Posted on 12/03/2005 6:12:32 AM PST by Prospero
Greg Dority will run for the NC 3rd District
If he runs for re-election, Congressman Walter Jones will face Conservative GOP Primary opposition.
Long whispered grumblings among conservative GOP activists, frustrated by their perception of an ineffective state Party and its “elite” state and national leaders, whom they also believe to be indifferent to their concerns for the nation and their ideology, is certain to bloom into a full-fledged populist revolt drawing state, national and perhaps international attention.
In an exclusive interview late Friday, former NC 1st District GOP congressional nominee Greg Dority told me he will run for Congress once again in 2006, but this time to represent the sprawling 3rd District, drawn from many of the same communities and counties.
Instead of a Republican “moderate,” should Jones decide to seek a seventh term, he will face an equally bonafide social and economic conservative GOP challenger, a man widely known and respected by conservative activists who attend Republican planning meetings and gatherings all year in the 1st District and also in the 3rd, which was drawn from the same area of the state.
In June, Jones joining with unabashed liberal Congressmen like Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) in sponsoring a U.S. House Resolution, calling on the President to set a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces in Iraq, was flashed around the world and reported by America's enemies as a fracture among the President's Repubican supporters.
Dority, managing partner of Sterling Security of Washington, specializes in international development in war-torn Bosnia and elsewhere. During work overseas, Dority says he’s been continually disturbed by never-ending replays of Jones press conference last summer on al Jazeera, CNN International and other overseas news outlets.
“Every time these news agencies spotlight Democrats,” Dority said,” whose blind hatred of President Bush allows them to rationalize undermining the War on Terror and endangering the morale and lives of our troops, they replay Walter’s Press Conference with the liberal Democrats from last summer. They use him, and the people, including the military families he is supposed to represent, as their pet American conservative who opposes the War.”
Jones angered and confused many conservative, long-time supporters when he joined liberal Democrats in an open challenge to the White House and its Iraqi war policy last summer. Jones has since distanced himself from his call for a “timetable,” but many supporters remain stung by his having “gone wobbly,” often wondering out loud, “What’s up with Walter?”
“The people of eastern North Carolina, and our troops in the field, deserve a civilized debate about our commitment and," Dority believes, "leadership in Washington that understands and can explain the enemy and the nature of this World War. Not just our lives, but the survival of our nation and our freedom is at stake, and they deserve leadership that does not waver.”
“There is no better place or time to lay all these things out on the table, and I’m ready to begin.” Along with the northeastern and central coastal counties, the 3rd Congressional District also includes tens of thousands of military personnel and their families at Fort Bragg, Pope and Seymour Johnson Air Force Bases, and Camp Lejeune and the Marine Corp Air Stations at Cherry Point and New River.
“All these facilities are on the front line in the War on Terror in Iraq and throughout the world,” Dority said. “Their families do not need representation that is driven by the attitudes in the salons of New York reflected in the national press. They deserve to be constantly reminded that their sacrifices of time with their loved ones, and sometimes of their lives, are, without question, all about security and freedom for Americans and for our nation’s future.”
“They deserve representation,” Dority said, “that counters the onslaught of propaganda that belittles the amazing work their loved ones are accomplishing in the world. It does not need leadership that falls prey to our enemies desires even for a moment.”
“In Annapolis, at the Naval Academy, last Wednesday,” Dority said, “President Bush repeated that setting artificial timetables for our deployment of troops in Iraq is a recipe for disaster. He said the schedule for our involvement in Iraq should be determined by victory, and not by politicians in Washington.”
“Unfortunately, Walter proved he was among those who, instead of leadership, responded to the sacrifices of war by feeding the worries of our people and our military families, playing up to press-fueled misperceptions instead of reassuring the faint hearted with a solid understanding of what we are accomplishing everyday in Iraq and elsewhere.”
“Fortunately, the Third District has some of the most confident, patriotic Americans in the nation. It should not be difficult to explain to them why we are fighting. Instead, Walter’s lapse in confidence did damage to our efforts.”
So a debate over “staying the course” in the War on Terror, questions about al Qaida’s pre-war connection with Saddam Hussein and things like the present location of the toppled dictator’s reserves of weapons of mass destruction might not be played out in Washington, DC but in Washington, NC, and in the struggling economic and rural setting of eastern North Carolina.
The news is also certain to both rock and divide North Carolina’s Republicans through the May Primary, and draw the attention of the nation as two conservative Republicans, instead of the usual Conservative Republican and Liberal Democrat, debate the war and also, perhaps, the conscience and future of the Republican Party in North Carolina and throughout America.
Though Jones is expected to seek a seventh term, he has yet to make a formal announcement of his intentions. The filing period for those wanting a place on North Carolina’s 2006 General Election ballot begins in February.
“I admire Walter greatly,” Dority said, saying he had thought long and hard over a decision certain to set up a bruising Republican Primary between two well-known and committed social and economic conservatives, “but the national and the international situation calls for strong, committed leadership today.”
Dority said also that a healthy debate, calling Jones to account for his “poor leadership” with regard to America’s international War on Terror was not his only reason for picking this time and place to run for Congress.
“Walter has a responsibility for accounting for years of a lack of federal oversight of North Carolina’s ruling class in Raleigh, and the corruption demonstrated so well in the indictment and conviction of Frank Ballance,” whom Dority opposed for election in 2002.
“Walter has opposed the embarrassing and profligate spending of the Republican Congress,” Dority said, citing Jones’ vote against the federal budget last summer. “I applaud him for that. It takes guts to oppose your own Party, but it takes more than complaint, it takes persuasive leadership and detailed alternatives to make that opposition effective. He needs to account for that ineffectiveness, and he needs to ask himself whether its time to come home.”
Having been a part of the 1994 Republican Revolution, Dority says, “Walter B. Jones, Jr. should be much farther along up the chain of command, and a respected voice instead of one marginalized by his admirable but unhelpful surrender to his obvious passions.”
Dority also cited Jones recent support of legislation, introduced by Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) to cut off federal highway funds if state government did not enforce lax drivers license security as, “too little, too late.”
“Dealing with criminal behavior, such as being in the United States illegally, and protecting our borders, is primarily a federal responsibility,” Dority said.
“While there are some fine pieces of legislation introduced by Republicans in the General Assembly in Raleigh, such as the bills introduced by Sen. Hugh Webster (R-Alamance) that make those who hire illegal aliens liable for their public expenses, and are well-thought out ways for state government to deal with border security, Washington, and Walter Jones, can’t excuse a lack of action just because he seems only now to be coming to realize what most North Carolinians have known for years."
“We need to secure our borders and get a handle on who is and who is not here legally before we start talking about guest worker programs that failed so miserably in our own recent history and elsewhere.”
Like it or not, whether you believe it is or is not a welcome sign of growth and maturity in a North Carolina Republican Party finally preparing for the time when it will become a functional ruling coalition, the Republican Primary next May promises to be as important to that coalition’s future as the conflict with the Democrats that will immediately follow. Such debates in the past have been difficult and painful, but one such generations-long debate eventually produced a President Reagan, and strengthened the character of all our leaders.
Ready or not, here it comes.
I like Walter, a lot. But his loss of nerve, and in the company of some really smelly libs, last June was a real stink bomb. He deserves the challenge, if only for the chance to have a showdown with the press over their spin on Iraq.
I guess the excrement should be hitting the circular mini wind tunnels...
This is going to drive a wedge betweeen the true Conservatives and those who now adopt the label "conservative" because it's fashionable in some circles.
We may lose a few seats in the Northeast part of the countyr, but it is still necessary to take down these RINOS. After every losing battle, Napoleon ordered the public execution of two of his senior colonels, to as he said...."Pour encourager les autres.."
I hope the Club for Growth goes in and kicks his ash. He won last time with 84% so the seat is VERY SAFE ( Ft. Bragg no less!) Seeya Walt don't let the door hit you in the ash on the way out!
This Jones has got to go. His erratic behavior should not be rewarded with another term. Greg Dority deserves our support.
"Greg Dority deserves our support."
Dority was a candidate in NC-1 just last year (and previously in '02).
"Dority was a candidate in NC-1 just last year (and previously in '02)."
From my vantage point he's a POS.
And now the seat (NC-1) has the Whitest Black man in creation representing it. I always had the sneaking suspicion that G.K. Butterball is about as African as John Kerry is Irish. ;-)
FYI
Hooray for "The Candidadate"!!
Glad to see he's up to the challenge despite is personal losses!
Not sure how you can go from the 1st to the 3rd down there in NC but his quotes above make him sound quite reasonable!
Forces of Fusion on the march! Washington DC trembles!
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.