Who Is This Guy and What Has He Done With Our President?

Rep. McIntyre Crossed the Line

This is Congressman Mike McIntyre of the NC 7th District. He's one of the bluer blue dogs in the U.S. House.

He's a strong opponent of abortion rights, a strong supporter of teacher-led prayer in public schools, an opponent of more progressive taxing policies, and he voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the recently passed health-insurance reform bill. (A complete run-down of his legislative voting history can be reviewed here.)

Yesterday, Mr. McIntyre said that, if given the opportunity, he would vote to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Repeal.

That puts Mr. McIntyre slightly to the right of Virginia Foxx, who now sez she only wants to repeal "the most egregious parts of this bill" (Foxx was quoted in a W-S Journal editorial).

What do you say about a supposed Democrat who is more radical than Virginia Foxx? A supposed Democrat who would willingly knee-cap his own party and president?

The Rewards of Hating Government

Over at BlueNC, sydfynch is digging into the curious case of Virginia Foxx's wealth and how it's multiplied exponentially while she's been in Congress. For someone with a professed hatred of government at all levels, she's been doing pretty well living off its bounty.

The BlueNC blogger also provides a "property list" for Foxx, but it's very limited in scope, listing only the stuff she and her husband are on record owning in Watauga County. Doesn't list the several houses we know about in other counties of the 5th District (and out of state), including the one that the Foxxes recently put up for sale in the gated community in Davie County.

Billy Kennedy Live-Chat at dKos

Right now!

P.S.
Here's the direct link.

Elaine Marshall Takes Note

U.S. Senate candidate Elaine Marshall did a live chat on Crooks & Liars last Thursday, and during it she had a question about the 5th District:

Q: Have you met Billy Kennedy, the Democrat running against Virginia Foxx, in the northwestern part of the state? And if so, what do you think of his chances? Will your race against Burr help him?

Marshall's response: I met Billy right before last Christmas. I am very impressed with him and I understand he is doing a lot of great online organizing. If Virginia Foxx keeps doing what she does, he might not need much help. But aside from Virginia, I believe I can energize our base to get out and vote and help attract unaffiliated voters that want to get things done in Washington.

Depending on the outcome of the May 4 primary in the Senate race, these two may be leading the ballot in the 12 counties of the 5th District.

Which is just fine with us.

Buncombe GOP Gets Even Wiggier

The Buncombe County GOP at its convention yesterday elected Chad Nesbitt as its new chair. Nesbitt is a well known conservative (we would write "conservative extremist," but why get redundant?) who started The Carolina Stompers to exterminate Democrats and "soft" Republicans willy nilly and who also happens to be the step-son of Democratic state Senator Martin Nesbitt, the Democratic Majority Leader of the NC upper house (Thanksgiving at the Nesbitt house must be tons of fun!). That's Chad, wearing the boxing gloves, in the center of the Carolina Stompers group photo (other members of this sterling group identified here).

Anyhoo ... those posting comments over at Scrutiny Hooligans about this rise of Chad Nesbitt are gleeful about the Buncombe Republicans' evident resolve to become even more marginalized, while The Bugg Blog runs through some of Chad Nesbitt's greatest moments. And you can see Chad himself in action, giving his nomination speech, on the Buncombe GOP site.

"Dangerously Fanning the Flames"

"I have deep concerns that some ... are dangerously fanning the flames...."
--Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), speaking in Washington today, graciously blaming the victims, following a rash of threats of violence and vandalism by unhinged conservatives, tea-partiers, racists, and bigots

So ... who among us has fanned those flames?

"I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that [health reform] bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country."
--Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, November 2, 2009, on the floor of the U.S. House

"All the promises [President Obama] has kept have endangered our lives."
--Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, on the Bill Lumaye Show, NewsRadio 680 WPTF, Jan. 5, 2010

"We're talking about four years. If we don't take this country back from the leftists who are running it now, we will lose our country."
--Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, to the Iredell County Republican Party's Reagan Day Dinner, Feb. 6, 2010

Chorusing in the Party of No

Republican congressional incumbents in the NC-5 and NC-10, along with most of their primary opponents, are all singing from the same hymnbook of We Ain't Got No Plan, at least in this article in the Statesville Record & Landmark.

"We've got no ideas of our own. All we're focused on is tearing down the ideas of others."

Purse those pouty lips, Madam Foxx, and admit that you're planning to throw 30 million Americans back off medical insurance, including some 53,000 of your own constituents and that you're planning to NOT close the prescription drug "donut hole" for 119,000 of your constituents on Medicaid. Go ahead: run on that.

Hee

So Mike McIntyre, one of North Carolina's most notorious blue dogs, votes with the Republicans Sunday night and casts a 'no' vote against H.R.3590, perhaps thinking the vote would make him popular, or less unpopular with Republicans in his neck of the woods, but today one of his Republican challengers, Will Breazeale, says that McIntyre's vote was "part of political gamesmanship in Washington, not an expression of his genuine disagreements with the bill."

That's the way one of the 40 dozen John Locke machine sites characterize Breazeale's complaint. Here are Breazeale's actual words (or some of them):

Casting a vote just to boost your re-election chances, while being unable to influence other members of your party to join you, shows a total lack of leadership.

Blue dogs just don't get any respect, in or out of their party.

UPDATE
Fellow blue dog Heath Shuler in the NC-11 gets some of that same Republican medicine.