Home sweet home.

Howie Klein over at Firedoglake has a great profile of two competitive congressional races in my home state, against the miserable Robin Hayes and contemptible Charles Taylor.

One great story about Hayes I had forgotten about was how he was forced (at Congressional gunpoint) to vote for CAFTA and break a 214-214 tie. This is bad, because his home district had been the heart of NC's textile industry. Sayeth Klein:

Hayes is most famous for breaking down and weeping like a baby after DeLay, Blunt and other Republicans forced him, on the floor of the House, to vote against his constituents interests to break a 214-214 tie for some hideous trade policies that wreaked further havoc and despair on North Carolina’s textile industry.

Taylor is famous for his world-wide gallavanting and self-enrichment project:

Two counties in his district threatened to garnish his congressional salary because he refused to pay his property taxes, and he owns a bank that loans cronies money that never gets paid back and gets written off (after portions, some observers allege, are kicked back to the slippery congressman).

Good stuff. They have two interesting opponents in NFL star Heath Schuler (vs. Taylor) and Larry Kissell (vs. Hayes). My old buddy Rahm hand-picked Schuler, so I don't have much to say about that. Kissell on the other hand does appear to have his act together and would make a worthy point of support for anyone looking to drop a few dimes into a burgeoning-copetitve race. That's not a subtle hint.