UH, OH, THE ANTI-WAR PUBS ARE FACING PRIMARY CHALLENGERS

I wrote before that Walter Jones (R-NC) seemed to be safe because we was re-elected in 2006 despite coming out against the war in 2005. I also wrote that because there are a lot of military people in his district, this was a sign that many of them also oppose the war but now it seems that I may be mistaken.

Tough going for antiwar Republicans
A handful in Congress have opposed increased troop levels or backed a pullout — or both.
Many of their constituents are not happy.
By Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 21, 2007

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. — The Crystal Coast Republican Men's Club faithful were all smiles as they gathered at a restaurant to listen to their candidate for North Carolina's 3rd Congressional District. But the warm reception wasn't for the Republican who since 1995 has represented this stretch of coast from the Virginia state line to the sprawling Marine base at Camp Lejeune. Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., a soft-spoken, deeply religious man who two years ago turned against the Iraq war, was not there.

The GOP activists dining on fried fish were cheering Joe McLaughlin, a county commissioner and retired Army major who has launched a hard-charging bid to dispatch Jones in next year's primary by highlighting Jones' votes against the war.

"His is a message of despair, a message of defeat," McLaughlin told the appreciative crowd as he derided Jones, accusing him of abandoning the troops, President Bush, even talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. Jones, who has never had a primary challenge but is being abandoned by GOP officials across his district, is not alone.

Jones pushes back a little, though:

Shaking hands and posing for photos with Boy Scouts at the annual Scuppernong River festival in tiny Columbia, N.C., the congressman dismissed the notion that Republican voters might drive him from office in the party primary next May.

"The Kool-Aid drinkers, those who don't know the truth, who only hear the half-truths and the opinions of a Rush Limbaugh, they believe it. But I know too many" voters, Jones said. "When my days end in Congress, I would rather be able to say I did what was right for America, rather than my party did this, my party did that."