Heath Shuler Changing Teams?

Congressman Heath Shuler of North Carolina's Eleventh Congressional District has thrown his name into the Goblet of Fire. He is all over the national news as the guy who is going to challenge Nancy Pelosi.

Shuler is not going to defeat Pelosi in the Democratic Caucus. Indeed, the Democrats may be as sorry that he is a member of their team now as the Redskins were that they drafted him. I spoke to a knowledgeable Republican in Western North Carolina today. This person was a very active supporter of Jeff Miller, the Republican who ran against Shuler this year. He reports the following:

The word is out in North Carolina that Heath Shuler is going to change parties after his failed attempt to unseat Pelosi. The word is that he would be able to say that he tried to move the Dems to the center, but that they moved to the left instead, and as such, he would leave the party.

Who knows?

If Shuler does leave the Democratic Party, then just remember that you heard it here first.

Separated at Birth: Dolores Umbridge and Nancy Pelosi

In my most recent post, I alluded to the "Goblet of Fire", which is of course a reference to the blockbuster novel/movie "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" by J.K. Rowling. In the reference, Heath Shuler is compared to a contestant in a wizarding competition who places his name in nomination by putting it in the Goblet of Fire. In this case, Ol' Heath is placing his name in nomination for House Dem Leader.

That begs the question: "What Harry Potter character is Nancy Pelosi?"

There are so many possibilities. The nominees: Sybil Trelawney (the spacey Divinations professor who can't predict anything; Luna Lovegood (the student who is a little off center); or Ministry of Magic Bureaucrat Dolores Umbridge.

The winner is Dolores Umbridge (pictured above). Umbridge is a politician who is saccharine sweet. She is always perfectly appointed in pink. There is never a hair out of place. And she is very sanctimonious.

But what locks it up for Umbridge is her denial that Voldemort is a threat to good wizarding folks. Throughout her time on the screen, Umbridge repeats the party line that Voldemort is "not back". This is a very clear but likely unintentional analogy to the real life appeasers of the American Left, who insisted that there was no threat to America in the Middle East, either from Al-Quaeda or the former facist dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein or from the theocrats in Teheran. Umbridge is the quintessential denier who protects her cushy spot in the status quo by using her bully pulpit and her rule-making power to stife dissent.

Sound familiar?

Nancy Pelosi and Dolores Umbridge, separated at birth.

From: Tim Howes

Heath Shuler and the Goblet of Fire

Clay County NC is a small rural county in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the North Carolina-Georgia border. It has a population of approximately 9,000. To say that Clay County is beautiful is to make a severe understatement. It's newspaper of record, the Clay County Progress, hardly a beacon of national news, reported the following yesterday:

"U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) said Monday he will challenge Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for the House minority leadership position.

'At this point, no one has come forward, no one in leadership for a long time,' Shuler said. 'It will be very tough. It is probably a race we can’t win. But we need a moderate voice in the Democratic Party.”

After losing the majority in the House in the Nov. 2 election, the Republican Party takes over as the majority party. Pelosi said Friday she will try to retain her post as House Democratic leader. Leadership elections are set for Thursday, Nov. 18.

Congressman Shuler is unlikely to win the Minority Leader post. Indeed, he is very likely throwing his name into the Goblet of Fire to make good on a campaign promise. He's not going to win, you say, so why do I care? We care because the strange case of Congressman Heath Shuler fits nicely into our ongoing discussion about what the 2010 election means. Specifically, it follows very nicely behind today's earlier post, "Saturday Night Lights".

Heath Shuler is one of the remaining "Blue Dog" Democrats. He is a native of Western North Carolina. He was a football hero who played his college ball at the University of Tennesee, and who was drafted into the NFL by the Washington Redskins, where he signed a very lucrative contract. (ESPN rates Shuler as the third worst draft pick in the history of the NFL.) Heath Shuler is also a member of "The Family", a worldwide group of evangelical Christian political leaders, and former co-chairman of the National Day of Prayer.

In 2006, Rahm Emmanuel was scouring the nation for recruits to run for the House. Shuler was one of Emmanuel's pet projects. The 2006 Shuler campaign connected with voters through their faith and through Shuler's athletic past. That is, they used the Friday Night Lights approach. Shuler vanquished a sitting GOP congressman in 2006, and was handily re-elected in 2008.

In 2010, Shuler faced a formidable opponent in Hendersonville businessman Jeff Miller. Shuler, together with left-leaning independent groups, buried the district in advertising by radio, tv, mail, robocalls etc. His money advantage enabled him to fend off Jeff Miller, 54-46.

During the campaign, Shuler ran away from Nancy Pelosi. He did so, in part, by announcing during the campaign, and repeating many times his intention to run for Speaker of the House.

In the strange case of Heath Shuler, the Democrats took a page out of the GOP book and ran a proud evangelical Christian, who has been able to obscure his left-leaning tendencies by connecting with voters through faith. Shuler won't win the race for Minority Leader, and importantly, no one should be fooled. The fact that he will run and lose does not mean that there is a strong conservative or moderate wing of the Democratic Party.