A few days ago I blogged here about The Winston-Salem Journal‘s staff editorial on state Rep. Larry Brown. In it, Journal staff called the Republican to task for his use of anti-gay slurs in an email to 60 of his N.C. House Republican colleagues. I said then I was surprised. The Journal doesn’t have a stellar progressive record, you know.
A Democratic PAC is raising money to put this ad on the air in the Fifth District. They’ve already shown it in suburbs surrounding Winston-Salem. The PAC’s organizer says the ad “drove the Foxx campaign insane.” Learn more and donate here.
And, just as I thought my heart palpitations were calming down, I learn of another Journal shocker. On Sunday, they endorsed Billy Kennedy, the Democratic opponent working as diligently as ever to unseat one of the most hateful, homophobic elected officials this state has seen.
“Wait,” you say. “Doesn’t that title belong to Jesse Helms?” Well, yes. It does. And, while it’s pretty difficult for any elected official to rise to the sheer, atmospheric levels of homophobia and hate once exhibited by Helms, that task seems to have come more than natural for Fifth Congressional District Rep. Virginia Foxx, who “serves” Winston-Salem and the northwest Piedmont.
Be sure to click over and read the full endorsement. It’s phenomenal. Here are some salient lines:
“U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Watauga County, has not achieved any great accomplishments for the residents of the 5th Congressional District, and has angered and embarrassed many with her sometimes wild statements that seem designed to provoke. It’s time for a fresh, progressive voice in the 5th District. We believe that Democrat Billy Kennedy, a Watauga farmer and carpenter who says he’ll work to reverse the high rate of unemployment in the district, is that voice. He’s the best candidate in the Nov. 2 election for the 5th District.”
“Then there are Foxx’ statements, which reflect a viewpoint far to the right of many of her constituents. Foxx, a former college educator and graduate of UNC Chapel Hill and UNC Greensboro, said on the House floor in January that the federal government ‘should not be funding education.'”
“In April 2009, she suggested to students at North Surry High School that tobacco was no worse than Mountain Dew. That same month, she said on the House floor that it was a “hoax” that Matthew Shepard’s 1998 killing in Wyoming had anything to do with him being gay.”
“But the fact remains that she has continued to make such statements, the worst of which was comparing the potential danger of the health-care bill to terrorism. She’s positioned herself so far to the right that, even if her party regains a majority in the House with this election, it’s doubtful that she’d gain any power.”