Posted on 07/20/2005 6:03:19 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
After weeks of cajoling from high-ranking Democrats — including former President Bill Clinton — former football star Heath Shuler announced Monday that he would challenge Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.) next year.
(Excerpt) Read more at rollcall.com ...
Heath Shuler is one of the biggest busts in the history of the nfl. this guy really is as dumb as he seemed.
At least Republican Quarterbacks (Warner, etc) have actually completed a pass.
Taylor was reelected last year by a 55% to 45% margin, running behind President Bush in the district.
For a politician, he's a pretty good ex-football player.
I thought I was a Pro football fan. Who the hell is Heath Schuler? Never heard of him. Ain't that just like the Dems. They sure know how to pick a loser.
Taylor needs to retire. Surely there must be some Republican with name ID who can hold the seat for us.
Schuler was a QB who busted big time with the AINTS. He was a Ryan Leaf before anyone knew who Ryan Leaf was.
Don't ever forget Aikman and Staubach.:)
State Representative Wilma Sherill would be a good candidate, based on what little I know about her.
Was Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.) the Congressman who just came back from Iraq raising doubts about the effort, or was that another Congressman from one of the Carolinas?
I don't know about any Iraq trip. I do know that Rep. Walter Jones, Jr. (R-NC) has expressed doubts about the war. Perhaps he's the one you're thinking of.
Heath is a former U of Tennessee player. I saw somebody mention on a UT board that Heath supported and contribited to Congressman Van Hilleary back in 2002 and I know Van Hilleary is a rock solid conservative. If this is true maybe Shuler is a DINO.
TOTAL 5 NFL Seasons
29 Games
22 Games Started
593 Pass attempts
292 completions
15 TD's 33 Interceptions 54.3 QB rating
JOEY HARRINGTON of all people has a 67.2 career rating.
If Shuler is "Conservative" he should run to defeat Taylor in the primary, not in the Party of Pelosi.
Dem - Heath Shuler, Rodney Peete(???),.......
And to top it off Shuler is a developer which may cost some votes, although he was a good college QB and that will gain some votes among Vols fans. I think he'd be a bigger threat near Knoxville though.
It is interesting that Heath backed Van Hilleary who was a very conservative Republican. I can understand the local politics and real estate ties, but if that was the case, why is he running in NC and not Knoxville(Or backing a TN GOP'er and not an NC pol)?
He's just used to being picked off. It's nothing new....:)
If he ran as a Democrat in the TN-2nd, he'd get smoked. That district hasn't elected a 'Rat in over 150+ years, it went seemlessly from being a Whig stronghold to GOP without batting an eyelash.
I'm always at a disadvantage when people start in on sports references, since I don't know bubkas. Now if you wanna talk about Soap Operas...
Maybe Dan Snyder can be his campaign advisor ...
I've known about Aikman and Staubach, and it's a very good probability that Warner is a Republican, but where do you get your info on the other quarterbacks? Just curious.
"Taylor needs to retire. Surely there must be some Republican with name ID who can hold the seat for us."
Is the heathen old enough to vote?
I heard Elway was a Republican but I had not seen it confirmed anywhere.
Elway and Young are well known. The others donated to Bush. I believe Favre was on recordings, but wasn't sure about that.
heath's last good day on the field was as a quarterback at Tennessee. how is that going to help him in NC?
Eh, I'm not worried yet. 10% may not be a huge landslide, but that's a lot for a D to make up against an incumbent.
NC hasn't exactly moved leftwards recently. Other then Easly, it keeps going R harder and harder. Look at Bush's 13% win and Burr's come from behind win.
When an athlete doesn't meets certain levels of mental and/or scholarly apptitude, he is said to have failed the "Shuler Test".
The problem isn't the district, the problem is the incumbent himself.
What's wrong with the incumbent? Did he screw an aid or sell a car for half a million dollars to a lobbyist?
Bobby Beathard was a gambler who signed a lot of unknown guys with strong athletic ability and gambled that they would turn into real NFL players. Some of them did (like Stan Humphries) but most of them never developed for the Chargers. He had better luck at Washington.
I still fondly remember the pre-draft debate between picking Drew Bledsoe or Rick Mirer -- the beginning of the Patriots' resurgence to greatness.
Charlie Taylor was in a business arrangement with two men convicted of bank fraud. He is also a business partner with a Russian businessman who was once a General in the KGB.
At best, it looks bad. And this is not the first time Taylor has faced controversy regarding his financial dealings.
Still, Taylor has had "controversy" before and just keeps winning. Patsy Keever was supposed to be a great candidate for the Democrats last year and Taylor won by 10, again. Somewhat reminiscent of John Hostettler in Indiana.
Actually it was the Redskins. He was already a bust long before he got to the Saints.
Heath Shuler was a quite skilled quarterback in college. During workouts for pro teams, I believe he always used his own football.
When he got to Washington, it seems his hands were a bit too small for the larger Pro football, and the ball would slip out of his hands.
I had always thought the "Shuler test" meant giving the guy a pro football to throw. I hadn't heard it had anything to do with mental ability.
So maybe my story is the apocryphal one.
Meanwhile, Taylor is the congressman who "tried" to vote no on CAFTA but says his vote failed due to an "glitch in the electronic voting".
In what has to be a rather hilarious irony, none of the democrats seems to believe that electronic voting could possible go wrong.
Isn't that the Charles Taylor from Liberia though? I keep getting e-mails from his wife, saying that she's got $10 million or more in a Nigerian bank account and if only I'd give her my account number, she could transfer it there and I could keep 25% of it....
"And while there are tentative signs that a playing field tilted against Republicans may be developing nationwide, the evidence and logic behind a much more significant threat for Republicans in Ohio is very strong. Pryce was quoted Monday in the Columbus Dispatch, speaking to the paper's editorial board saying, 'The political situation for Republicans both in Washington and especially in Ohio is just dreadful,' going on to say that, 'in my short political life, I've never seen it so dire.' "
Bush carried the Pryce district by about 1%. Columbus has trended quite decisively and rapidly to the Dems.
That would make this board considerably more boring.
LOLOL - He was also a Tony Mandarich before Tony Mandarich.
Well, if Pryce is anywhere near as old as I am she's either crazy or nuts. The republicans were out in the cold so long we grew fur.
I can understand their concern in Ohio, with those disasters as Gov and Senators. But what is his E-mail based on? I would imagine some over-emphasis (IMHO) on this most recent special election.
I don't buy the nationwide tilt against the GOP. Too early to say one way or the other for '06, and GOP fundraising has not shown any signs of weakness.
His website doesn't say beans about where he stands on anything.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.