ncgop

The war for control of the North Carolina Republican Party entered a new phase last weekend when nostalgic faithful chose Helms acolyte Tom Fetzer over Pope protege Chad Adams to preside over their ascendance. And while it's tempting to say Fetzer won the hearts and minds of grassroots party officers, that would be a distortion of what really happened. There were, simply put, few minds involved.

I guess his straightness has been confirmed by acclamation 'cause we know the NCGOP isn't electing a homosexual as chair.

Asheville Citizen-Times:

Buncombe County GOP Chairman Timothy Johnson is running for N.C. Republican vice chairman today at the state party convention in Raleigh. Delegates will select a vice chairman and chairman to the lead the badly battered GOP, which suffered serious losses from the federal level on down in last year's elections.

The leadership race has been marked by infighting and personal attacks. Chairman candidate Tom Fetzer felt it necessary to respond to claims that he was gay. Another candidate, Chad Adams, had to deal with circulated e-mails between him and a former mistress.

Now Johnson has found himself responding to high-level criticism about a charge of felony aggravated assault against his ex-wife in Ohio. He pleaded guilty to the crime in 1996.

Skip Stam is like an Energizer Bunny on crack:

"Sexual orientation and gender identity are so much larger than what people thing they are - it includes pedophilia for example," said Republican Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, the House minority leader. The bullying bill is not really about bullying," Stam said, describing it as a "Trojan horse."

A Trojan horse? Really? Does Stam honestly think the next logical step in protecting gay kids from bullying will be required courses in sexual exploitation of children? At least the Republican Party will be able to provide a qualified professor.

By way of DailyKos.

The reality, from last week's national poll:

Rob Schofield has written a solid round up story about teh baggin' parties that went down this week. Definitely worth the read.

In short, there's plenty to get mad about there in the world - maybe even enough to have a "tea party" over. Unfortunately, this week's efforts from the far right were so far off the mark that they bore a closer resemblance to Wonderland than colonial Boston.

Every election cycle, conservative intellectuals complain about uninformed citizens on the left voting straight-ticket Democrat. I hope they'll take a minute to hold up the looking glass.

Ignorance is bipartisan.

Updated to be nice.

I don't give much credence to members of one party telling members of another party what they should or shouldn't do to be successful. The advice is always self-serving. That said, I couldn't help thinking that this news about a top GOP consultant could reshape the canyon between the two major parties.

Brent Woodcox, mouthpiece for the NCGOP, has reprinted an RNC press release with a big fat whopper enclosed. House and Senate Republicans are claiming cap-and-trade will mean a $3100 tax to a family of 2.56 people. They claim to be quoting an MIT study.

To be clear, Brent didn't make up the lie. Instead, he printed it apparently without an edit.

The NRCC put out a press release this afternoon asking if Larry Kissell will raise energy costs for struggling North Carolinians...

:::

Will Larry Kissell Support Devastating Energy Tax?
North Carolina Families Would Suffer from Skyrocketing Home Heating Costs Under “Cap-and-Tax”

GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry, a key player in helping craft the Republican message, has offered an unusually blunt description of the Republican strategy.

“We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. “Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”

I'm glad to see Pat McHenry's smug little face out front as the poster boy for the GOP. But why people in his district are willing to settle for such a politically motivated asshole is beyond me.

Taylor Batten, editorial page editor of the Charlotte Observer, wrote yesterday about redistricting reform. Though I hold zero hope for the idea, I do sympathize with his call for a saner approach to drawing districts.

That said, the laughable legislation proposed by North Carolina Republicans isn't it.