Sen. Ted Budd Defends the "New and Awful Reality" and Its Effect on the State's Flagship Institutions

 

Irony is dead

Democrats see an opening to use Trump’s spending cuts as attack lines about coward Republicans in Congress, "especially those from competitive districts" -- damned for living on their knees and swallowing every bleb of Trump's ego, even the actions that actually harm their constituents.

Instead of standing up to Trump, they play utter hypocrites and ask for "carve outs" for their districts only. Two reporters from the NYTimes uncovered a bunch of attempted evasions/bypasses/exceptions to the Trump wrecking ball and program cuts -- promulgated by Republican members from red states. For example, Senator Katie Britt of Alabama got defensive right quick after the Trump administration directed the National Institutes of Health to slash $4 billion in overhead costs for medical research (one of Trump's ExecOrders that has since been paused by a federal judge). Alabama's received more than $518 million in NIH grants for projects currently active there, a great number of them headquartered at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The senator made weak excuses to the local press and claimed that she would press Trump officials to take a “smart, targeted approach” to cuts -- whatever the hell that means -- so as to “not hinder lifesaving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions.” Elitist.

Cut someone else's money, not ours! What's fair for everyone else is not fair for me. Nor convenient at this present time.

So these cowed men and women in House and Senate stay mouselike in paralyzed fear of being noticed and devoured. Some of them, like Sen. Britt, if you take her at her word, are doing what they can to mitigate the damage to their own constituents. For example, Rep. Tracey Mann (R-Kansas) has made himself the lead sponsor of a House bill that aims to salvage a foreign aid program targeted for extinction by Trump as part of his effort to wipe out the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Mann's bill, cosponsored by several other Republicans from farm states, would transfer oversight of the Food for Peace program, which purchases crops at market price from American farmers and distributes them to hungry people abroad, from USAID to the Agriculture Department.

They're justifiably nervous about the blunderbuss Trump is taking to all the walls of shelter and the roof too over many a marginal rural family trying to hold it together. And hence those R reps are possible sitting ducks politically, if folks get good and tired of the one-size-fits-all programming of Trump 2.0. House Majority PAC, the House Democrats’ main political action group, sent out a message this week titled, “Vulnerable House Republicans Hang Farmers Out To Dry,” which noted how the funding freeze was hitting farmers around the country. The message singled out several Republican lawmakers by name, including Representatives David Valadao of California, Zach Nunn of Iowa and Don Bacon of Nebraska.

Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina, like Sen. Briff of Alabama, represents a state with two of the largest recipients of NIH grants -- Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. Budd looked totally caught off-guard and unprepared when the Times reporters asked what he was planning to do about the cuts. Budd said he agreed with the Trump administration’s move to limit the amount of taxpayer money used for overhead costs, but, uh, obviously the universities -- which are swell institutions doing valuable research -- "those guys are gonna need time to adjust to their new financial reality." Too bad, so sad. “I think the White House wants to protect them,” Budd added forlornly, flying in the face to all evidence to the contrary. Trump doesn't actually care about much but his own loot.

Foxx Voted Recently for FEMA Funding; People Need More

 

[Avery countian Paul] Laws said he can’t understand why North Carolina’s members of Congress aren’t rushing to increase funding for FEMA, which has provided $129 million in assistance to North Carolinians as of Monday. He reached out to Rep. Virginia Foxx, who grew up in Avery County and lives in Banner Elk, more than a week ago, he said, but never heard back. “I don’t understand it, and why our representatives and legislators haven’t said a word about more FEMA funding is beyond me,” he said.

--Lexi Solomon, NandO, 21 Oct. 2024

Foxx did recently vote for the FEMA stopgap funding bill after spending years playing miser with most strands of the social safety net. In her heart, she is not charitable. Rather, she is judgmental about others, sharply acquisitive for herself. 

So it's no particular surprise that she declared in 2005 that all the proposed Katrina money that was wanted for mainly Black New Orleans was a colossal waste and she wouldn't vote for it. But on the recent FEMA funding bill, which passed before Helene arrived, all North Carolina Republicans voted yea except for that carbuncle on the ass Dan Bishop. And Sen. Ted Budd. He also voted nay.

Even Virginia Foxx Voted for FEMA Funding

 

But who didn't from North Carolina? Dan Bishop, who now wants to be our state's top law enforcement official, and Sen. Ted Budd. Looking for people to blame if there's not enough FEMA money to help all of Western North Carolina? I suggest you start with Bishop and Budd. 

(Foxx is famous for being only one of 11 U.S. House members who refused to vote for Katrina aid in 2005. She was criticized roundly for that vote.)

Ted Budd -- "No Admission of Wrongdoing" Doesn't Mean There Wasn't Wrongdoing

The factual basis behind this new attack ad appears to be solid (see below):

 

Court documents reviewed by The Washington Post show that a trustee for farmers and other creditors alleged that his father, Richard Budd, improperly transferred millions of dollars in assets to his family, including Ted Budd. That occurred before Richard Budd and a family company faced a $15 million judgment in the case.

Moreover, the trustee alleged, Ted Budd “acted in concert” with his father “in connection with the fraudulent transfers.” As a result, Ted Budd was named as a defendant in a civil case filed by the trustee.

In the end, a settlement negated the need for a trial and specified that there was no admission of wrongdoing. The “Budd entities” agreed to pay less than half of the amount initially earmarked for the farmers and other creditors — some of whom remain angry they only received a portion of their lost earnings.

The ad was produced by an independent expenditure group, the Senate Majority PAC, whose origins go back to 2010 and Senate Majority Leader (at the time) Harry Reid of Nevada.

Is the ad effective? Well, it made me go looking for the story behind it, so that's something. 

This Alone Disqualifies Ted Budd

 

Asked now by three different news outlets whether he would accept the outcome of the November elections if he lost, Trumpist Senate candidate Ted Budd wouldn't say. Because as we all know now, elections are fair and honest when Republicans win. Otherwise, they're illegitimate.

From his seat in the US House, Budd voted against certifying the 2020 election on January 6th.

Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley's spokesperson Kelci Hobson told the N&O that Budd “has made a career out of subverting our democracy, from refusing to accept election results in 2020 and 2022 to calling the January 6th insurrection ‘just patriots standing up’ to opposing legislation to secure our constitutional right to vote. That’s dangerous and wrong for North Carolina.”

It's also the end of our democracy.

Ted Budd Intends To Keep Scourging Women

 

Ted Budd, who's running for US senator from North Carolina (bless his heart!) and feels emboldened perhaps because Trump is holding a rally for him next week in Wilmington, has co-sponsored in the US House the Lindsey Graham proposal to ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy -- which Graham has cleverly labeled "late-term abortions" as though 15 weeks weren't actually early in a pregnancy, not close to half-way through.

Perhaps Budd's putting his name to a proposed law that will take away the rights of women is a calculation to stir up the enthusiasm of his base voters. Whether or not there's something weak about the enthusiasm of Republican voters that needs stirring up, Budd has probably confirmed to sane women voters -- especially young ones -- that he's not to be allowed near the law-making apparatus of the federal government.

McConnell Needs To Save This Guy's Ass

 

Indebted once again to Jane Porter and her IndyWeek newsletter:

Mitch McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund is dumping $3.4 million into North Carolina's U.S. Senate race between candidates Cheri Beasley and Ted Budd, so now seems like a good time to remind everyone of why Budd, of all candidates running in 34 contested U.S. Senate races this November, is probably the most corrupt politician vying for a U.S. Senate seat this cycle. 

As a new website from the North Carolina Democratic Party details, Budd has been involved in a number of crooked deals, special interest funded travel, and financial scandals. He's also voted against the best interests of North Carolinians at most every turn. Here's a taste:

Budd has consistently taken money from big banks, and then voted to allow banks to charge customers high fees and stymied efforts to lower costs for regular working people.

Budd and his family screwed farmers out of $50 million in an agriculture scheme that went bankrupt and left more than $1.3 million behind in tax debt. We reported on that last September.

Budd traveled on the special interest dime, taking a series of trips worth $30,000 to destinations like Miami, Palm Beach, and Oslo, Norway and staying in $900-a-night luxury hotels. 

Budd voted against legislation in July that would lower gas prices and protect consumers from price gouging by big oil companies. A day before, he had taken $5,000, the legal maximum campaign contribution, from big oil PAC Continental Resources Inc.

Days before voting against H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act in 2019, Budd took $2,500 from GlaxoSmithKline's PAC and $1,000 from Pfizer's.

This is all in addition to siding with predatory payday lenders after taking their money, voting against funding for child abuse prevention services, voting against a bill to address the infant formula shortage, and initially voting against a bill to assist veterans.

Not great! Sometimes it's just helpful to keep all the corruption catalogued in one place. 

The GOP Abandoning Oz in Pennsylvania for Budd in North Carolina

 

Ted Budd with his anchor

The National Republican Senatorial Committee announced it's canceling $13.5 million in TV ad spending, because it doesn't have the cash to waste any more on hopeless cases like a natural born loser in Pennsylvania (Dr. Oz). They also canceled TV buys in Arizona (Blake Masters), Wisconsin (Ron Johnson), and Nevada (Adam Laxalt), but whether those cancellations signal abandonment of an unsustainable long-shot I know not. I haven't done that research.

Politico reports that Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania, Ted Budd in North Carolina, and J.D. Vance in Ohio haven't done well with fundraising, which perhaps signals a lack of enthusiasm in Republican ranks, though all three have been as Trumpist as possible. We hear that the NRSC will begin pumping TV money for Budd into North Carolina because Cheri Beasley has been rising in the polls. (You might want to be prepared for some nasty attacks on the Black woman.)

Gotta love this newsflash on the DSCC website:

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER – FLAWED CANDIDATES, FUNDRAISING FLOPS ARE BIG WOOF FOR SENATE GOP. News coverage is highlighting how there is “a growing fear among top Republicans that the party’s nomination of deeply flawed candidates in key Senate races” will be a major issue – all while “Democratic Senate candidates are posting blockbuster hauls” and “are outraising their Republican rivals.”

What Happened in Kansas?

 

Dr. Samuel Johnson

This here quote explains a lot (though man needs to be woman):

Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

--Samuel Johnson

The women of Kansas thought hard about losing rights and becoming meat of the state and went out and said no, despite the state legislature's best effort to complicate the ballot and obfuscate what "yes" even meant.

That mini-wave on abortion rights apparently woke up some Republican senators (according to Sen. Lindsey Graham). Even our own Thom Tillis: “Kansas, which is a pretty red state ― it’s hard to find the words. I think people should look at it.” What he meant by "people should look at it," other than probably something like "Holy shit! Did you just see what happened in Kansas?" or "What can we do to free ourselves from Right To Life?" -- that's open to interpretation.

I feel the pincers that grip the GOP right now, because I'm squeezing as hard as I can. Biden's not the issue this November. The Republican Party is, as it's been transformed by Trump and his flying monkeys of Cruelty and Fraud. 

So I've already seen one TV attack ad on Ted Budd's willingness to ban abortion. The ad was produced and paid for by an unnamed Democratic super PAC, which makes me ask out loud, why isn't Cheri Beasley speaking up too? Budd needs to be pinned. In an interview on the KC O'dea Show, he applauded the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Org decision as "a great thing." Then, later, when he had time to think about it, he decided it was just tough shit for women forced to give birth, because -- you know -- the tragedy of murdering a kid (that's how they talk). Budd told NexStar Media Group, "Let’s not add more tragedy to a very tough situation.” He has no idea. No idea, earthly. 

But you watch Budd and all them bros now run for cover, get tongue-tied, deny past positions. They'll say, "We would appreciate it very much if you'd stop talking about all the laws we want to pass."

WRAL demanded what every Democratic candidate should demand of their Republican opponents, even red-district outgunned Democrats in supposedly unwinnable districts -- Demand that those Republicans explain where they stand on banning abortion. Lean in.

North Carolina voters must know, before they cast ballots this fall, in specific detail where every legislative candidate stands. Do they stand with extremes like the Republican legislators who want the State Constitution to say life starts at fertilization and anyone who willfully tries or destroys a life is accountable for attempted murder?

--WRAL editorial, Aug. 4, 2022

Rep. Ray Pickett

Smart Republicans like Berger Moore can tell toxicity before they step in it, so they'll go around the question and go to ground on the abortion issue -- double-talk it. Say as little as possible. But the far dumber Republican local candidates are unprepared or under-prepared for the shit-storm that can come when they answer carelessly. Take, say, Rep. Ray Pickett of the 93rd HD, a piece of Republican furniture not destined to rise in leadership but a dutiful foot soldier for the party's brand. Does he understand what banning abortion means? And does he support it?

No Hope that NC Republicans Become Human Beings

The U.S. House just passed a bill, 267 to 157, that would formally repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law against same-sex marriage that was overturned in the Supreme Court landmark Obergefell decision. It would require states to reciprocally recognize marriages that are legal in other states as valid, and would prohibit discrimination under state law in public acts against married couples based on their race, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.

All of the Republicans representing North Carolina voted against it. Specifically...

Dan Bishop (N.C.)

Ted Budd (N.C.)

Madison Cawthorn (N.C.)

Virginia Foxx (N.C.)

Richard Hudson (N.C.)

Patrick McHenry (N.C.)

Greg Murphy (N.C.)

David Rouzer (N.C.)

Astounding, that these "freedom-lovers" and "-defenders" are willing to sacrifice the rights of fellow citizens to satisfy -- what? -- religious fundamentalism and the dictates of an ideology that intends to punish difference. I would say these guys are going to hell, except they're already there. 

On the NCGOP Election Slate, It's Election Deniers (All the Way Down)

 

"I say this to my Republican colleagues
who are defending the indefensible.
There will come a day when Donald
Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain."
--Liz Chaney

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx voted to overturn the Pennsylvania presidential vote in favor of Donald Trump on January 6th. Then there was a riot. Angry and deluded people broke in, and when it was over and she got back to the House chamber, Foxx changed her tune and voted to certify the Arizona results, while many of her fellow Republicans from North Carolina continued to push the big lie that somehow the election was stolen from Donald J. Trump. They rejected the Arizona vote despite the riot they had just escaped.

About a month after the election, Congressman Ted Budd, the eventual NCGOP nominee for US Senate, fed the fantasies of a stolen election  -- "millions of Americans do not have faith in the November election" -- and on January 6th voted against certifying the tallies in both Pennsylvania and Arizona.

Both Foxx and Budd are either playing it for effect, or they believe the lie. Both alternatives are disqualifiers for public office, or ought to be.

As we learn now almost daily via Liz Chaney et al. -- the Big Lie was not only the spearpoint of a scheme to seize power but also a grift to fleece gullible Trumpists of their cash. So how are we to live with Republicans like Foxx and Budd and the whole tribe who have refurbished their entire political lives around the make-believe of a would-be dictator?

Our shared oxygen ought to burn the lungs.

How Much Lying About Cheri Beasley Does It Take To Get a TV Ad for Ted Budd Taken Off the Air?

 

Blatant lying.

CBS News reporting:

Ted Budd likes to pose with big guns 

 

TV stations in North Carolina pulled an ad by the campaign arm for Senate Republicans [NRSC] after they were informed it had a false statement and language about North Carolina Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley and her record as a former state Supreme Court chief justice.

The ad, titled "Failed Our Children," ties Beasley to three child predators who were released or had their indictments tossed. They say in one case, which involved a man convicted on 12 counts of child pornography, that Beasley had voted to set him free.

Beasley and the court heard a case on whether police could search a USB drive belonging to the man charged in the case, James Howard Terrell Jr., without a warrant. She and a majority of the court upheld a lower court's assessment that the search had not been permissible under the "private-search doctrine" and sent the matter back to the lower court, but did not directly vote to set Terrell Jr. free....

"The defendant was not set free by the ruling as the ad claims. CMG [Cox Media Group] will not run the ad when it contains a false statement on material issue. This ad has been removed from airing," wrote a representative for WSOC-TV and WAXN-TV in Charlotte, N.C., in a letter first obtained by CBS News....

Another ad by the NRSC attacks Beasley over other cases of violent crime and portrays her as failing to protect them. That ad has been fact checked by CBS17, which similarly found the ads lacked context — that the state Supreme Court had voted unanimously to vacate a death sentence. This ad remains on the air.

Whine Me No Whines, Pat McCrory!

 

“What are they going to do with the people who are like me?” 

--Former Gov. Pat McCrory, in an AP interview

That plaintive whining is actually a pretty good question. McCrory was wondering what happens to the 25% who voted for him in the recent Republican primary for the US Senate, the Republican voters who didn't like the Trumpist message coming from winner Ted Budd, the gun store owner who projects potential for muscular bullying and promises to do Trump's bidding in the Senate.

People who are like me. "Soft" Republicans? Or sane Republicans?

The question should be: What are the "people like me" going to do about the total takeover of their party by the likes of Donald Trump, who's as crooked as a dog's hind leg and who encourages and endorses further crookedness in his followers? "Just find me 11,780 votes."

What will they do? Odds are they'll fall in line, vote the Party even though the Party has become a clown show at midnight. And so will Pat McCrory, whining all the way.

Wherein I Avert My Gaze From NC and Look North To PA

Caution may be the wrong message for the Democratic base today.

Looking at you, Cheri Beasley. You're the presumptive Democratic nominee to run for the US Senate this year. Probably against gun dealer Ted Budd. We'll know for sure next Tuesday night about both.

But is Cheri Beasley a fighter? (Because Ted Budd most assuredly will roll in the mud.) I ask for a friend, who's alarmed at the whole Trump ethos that thinks it's necessary to bully -- especially the most vulnerable -- gay and transgender, Black ballot access (and barriers for 20-somethings), and now women's basic equality under the law. Those people are also clearly willing to "just find more votes" when it's necessary to hold power (and wait 'til election authorities in various states are Trump operatives). 

Cheri Beasley's public messaging suggests more a walking-on-eggs tentativeness than a willingness to take that on. I worry.

✹✹✹

Conor Lamb

Compare what's about to happen in the Democratic Senate primary in Pennsylvania, which will also be next Tuesday. I'm forced to know about it because I've been on candidate John Fetterman's email list for months. (Every vaguely progressive candidate in the universe gets my email address from Central Fingering.) The Pa. Senate primary is primarily between Fetterman, the sitting lieutenant governor, and Congressman Conor Lamb, who won his House seat in a special replacement election in a Republican-leaning district early in 2018 (first ripple of the blue wave) and won reelection in 2020. I was enthusiastic about him on this blog even though I knew he was not a progressive (cautious to a fault, prosecutor-cautious). But having him in Congress would be on the whole better than not having him.

Plus Conor Lamb had the looks. Because I'm a shallow person, why wouldn't I be drawn to the photogenic, since all politics are theater? Conor Lamb looks the part, and he's not afraid to call himself a Democrat. And an ex-Marine.

Quite the contrast is Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who looks like a lumberjack auditioning for the lead in a stage production of Shrek. Unconventional, working-class to the bone, with populist instincts, pugilistic, and rough as a cob. The last numbers I saw, Fetterman was leading Lamb in the primary by 30 points (with candidate Malcolm Kenyatta projected as a distant third).

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman

Bald head, goatee, prominent tattoos, often dressed in hoodie and shorts, like he's going to the Saturday morning farmer's market instead of like a supplicant for public approval or like an already prominent member of the elected class. He's a Bernie Sanders economic thinker, totally pragmatic about who and what the enemy is for the laboring class. There's a lot being written about him right now. I found this particularly thorough.

The central dilemma in voting for Fetterman -- and he's predicted to win the primary easily -- is the same question about Cheri Beasley. Can he/she win in November? In Beasley's case, will Ted Budd and the Trumpists roll right over her? In Fetterman's case, is he too out there to get the independents?

Who will Fetterman face in November? Possibly not the Trump-endorsed Mehmet Oz but rather a Black woman, Kathy Barnette, who's coming from nowhere to run dead-even with Oz -- enough so that Trump himself issued a statement denouncing her and reiterating his support for Oz. Trump hilariously said, “She has many things in her past which have not been properly explained or vetted." (These Trumpists are always so comically un-selfaware!) Barnette -- a failed congressional candidate in 2020 and a personality who appears to make her living saying things in public, and who's really every bit as MAGA as Oz or anyone else -- certainly has the looks.

Kathy Barnett

 

For Trump-Boy Bo Hines, First, It Was Virginia Foxx

 

In 2020 Bo Hines, a once-upon-a-time NCSU football star (for one season) but in 2020 an aspiring student in the Wake Forest School of Law, must have watched the fulminating rise of Madison Cawthorn with some envy and said to himself, "I could do that too!" Because, actually he's several centiles smarter than Cawthorn, and knows it. Subsequently, because he's so smart, he hopscotched all over North Carolina looking for just the right congressional district where he could wow 'em with his hard-edged Trumpist ventriloquism and Cawthorn good looks, and he finally landed his candidacy in the new, newer, newest CD13, about 200 miles from his Winston-Salem residence. Make no mistake: He has not only the time-stamp of Trump but also the explicit and florid endorsement of Trump. Just look at the graphics on both his Facebook and his Twitter pages. We also note just in passing and by way of essential taxonomy, he's a hang-out-with-Matt-Gaetz type of guy.

That's the 13th CD in bright green, southern Wake, Johnston, and parts of Harnett and Wayne

But First, He Was Running Against Virginia Foxx

He launched what promised to be a delicious primary campaign against Foxx in January 2021 with a video posted to his Twitter and Facebook. His criticism of Foxx, more implied than explicitly stated, was that she had mainly made herself rich in Congress and had done little for her constituents other than the disaster of a pork-barrel teapot museum which didn't come about. Ouch. His condo in Winston-Salem was not in Foxx's 5th CD at the time (but Hines has never let actual residence stand in the way of his ambition).

Bo Hines made a publicized visit with Young Republicans at AppState in April 2021, campaigning against Foxx obviously, and almost immediately -- and to our amazement -- Foxx announced that Madison Cawthorn had endorsed her for reelection ... herself, Virginia Foxx, the 70-something battle-axe who can cry on cue and not the 20-something fellow aggressive male conservative that you might think Cawthorn would gravitate to. (Cawthorn did later develop a political crush on Hines, but in April of 2021, Foxx got to him first.)

By the first week of May 2021, Hines had reconsidered. Maybe it wasn't wise to challenge a fellow Republican incumbent. He had looked around. Ted Budd was stepping down from his 13th CD seat to run for the Senate, so that open district (which also didn't include Hines's condo) looked more ripe for the taking. On May 8th, 2021, Dallas Woodhouse reported that Hines was moving his candidacy to the old 13th, which still at that time looked like this (it's the one in gray, gerrymandered for Ted Budd):

Woodhouse was not critical of Hines in his reporting. He became very critical of Cawthorn.

Bo Hines, Opportunist

Between the congressional map of North Carolina's 13 Congressional districts we used in 2020 (the map immediately above) and the eventual court-ordered map we're now functioning under (seen at the top of this column), the Republican overlords in the NC General Assembly arrived at their own redraw-of-infamy early in December of 2021, which landed with a thud and looked like this below (infamous for the Foxx finger into Watauga) and would become Hines's new playground for district shopping:

Most of the 13th CD where Hines had newly announced had now become a new 7th CD (in bright yellow above), so Bo Hines was mulling what to do and so was Mark Walker, who was also considering changing his plans for the US Senate for a run in the 7th to get back into Congress. Meanwhile, the Club for Growth endorsed Hines for whatever district he chose to run in (not kidding), and Trump came calling, promising to endorse Hines if he'd pick the 4th CD instead and leave the 7th open for Walker (in order to get Walker out of the way for Ted Budd's race for the Senate). The 4th CD, where Trump and incidentally Cawthorn both wanted Hines to land, was farther east yet from Hines's residence.

Law suits and judgments ensued. The map at the top of this column became law, and Hines chose the new 13th, for rationales and consideration (and math?) we may never know. But Hines becomes a featured speaker (and Trump-blessed candidate) at Trump's rally tomorrow in Johnston County in the heart of the new 13th, an anointing that some think will propel Hines past Renee Ellmers (also trying to get back into Congress), his chief rival in an 8-candidate primary.

But the Trump blessing has not papered over Hines's carpetbag for all the Republicans in the new 13th. The Johnston County Republican Men's Club has come out against Hines, and perhaps other Republican  voters are noticing how far from home the boy has roamed.

Pat McCrory, Going Guilt-By-Association

 

Pat McCrory (at least) thinks Madison Cawthorn is now an anchor around Ted Budd's neck. That's either ballsy or a suicidal misreading of where the NCGOP is right now.

Pat McCrory Hits Back at Ted Budd

 

Putin, he said.

The Newest Club For Growth Trashing of Pat McCrory

This 30-second ad is scheduled to air on Valentine's Day (tomorrow) during "The Batchelor" in the Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Wilmington, and Greenville-New Bern media markets. It's pretty nasty, linking McCrory's "heart" to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and even (gasp!) Mitt Romney. The Club for Growth has been pouring on the vitriol against McCrory in an attempt to advance the candidacy of Trump-endorsed Ted Budd.

Mark Walker Stands Up To Trump

 

Last night in Greensboro, former Republican congressman and Christian pastor Mark Walker announced that he was turning down Donald Trump's offer and staying in the US Senate race. Trump had told Walker that he would endorse him for another congressional seat if he'd drop out of the Senate race, thus clearing the Trumpist lane for Ted Budd, but Walker said no way by the love of God. He's full speed ahead for that Senate seat, but on difficult political terrain, where Budd is supposedly coming on strong (with Trump's blessing and the $$ of the Club for Growth, which is getting his name out there). 

Full-speed-ahead? Yes. Walker rolled out his spanking-brand-new campaign bus. See it?

myfox8 WGHP

Walker threw this event at the Greensboro Auto Auction on Wendover Avenue and drew a respectable crowd.

Bad news for Budd. Potentially good news for ex-Guv Pat McCrory, who according to comments from Trumpists, is tanking in polls while Budd is rising, but whose center lane, country-club vibe still has juice in suburbia and whose name recognition alone made him instantly the frontrunner. The overriding irony is that Budd and Walker are really political brothers from different mothers:

“[Walker's decision] obviously is better for McCrory than Budd,” said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University. “I think Walker and Budd are competing for many of the same voters. Ideologically they are virtually indistinguishable. Demographically they are very similar. There’s just not much daylight between the two of them, except for Trump’s endorsement.”

If this were the best of all possible worlds (and not the Republican Party under Trump), Walker could draw some distinctions now, create a new identity for people who relish the fighting spirit in their preachers: "I stood up to a would-be dictator because I'm a better man than that." But that would happen in a world that doesn't exist right now.

Walker still might get tough, if he decides to fight like a man with one small stone and a slingshot (or like a wildcat in a toesack). Walker published this photo on his Facebook page with this caption:

Keeping a previous commitment at the Senate Forum in Monroe with Pat McCrory at the Sweet Union Republican Women’s Club. As usual, only one candidate didn’t show.

 The "Sweet Union Republican Women's Club" made me flash on Andy Griffith's Aunt Bee.

The Woman in the Republican US Senate Race in NC -- Marjorie Eastman

 

Nobody's paid much attention to candidate for US Senate, Marjorie Eastman, because the swinging trio of Republican men running for Dick Burr's seat -- McCrory, Budd, Walker -- have sucked up all the oxygen. Only now, Marjorie Eastman is suddenly in the press, because a new super-PAC founded by tycoon Fred Eshelman has been spending $1 million getting her name out there. The PAC is called "Restore Common Sense," and in the best of all possible worlds, Marjorie Eastman could be a runaway good bet to win a normal Republican primary -- distinguished ex-military careerist and smart, normal woman. Damn impressive on paper. Her Wikipedia article -- must reading. There's no indication there that she's any kind of conservative culture warrior. She's all about veterans and wrote a well received book, "The Frontline Generation: How We Served Post 9/11."

She had combat experience in both Iraq and Afghanistan. "She was ranked the #1 Military Intelligence Company Commander in Eastern Afghanistan for the deployment cycle of 2009-2010, awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service as a combat commander and received the Combat Action Badge" (website). She announced her candidacy back last October and was largely ignored until Fred Eshelman decided to help her.

But she's not from around here. Went to school in California, and she accepted a White House Fellow appointment from Bill Clinton in 2000. As a military careerist, she's lived a lot of different places. She and her husband recently retired to Cary, and she's obviously very new to politics. But her Wiki bio lists real achievements in the academic realm: 

[Eastman] also studied abroad at the University College London, School for Slavonic and East European Studies. She attended the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, where she earned her master's degree in International Security, with concentrations in Homeland Security, Intelligence, and Human Rights. During her graduate studies, she was one of 56 students selected nationally for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Honors Internship Program. She also has an MBA from Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management.

Everything I read screams not-a-Trumpist. A moderate Republican with a sense that the United States belongs in the international stew because it can do good deeds.

But then I watched her intro video on her website, and I guess I ought to accept by now that every educated Republican moderate will quickly mouth the magic words -- "I'm a conservative, pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment Republican." Those words are actually somewhat jarring in the video because they follow an opening section that seemed complete in itself -- about being inspired (if not incensed) by the heroic sacrifice in the face of national adversity (9/11). It's soft-focus patriotism. But then the next section -- and it's like the advisors said to her, "can you do a tougher version?" -- Marjorie Eastman obliged and even got downright icky: She says she wants good old American capitalism to save us from "the creeping socialism that's being pushed in our Congress." 

Here's the whole thing:

That internationalist sheen dooms her, no? in the Republican primary. But I can't help wondering if all that super-PAC money might make her more viable and hence a threat to McCrory, by dividing the never-Trump vote, especially if Mark Walker takes Trump's dangle of running for a House seat instead.