Coming into the home stretch, tea party Baptist preacher Mark Walker (R; NC-06) is suddenly starting to sound noticeably uncomfortable regarding his standing versus his opponent for this open House seat, University of North Carolina vice president and general counsel Laura Fjeld (D).
What had once been a fairly sleepy campaign of lunch counter visits and community center photo ops first began to unravel for Walker last month, when DKos' own Hunter ferreted out a YouTube video of a Walker primary speech to a tea party group, in which Walker said:
"I will tell you if you have foreigners who are sneaking in with drug cartels to me that is a national threat and if we got to go laser or blitz somebody with a couple of fighter jets for a little while to make our point, I don't have a problem with that either. So yea, whatever you need to do."
Moderator: "I hope you wouldn't have any qualms about starting up a little war with Mexico."
Walker: "Well, we did it before, if we need to do it again, I don't have a qualm about it."
Since making that remarkably frank slip, Walker has been busy walking it back, most recently
telling the News & Record:
“It was a tongue-in-cheek comment that generated a few laughs there. Of course I don’t want to go to war with Mexico.
Sticking with the "tongue-in-cheek" line, a Walker spokesman
told WRAL TV:
This was obviously a tongue-in-cheek comment that highlights the very serious nature of our situation at the border
and Walker's deputy campaign manager
told the News & Observer:
I beg of you, go look at the tape for yourself. It was not in any way an expression of Walker’s foreign policy doctrine. The room is laughing....When he said ‘laser blitz somebody’ – not laser or blitz – he was meaning it kind of humorously to point out the severity of the issue. There was general laughter in the room....It was kind of a jovial moment.
Walker is now backpedaling on women's reproductive health issues, as well. Having secured his base back in the primary with a tough no-exceptions stand on banning abortion, he's now
struggling to sound more moderate in an apparent effort to secure the votes of the independents who will decide this election:
Reporter: "Last spring Mark Walker told WXII news he makes no exceptions when it comes to abortion:"
Walker (file clip): "There should be no situation that I would approve abortion."
Reporter: "He made that statement when he was competing against eight other Republicans in the GOP primary. Now facing a Democrat in the general election, Walker has changed his stand. I asked him specifically about rape, incest, and the life of the mother."
Walker: "I have no problem making the decisions to terminate...uh...the unborn when a woman’s life is on the line. I think that’s a common sense approach. Of those who have a problem...uh...have been victims of a parent, of an incest situation, I know this is graphic things I even hesitate to use those words, but I want to be sensitive to those issues as well, as opposed to just have a blanket pass on it."
Reporter: "And how about rape?"
Walker: "Rape is the third degree in this, Bill. And...uh...I know that’s a horrible issue. But I have great stories of people, children, who have come out of that, as horrific a time as it is, uh, it is grossly horrible, tragic. But there are people who have come out of that that’s made a huge positive impact in our communities, in our lives, and I would want to make sure that that young child has a voice, that unborn has a voice as well."
What's emerging here is a pattern of behavior that voters can't fail to notice: Walker shoots his mouth off with tough talk aimed at his tea party base, then gets called on it and quickly retreats to inarticulate feel-good mumbling. But his opponent, Laura Fjeld, isn't letting him get away with it. Her latest
TV ad brands Walker "too extreme for North Carolina" and reminds voters:
Who is tea party candidate Mark Walker? Too extreme for the serious times we're in. Walker has been criticized for his plan to bomb Mexico. He would outlaw all abortions, even in cases of rape, incest, or the life of a woman. He'd even ban common forms of birth control.
Adding insult to injury, Walker's campaign
responded yesterday to the launch of this ad in language that almost seems designed to evoke mental images of whiney, hysterical wimmin-folk - but instead makes Walker sound exactly like the prevaricator he is:
The Laura Fjeld campaign is incessantly negative. They are slinging mud, making wild accusations, and fabricating attacks.
Walker and Fjeld have a debate scheduled for October 29th at 7 PM Eastern, to be televised on WGHP Channel 8 and livestreamed at www.myfox8.com. This should be fun.
Fortunately for Walker, NC-06 doesn't have a significant Muslim voter population, so here's one rant he probably won't have to walk back (from the same speech in which he talked about bombing Mexico):
You know what the No. 1 name now is in Great Britain? ... Muhammed. And that’s where they’re headed, this way. ... I respect George W. Bush and some of the things he did, but I would beg to differ that Islam is a religion of peace, because you can’t have a religion of peace when you’ve got nearly a billion people chopping off heads all over the country.
Help the good, sensible folk of North Carolina stop this man from ever reaching Washington. Please consider
donating to Laura Fjeld's campaign.