Walter Jones, that was then, this is now

Truth or Dare NC ^ | December 19, 2011 | Imkitties

[MitchellC]

Walter Jones’ campaign is having to dig deep to try and showcase their candidate’s former conservative credentials. Recent Facebook posts labeled ‘From the Archives‘ show two photos of a young Walter Jones with conservative stalwart Senator Jesse Helms nearly 20 years ago. That was then. This is now. Let’s get a little more current, shall we?

Cut and Run

“Cut and Run” Jones with progressive left-winger Dennis Kucinich.
Jones voted for Kucinich’s articles of impeachment against Bush in 2008.
Jones also voted numerous times with Kucinich and Pelosi to pull out of Iraq long before the job was done.

Support for Dodd-Frank

Jones voted for the the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Bill

Support for Obama Proposal

Jones supports Obama’s plan to spend even more money on infrastructure projects

Censure of Joe Wilson

Jones voted to censure Joe Wilson for shouting ‘You lie!’ during Obama’s State of the Union speech

Against Drilling

Sarah Palin was known during the 2008 Presidential campaign for her strong support for drilling, often telling the crowds to “Drill, Baby, Drill!”
Jones voted against drilling off the Atlantic coast and voted NO on a bill to lift Obama’ moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf.

No to Economic Prosperity

Jones voted against Paul Ryan’s budget, “The Path to Prosperity”

Let’s retire Walter Jones and elect someone who will be a real conservative leader, Frank Palombo

Visit Palombo’s website and donate today!

[House Atreides]

Walter Jones, a former Democrat, has been steadily drifting to the left since he switched to the Republican party;

[MitchellC]

RINOFreeAmerica ping. PLEASE ping everyone you think would be interested.

Walter Jones is an increasingly-liberal Republican occupying (pun intended) an extremely conservative district on the eastern North Carolina coast.

Frank Palombo is a veteran and the 13-year Chief of Police of New Bern, one of the largest towns in the district.

Cleaning up Congress starts with swapping Walter Jones out for Frank Polombo on May 8.

[MitchellC]

Walter Jones, a former Democrat, has been steadily drifting to the left since he switched to the Republican party

He has, and it's time to evict him. A lot of Republicans will sometimes switch over to vote for something because of local politics, but Jones has increasingly voted for some of the most repugnant measures coming from the Democrat fringe. He's also aided the Dems in their propaganda wars by giving them "bi-partisan support."

Long story short, there's no logic to these votes except that Jones is a liberal from a conservative district and is trying to get away with as much as his constituents will let him. I fully expect that if Jones loses this primary, he'll consider a run as a Blue Dog Democrat in 2014.

[MitchellC]

My opinion is that it is long past time to remove Walter Jones from Congress.

I know that some people still have a high opinion of Jones, and my suggestion to those people is to review his voting record over the last few years. You'll be shocked by many of the things Jones has been supporting, while putting on a conservative face back in his home district.

NC *Ping*

Please FRmail MitchellC if you want to be added to or removed from this North Carolina ping list.

[Clintonfatigued]

I would not mind if Walter Jones were to lose the primary. I just wonder if Frank Palombo is the one to do it? He strikes me as a second-tier candidate at best. Does he have any name I.D.?

[MitchellC]

This race is my introduction to Frank Palombo, as I’m not from that part of the state. His resume leads me to believe he should have some decent name ID in his region of the district, which by the way is where most of the GOP voters are. Past searches also lead me to believe he is decently well-known and liked, and not a nut or anything like that, if there was any concern over that. Not the perfect candidate I guess, but the establishment is firmly behind Jones despite his flaws, and so none of the the state-level elected Republicans seem interested in making the challenge.

I’m lead to believe that there is plenty of discontent with Jones in the district, as there has been for years, and the tea party types all seem to be against him. Time is short but I think there is real potential there for Palombo to beat Jones.

[Theodore R.]

Jones’ father was a Democrat congressman way back when. Isn’t Jones now a lot like Ron Paul?

[Shamrock-DW]

Jones should be selectvely eliminated by whatever means necessary. He is detrimental to the views of the founding Fathers.....

[srmorton]

I agree! I voted for his opponent in 2010 whom I know personally and who would have made a great congressman. Walter lost me long ago when he began to speak out against the war when he has Camp Lejeune USMCB and other military installations in his district. If you do not support their mission, you are not really supporting the military. He was telling them that the cause for which they were fighting and dying was not acceptable to him.

[seekthetruth]

North Carolina Freeper ping! Sure the NC Freepers will help make sure Walter Jones goes home to stay from Congress!

[MitchellC]

Jones has cast an array of bad votes, some of them he justifies (like his ‘no’ on the Ryan plan) because it supposedly doesn’t go far enough, so you might think he’s all the way into the Ron Paul camp, but then he’ll turn around and vote for things that Paul would never vote for. Take for example the Pay for Performance Act of 2009, written by Rep. Alan Grayson and every bit as awful as you might expect, it gave the Treasury Sec. authoritarian controls over the wages of all employees working for companies that have received capital investment from the federal government - controls that were retroactive to boot.

Jones also has gone beyond Paul on the anti-war stuff. Paul has called for full retreat; Jones calls for full retreat, impeachment, openly advances the idea that Bush “lied” to start the Iraq war (I’ve never heard Paul go that far), actively assisted with a left-wing propaganda play that advanced that meme, and blindly joined with the Democrats in their disingenuous condemnation of Rush Limbaugh during the ‘phony soldiers’ brouhaha.

So there’s a good argument to be made that Jones is overall worse than Paul. He is strangely closer to Dennis Kucinich.

[BillyBoy]

Yeah, Jones' dad of the same name was a liberal RAT. Walter Jones Jr. is Exhibit A why conservatives should be wary of anyone who comes from a liberal RAT family but professes to be a "conservative Republican" because they need to be in order to get elected now. Jones started off very conservative when he was new on the political scene and working his way up, but now moves further and further left every year as he's become an entrenched D.C. insider. The layers have been pealed back and we're seeing his true self emerge. I agree that I wouldn't be surprised to see this guy run as a "conservative" RAT if he loses the GOP primary.

Although he's not from a RAT family, my gut tells me Connie Mack IV will end up the same way if he gets in the U.S. Senate. His voting record is fairly decent NOW, but his flirtation with the liberal Democrat mindset has already begun. I dread to think what will happen if he gets 6 years in office, knowing most voters won't pay attention until 2018.

Anyway, back on topic... Palombo's credentials look pretty good to me, considering he's just running for a House seat. Decorated Vietnam vet (two tours in the US Air Force), 34 years in law enforcement, retired as Chief of Police of New Bern, FL, Master's degree in Public Administration from Troy State University. We could do alot worse. Certainly we had many tea party freshman in 2010 with lesser credentials... heck, the guy who unseated professional RAT machine politician Phil Hare here in Illinois owned a local pizzaria. The question is whether Palombo will get the funds he needs to mount a strong campaign.

[Impy]

Yes money, in the 2008 some little known county commissioner held Jones to a 59-41 win despite money little money. Clearly he could have won if that wasn’t the case.

But the wars having died down dulls one of the main issues against Jones.

[Clintonfatigued]

“Although he’s not from a RAT family, my gut tells me Connie Mack IV will end up the same way if he gets in the U.S. Senate. His voting record is fairly decent NOW, but his flirtation with the liberal Democrat mindset has already begun. I dread to think what will happen if he gets 6 years in office, knowing most voters won’t pay attention until 2018.”

Look at what happened to Arlen Specter and Robert Bennett in 2010. If we can do the same to Richard Lugar and Orrin Hatch, Mack will no doubt remember it or be reminded of it by his staff.

[BillyBoy]

>> Yes money, in the 2008 some little known county commissioner held Jones to a 59-41 win despite money little money. Clearly he could have won if that wasn’t the case. But the wars having died down dulls one of the main issues against Jones. <<

I think this could actually work in our favor. In 2008, it was tough to go after Jones on this issue because Iraq was still screwed up and Jones made the case that he initially supported the war but changed his mind because the facts showed Bush's strategy wasn't working and blah blah blah. In 2012, the surge worked, Iraq is now a sovereign state, and Bush's withdrawal plan was implemented by Obama, so Jones can no longer make the case that he did the right thing by opposing all that. Now, a primary opponent can rightfully point out that Jones continues to vote with the left because he's a backstabbing liberal douchebag, not because he's a conservative who "studied" the issues and "realized" the GOP was doing the wrong thing.

[freema]

March 6 2009
The House on Thursday night turned back another call to investigate the PMA Group, a once-powerful lobbying firm whose offices were recently raided by the FBI and which has close ties to Pennsylvania Rep. John P. Murtha (D). Walter B. voted with the Rats to table this investigation.
http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/house-kills-pma-probe/