Freshman Rep. Heath Shuler (D., NC), an NFL bust, finds football talk scores with voters

Bloomberg News: Shuler, an NFL Bust, Finds Football Talk Scores With Voters
By Julianna Goldman

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Representative Heath Shuler says it's time for the Iraqis to "get off the sidelines.'' Success in politics, he says, is about "teamwork'' and "having the right playbook.''

Shuler may be forgiven for sounding more like a football player than a member of Congress. A dozen years ago, the North Carolina Democrat seemed more likely destined to throw passes in this Sunday's Super Bowl than to be at work passing legislation. But while his career as quarterback of the Washington Redskins proved disappointing, it's paying off politically.

"I talk those sports analogies,'' Shuler says. "And believe it or not, people relate to it.''...

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After a career in real estate, Shuler in November beat Republican incumbent Charles Taylor to represent a district on North Carolina's western tip....After a month in office, Shuler has already secured the chairmanship of a small-business subcommittee and helped House Democrats pass most of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's agenda.

As a Southern Baptist Democrat who opposes abortion rights and gun control, Shuler is something of a Democratic anomaly. He split from his party on legislation to lift President George W. Bush's 2001 ban on federal funding for new embryonic stem-cell research. He said both leadership and his constituents knew how he would vote ahead of time....

In North Carolina, Democratic orthodoxy might end a lawmaker's career early, says Gibbs Knotts, a political scientist at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.

Voting "a straight Democratic party line will make it difficult to probably get re-elected,'' Knotts says. Democrats "know that they have to listen to some Heath Shulers.''...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=arr8qQd9bxBw

He probably believes the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood, too. Does the Democratic party need flat earthers like this?

And if you do, before you go calling them freepers:



They even interviewed him. Good stuff.

article as one of the most corrupt men in Congress, and will, I hope,help bring our congressional district into the Twentieth Century.

I trust, in the next fifty or sixty years or so, a good Democrat will come along to help drag us into the Twenty-first Century.

:hurts: Change comes slowly in Western North Carolina

and so glad he won! I'd like to thank John Edwards for bringing him to my attention :D