoint an interim leader (Aubrey Woodard, who chairs the 11th Congressional District Committee), but also retain the title of "chairman" until the state party's convention in June.

Executive Director of the NCGOP, Dallas Woodhouse, is also being allowed to resign at the conclusion of the June state convention. Woodhouse has been the pugnacious and rambunctious executive director since 2015 and has left plenty of roadkill in his wake. “I am under contract through the convention. When my contract expires I am moving on, which is always what I had in mind,” Woodhouse said.

Woodhouse admits that he testified to the grand jury in the Hayes bribery case but is not mentioned in the indictment. He has also claimed that the party did nothing wrong in laundering a large contribution from Greg Lindberg into the campaign account of the insurance commissioner.

Government Employee of the Year

North Carolina's Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey might just be a candidate for poster child of the year, something titled "Incorruptible Public Official."

As more information comes out about the indictment of big-bucks donor Greg Lindberg and his facilitator, Robin Hayes, Chair of the NCGOP, Causey emerges as a rock-solid honest man. Here's a relevant passage from the reporting by Paul A. Specht et al. published yesterday morning:

Causey said his involvement with Lindberg began in 2017 when the insurance department was conducting a routine financial examination of one of Lindberg’s companies.... 

“There were questions on some of the financials,” Causey said. 

Lindberg, fast on his way to becoming one of the largest campaign donors in the state, donated $10,000 to Causey’s campaign in early 2017. Causey said the donation came “out of the blue,” but he directed his campaign finance director to return the money. 

“It might not look right,” he said.

Later that year, Causey said he was told that Lindberg wanted to host a fundraiser for him. Causey declined. 

“We were still engaged in the ongoing financial examination,” Causey said. “And it just didn’t look right.” 

By then, he said, officials at the department had questions about the practices and financial health of Lindberg’s companies.

“There were loopholes being exploited,” Causey said.

Lindberg was throwing around the money, especially to Republicans (but why not? They were in charge of most everything) but also to prominent Democrats like Wayne Goodwin, who might want about now to be giving that money back.

The New Frontrunner for NCGOP Chair

Robin Hayes has been chair of the NCGOP since April 30, 2016, when the Republican executive committee ousted Hasan Harnett from the job. Hayes had been NCGOP chair before, from 2011-2013, and he had served ten years in the US House, from 1999-2009. Hayes was "Republican establishment" all the way, while Hasan Harnett was Tea Party conservative, backed by the rowdier elements and movement conservatives. Most observers thought -- up until yesterday -- that Robin Hayes would run again for the party chairmanship and that he could probably win (with the help of Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse), but Hayes has suddenly dropped out of the running, citing "issues with his mobility" (following hip-replacement surgery and a recent fall at the Cabarrus County GOP Convention).

That suddenly throws the chairmanship of the NCGOP open for a cantankerous and entertaining contest, with Lee County Republican agitator Jim Womack probably emerging as the leading anti-establishment contender. The chairmanship will be decided by the NCGOP state convention in June. Womack ran against Robin Hayes in 2017, was defeated by double digits, but has never stopped his campaign to remake the state party and put it on a "war-footing": "We will campaign on all fronts– in the media, in government circles, and especially in the trenches –where we will encounter the most ardent socialists and anarchists. We will prevail!" ("We Are at War," by James Womack, April 4, 2017)

Those armored columns of "ardent socialists and anarchists" are figments of imagination that have apparently taken on some ample flesh in Mr. Womack's head: He also alleges that "the democrats [sic] have hired agitators who roam from venue to venue seeking to disrupt conservative groups and political events." If you can talk yourself into that fantasy, you'll also believe that millions of "illegals" are always voting against The Right.

Did we say "agitator"? Womack and about a dozen other "grassroots activists" put paper sacks on their heads "in peaceful protest" at the 2016 GOP state convention "each time the convention chairman or central committee staff were perceived to be manipulating the proceedings to disadvantage grass roots candidates running for office, or when resolutions and platform changes were being suppressed" ("Wearing a Paper Bag at Convention").

Womack was elected to the Lee County Board of County Commissioners in the Tea Party wave of 2010 and served four colorful years (he called his critics "libtards," which gives you a sense of his level of discourse). He was a frequent target for criticism on the blog "The Rant: News Out of Sanford, North Carolina."

As the appointed chair of the state's Oil and Gas Commission, Womack has been a vociferous advocate for fracking, and when the Lee County Commission -- on which Womack no longer served -- passed a moratorium on fracking, Womack went jihad in defense of five Lee County landowners who claimed their rights were being infringed by the moratorium. The five, turns out, had written (or had ghostwritten for them) identical letters, all addressed to Womack, and all five, turns out, were Womack's buddies. Lisa Sorg attended that meeting of the Oil and Gas Commission:

...Jim Womack, the agency’s controversial chairman, seemed agitated, frantic even, to attend to what he deemed as Very Important Business: to hear from disgruntled people who want the commission to overturn Lee County’s fracking moratorium.

“I’m a little bit motivated,” said Womack, a long-time fracking proponent, as he pressed the commission’s attorney for more legal leeway on hearing the complaints.

There's plenty more to this guy's history.

Robin Hayes

He's gonna make a fine chair for the NCGOP!

But side benefit: If he makes it, Dallas Woodhouse will be gone as executive director!

UPDATE
This previously sealed indictment became public this afternoon, after the above was posted: Robin Hayes, along with three others, federally indicted for bribery, or more specifically, "of directing illegal political donations to North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey in an effort to bribe him." Here's more news about it.

So "mobility" did turn out to be a disqualifier for Hayes to run again for NCGOP chair, since he surrendered himself to federal authorities today.

Wow.

On the Republican Right: Blame Anyone But Don't Blame Trump

It's sometimes instructive to watch how a losing political party rationalizes its losses, especially when said political party cannot or will not acknowledge what is actually wrong.

On the Tea Party right of the North Carolina GOP, some are blaming NC GOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse and Party Chair Robin Hayes for the loss of their veto-proof majorities in both the NC House and the NC Senate. Those party leaders are accused mainly of being wusses in the pursuit of hard-right conservative goals. In other words, they're being criticized for being insufficiently Trumpian.

Interesting, since there's plenty of statistical evidence that the NC GOP lost almost every incumbent House and Senate member in Mecklenburg County (for example) because of the souring on Trump of the suburbs. No one on the Republican side admits that. Perhaps that thought is simply impossible to think (which is the definition of how hegemony works).

Fine by us.

Meanwhile, the prime mover of those suburban voters away from the GOP said on Thanksgiving that he personally was thankful "for having made a tremendous difference in this country.” “I’ve made a tremendous difference in the country," he repeated, because he's a single-shot repeating rifle, and I actually couldn't agree more. He's revived the progressive movement, reenergized the Democratic Party, inspired hundreds of first-time candidates, and caused the loss of the NC GOP's veto-proof majority in the NC General Assembly.

The longer their activists are in denial, the better.

NCGOP Counts Its Four Eggers Before They Hatch

So ... you know that the special session rewrite of elections boards in NC got struck down by a three-judge panel as an unconstitutional infringement on the executive branch of state government.

You may not know that the Republicans in the General Assembly rejiggered that law (to pass constitutional muster, they think), which still strips authority from the governor. That Senate Bill 68 passed both houses of the General Assembly and is sitting on Governor Cooper's desk. Cooper has already announced that he will veto it, but he hasn't yet.

The NCGOP under Chair Robin Hayes isn't waiting. He's named his choices for the new State Board of Elections and Ethics, one of whom would be Stacy C. Eggers IV ("Four"), that Watauga County paragon of open elections and sparkling ethics.

Four Eggers.

Four Eggers.

Four Eggers -- on the State Board of Elections and Ethics.

The man famous in Watauga County for much malfeasance but most famous for this: "One County Attorney, Two Hats: Documents Show Attorney as "Author" Behind Key Resolutions."

The lawyer who worked non-stop for years to suppress the vote of Appalachian State University students.

Yes. That guy. The guy who forced Elections Supervisor Jane Ann Hodges into early retirement, who schemed behind the scenes with Paul Foley, and who got his brother Luke appointed to the Watauga BOE when his own nomination was rejected by the State BOE because of an obvious conflict of interest.

Four Freakin' Eggers.

Of course, S68 will be passed over Roy Cooper's veto, but then it'll be back in court. So we figure that Four Eggers gets the publicity without the job. You're welcome!

NCGOP Signals Again That It's Hostile to Public Education

It didn't take a minute after Betsy DeVos, the billionaire Trump appointee, achieved her historically narrow victory for confirmation as the head of the Department of Education -- it took less than a minute for Robin Hayes, head of the NCGOP, to ostentatiously invite DeVos down to North Carolina to teach us all how we can abandon our public schools for publicly funded private schools and religious academies.

Apparently, the invitation was done quickly because Chair Hayes didn't want any North Carolina voters to forget how arduously the Republicans in the General Assembly have worked to abandon good public education for everybody in favor of private and for-profit education for special interests.

Never fear, Mr. Hayes. We remember.

Let's Show Judge Bob Edmunds the Way To Go Home

The dark shaded area in that map is North Carolina House District 48, which a panel of three federal judges last August singled out for special comment: "one of the most bizarre and sprawling districts" enacted by the NC General Assembly as part of their racial gerrymandering, now ruled unconstitutional. (In a bizarre twist, the three-judge panel left these gerrymandered districts in effect for the 2016 elections.)

Anyway, NC Supreme Court Justice Bob Edmunds is catching flak because he had ruled, in advance of the three-judge federal panel, that districts like this one were perfectly all right with him. The three-judge federal panel overturned him, and thereby hangs Judge Edmunds' reelection prospects.

He's being attacked in a 30-second TV ad for approving of racial gerrymandering, and Republican big-wigs in the state (GOP Exec. Dir. Dallas Woodhouse, NCGOP Chair Robin Hayes) are screaming bloody murder, that their Supreme Court Justice Edmunds is being unfairly "race-baited."

The TV ad spotlights US House District 12, not NC House District 48, but the point the ad is making seems amply justified in respect to any of the heavily gerrymandered districts enacted by the Republican General Assembly and which Republican justices on the NC Supremes find no fault with.

Edmunds needs to go. Just remember how the Republican overlords in the General Assembly attempted to jury-rig Edmunds' reelection with the "retention election" scheme, also ruled unconstitutional.

Will Hasan Harnett Sue the NCGOP?

The Tea Party insurgents in the North Carolina Republican Party have not gone quietly into that good night. Once their leader, the now former Chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, Hasan Harnett, was ousted from his post last Saturday, we're hearing only war drums on the Neuse.

Chief drummer Brant Clifton at The Daily Haymaker is now calling new party Chair Robin Hayes the "Big Dummy," and Harnett's chief defender in the closed-door "trial" that was held by the GOP executive committee last Saturday is loudly proclaiming that the whole process was "illegal and illegitimate."

Illegal is an interesting word here, since Hasan Harnett himself is now speaking publicly: “I am in the process of reviewing all options for next steps and will communicate my plans soon,” Harnett wrote to his supporters on-line.

"All options" might logically include a lawsuit based on that allegation of illegal process.

NCGOP, Bow to Your New Leader

News&Observer

Robin Hayes!

Robin Hayes?

The Robin Hayes who as a U.S. Congressman from the NC-8 cast the deciding "yes" vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement in 2005. Which makes Robin Hayes about as un-Trump as you can get in the Republican Party.

Which is exactly what the Tea Partiers supporting ousted NCGOP Chair Hasan Harnett -- yes, they ousted him yesterday -- thought all along, that the establishment, country-club Republicans are not capable of sharing power with the insurgents. Evidently Dallas Woodhouse is fine with Robin Hayes, which is what matters.

Insurgent blogger Brant Clifton immediately called Robin Hayes "the big dummy" and predicted renewed civil war in NCGOP ranks. It may be a hot summer.

Worms in the Cabbage

The National Republican Party's delegate rule changes (a.k.a., "The Tampa Rules Changes"), which elicited boos in Florida at the National Republican Convention in August, amounted to the strong-arming of insurgent campaigns like Ron Paul's. Paulites had out-maneuvered and out-organized the Romney machine in states like Maine and Minnesota and recruited more convention delegates that Romney. Romney, looking forward to his inevitable re-coronation in 2016, and according to The Daily Beast, bull-dozed through the adoption of some new rules to cover his right flank in a future conventions:

In an effort to get more control over the delegate-selection process in the future, Romney’s people overstepped in a way that infuriated many conventiongoers who are otherwise supporting him. Yesterday [29 August 2012], the Republican National Committee proposed a new rule that would allow the party’s nominee to overrule state conventions and choose his or her own delegates. This, many feared, would turn delegate slots into perks for insiders and donors, and further shut activists out of the process.

If this is the new rule, why have expensive primaries? Huh?

Among those loyal Romney lieutenants who helped ram through this rather significant change to the way delegates to the national convention are chosen was one Robin Hayes, former Congressman and current chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, who was by gawd apparently determined to keep his state delegation in line on this. There's existing video of him "ranting" (according to a Tea Party eye witness ... video if you're brave enough to wade through an hour of bad sound and bizarre cinematography). It was as if Robin Hayes shouted, "Respect my AUTHORI-TIE!" or words to that effect. Later, in a videotaped confrontation with disgrunted Tea Partiers at a Moore County Republican Party meeting, Robin Hayes inadvertently (it's downright hysterical, like a comedy routine) admits something he didn't intend to admit in responding to a comment from his audience:

Tea Partier: "You treated the fellow from Louisiana ... who brought in the minority report [on the rules changes] very shabbily."

Hayes: "He wasn't from Louisiana."

Anyhoo, those rule changes ("a power grab," described as "a blow to the Tea Party and the Ron Paul insurgency -- movements that have sprung up precisely because Washington insiders of both parties have abandoned the traditional bedrock principles of the Republican party, namely, economic freedom, fiscal common sense, and smaller, constitutionally limited government")  and Robin Hayes's role in getting them installed are coming back to bite Mr. Hayes in the ass.

At the state Republican Party Executive Committee meeting in Cary yesterday, apparently Hayes was under fairly direct attack. A resolution passed calling for the reinstatement of the old delegate selection rules (hell, why not? Mittford Romington is gone forever!), and if we're to believe Brant Clifton, Tea Party members managed to scuttle the ascension of one Wayne King to the Party Chairmanship. King is a pariah to Tea Partiers largely for allegedly intervening in the Republican primary for State Auditor. You can read about that here.

Hattip @bullydoc

How to Make a Republican Big-Wig Happy: Increase Unemployment

The North Carolina state Employment Security Commission announced that unemployment soared to 9.9% in June as community colleges, universities and other state government employers cut 7,600 workers -- the direct and measurable first impact of the new state budget enacted by the new Republican majority in the General Assembly. Accomplished despite the Governor's veto (thanks, again, Five Goobers!)

Republicans chickens coming home to roost.

Meanwhile, confirmed millionaire and NC GOP Chair Robin Hayes sez that not only is he proud of this, but he's hoping for even more lay-offs. Which he will get, believe it.

It'll be a merry Christmas for Robin Hayes!

The New Chair of the NC GOP

Former Congressman Robin Hayes easily won the election yesterday to become the new Republican state party chair ... on the first ballot, and overwhelmingly.

The Tea Party insurgency for Tim Johnson fizzled badly.

For more inside baseball coverage of the meeting, you can wade through Katy's Conservative Corner. Katy mentions the tingly pleasures of sitting next to Jonathan Jordan at the meeting.

The Enduring Hard-On of Tim D'Annunzio

Machine-gun Tim D'Annunzio, the man publicly repudiated by the Republican state party chair back during the 2010 primary in the NC-8, has launched a tea party insurgency against the selection of Robin Hayes as the presumptive heir to the chairmanship of the NC Republican Party.

D'Annunzio favors Tim Johnson, about which there is perhaps slightly less trailing baggage than there is for D'Annunzio himself, but still plenty of baggage.

D'Annunzio does NOT favor Robin Hayes, the plush teddy bear evidently favored by Dick Burr and other country-club Republicans. "Stop the RINO establishment from controlling the NC GOP," reads a banner ad that D'Annunzio paid for on the Drudge Report. (Can't seem to catch the ad. Drudge's banners rotate, but if D'Annunzio's dyspepsia is still evident, we haven't been able to see it.)

FOOTNOTE
AP's Gary D. Robertson posted an extensive profile of the chairman's race.

Some Choice!

A young conservative turk in the NC Republican Party considers the three men who've declared their candidacies for chair of the state party, to replace Tom Fetzer in January, and assesses them thusly:

Robin Hayes ... the former congressman defeated in 2008 by Larry Kissell, who appears to have the backing of both Fetzer and other big wigs in the party: "No. A front for the establishment and some nebulous puppet masters no one is certain of."

Tim Johnson ... former Buncombe County party chair and a bit of a fictionalist, but he also happens to be one of a handful of active conservative black Republicans in the state. Sez our young turk: "...Maybe too driven. I like Johnson. They say he has been beating the pavement for the last two years as vice chair. I tell you what concerns me. He seems wayward. He was Buncombe chair and then moved to Durham when he became state vice chair. We Tar Heels pride ourselves on our homes and our heritage. At least we use to. I know more and more people like calling North Carolina home, but I am left to wonder why Johnson left Buncombe for Durham of all places if not solely for to further a political career."

Marcus Kindley ... a flame thrower and chair of the Guilford County party: "If I had a vote and was asked to cast it right now I would vote for Kindley. I would do so with many concerns because I have seen Kindley play the role of bull in a china shop."

"Political Puppet," Empty Suit, and Not That Bright

Those are the characterizations of Republican Congressional candidate Harold Johnson, former sportscaster at WBTV and the man the Republican establishment hopes will save them from the hair-brained (and similarly triggered) Tim "Machine Gun" D'Annunzio, who actually led the voting in the 8th District Republican primary but failed to get 40% and must now face Johnson in the run-off election on June 22nd.

The person who used those descriptors of Johnson was D'Annunzio. He was reacting to the news that the former holder of that Congressional seat, Robin Hayes, had just endorsed Johnson, who does not scare the country club Republicans at all, something that evidently can't be said about D'Annunzio, who scares lots of people with more or less stable emotions.

If elected, Johnson will do as he's told by brighter men. D'Annunzio won't, 'cause nobody nowhere is brighter than he. Which sets up the basic conflict in this run-off between the tell-me-what-to-think mainline Republican Party and the up-yours-and-the-horse-you-rode-in-on insurgent tea partiers.

Meanwhile, the man who stands to gain the most from this herculean struggle, incumbent Democrat Larry Kissell, is understandably mum. First rule in politics: don't interfere while your enemy is destroying himself.

The "Real America" Is ... Ugly?

Rep. Robin Hayes, Republican representing the NC 8th Congressional district, has jumped on the "good America/bad America" dichotomy. Warming up the crowd in Concord, N.C., at a McCain rally on the morning of Oct. 18, Hayes said that "liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God." (Gosh. Why on earth do we let these creatures -- "liberals" -- go on living?)

Taking their cues from such talk, a group of white people yelled insults at a group of black people lined up at a polling place for early voting in Fayetteville last Sunday. The Washington Times (yes, that newspaper) recorded video of the charming "real" Americans (and great big ole Christians to boot) and some of the junk they were shouting.

Yes, indeedy, this is the America we were all taught to honor and pledge allegiance to back in grade school and for the continuation of which our forefathers gave up their property and their lives.

From such, turn away.