Don't Count On Seeing Poor Ole Bob Barr Back In Congress

Phil Gingrey represents Georgia's 11th congressional district, mostly Atlanta suburbs in Cobb, Bartow, Fulton and Cherokee counties. It includes all of Marietta, the east side of Smyrna, and part of Atlanta's upscale/uptown Buckhead neighborhood (the Beverly Hills of the South). The PVI is R+19 and the only part of the district even remotely competitive for Democrats-- and only remotely-- is the Cobb County section. The current congressman is far right extremist-- and crackpot-- Phil Gingrey and he won reelection last cycle 196,968 (68.6%) to 90,353 (31.4%), beating his unknown, unfunded Democratic challenger by 70% or better in Bartow, Cherokee and Fulton counties but with "only" 60% in Cobb.

Gingrey gave up his seat to run for Senate. He got trounced in the primary, coming in 4th, nosing out even further right-wing extremist congressman Paul Broun. Now both are out of their jobs.

• David Perdue- 185,466 (30.64%)
• Jack Kingston- 156,157 (25.80%)
• Karen Handel- 132,944 (21.96%)
• Phil Gingrey- 60,735 (10.03%)
• Paul Broun- 58,297 (9.63%)

The new congressmen will be determined by Republican runoffs on July 22. Broun's replacement will be either Mike Collins, son of ex-Congressman Mac Collins, or a crazed teabagger and Hate Talk Radio host and Baptist preacher Jody Hice. They were virtually tied in the primary, Collins 17,378 (33.5%) to Hice 17,108 (33.0%) out of 51,876 votes cast. Both are extremists and the "establishment" candidate, Collins, has been endorsed by Rick Santorum.

The race for Gingrey's seat is more interesting because it includes always controversial ex-CIA agent and former Congressman Bob Barr, the guy in the two videos up top. Last I had heard was that Barr had quit the GOP to become a Libertarian. He ran as their 2008 nominee for president, coming in 4th-- with 523,715 votes (0.40%)-- behind Barack Obama, John McCain and Ralph Nader. His best performance was in Indiana, where he got 29,257 votes (1.06%), followed by his native Georgia, where he took 28,731 votes (0.73%). In 2012 he split with the Libertarians and endowed Newt Gingrich for president instead of Ron Paul and rejoined the GOP.

Barr, another standard issue delusional Republican devotee of Ayn Rand's, was appointed U.S. Attorney for Northern Georgia by Reagan after his stint with the CIA. He successfully prosecuted Republican Congressman Pat Swindall for campaign finance fraud and perjury, sending Swindall to prison and handing the district over to the Democrats. Barr then represented GA-07 from 1995-2003 and is best known as one of the more obnoxious and deranged of the Clinton impeachment managers. The other thing he was famous for was being an anti-marijuana fanatic, although he later became a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project and is now adamantly pro-pot (unless he changed his mind again). He was the author of the notoriously homophobic Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and he has since apologized for having done that and is now pro-marriage equality and says he would vote to repeal DOMA. Loudermilk is painting him as an untrustworthy flip-flopper and it's working and will probably win Loudermilk the seat.

Barr came in second in the May 20th primary and will now face state Senator Barry Loudermilk in the runoff. Loudermilk has been endorsed by Club for Growth, RedState, FreedomWorks, the Madison Project and Georgia Right to Life. Barr has been endorsed by Tom Tancredo, Richard Viguerie and Gun Owners of America. These were the primary totals:

• Barry Loudermilk- 20,708 (36.6%)
• Bob Barr- 14,596 (25.8%)
• Tricia Pridemore- 9,655 (17.1%)
• Edward Lindsey- 8,389 (14.8%)
• Larry Mrozinski- 2,277 (4%)
• Allan Levene- 959 (1.7%)

Barr, who accepts contributions in BitCoin (as well as real money), has raised $683,795 and reported $96,425 cash-on-hand as of April 30. Loudermilk raised $449,054 and had $89,882 cash-on-hand on April 30. So far FreedomWorks, the Senate Conservatives Fund and Club for Growth have put in a total of $34,768 on behalf of Loudermilk. This kind of zombie-stupid, rote, right-wing yawnathon of an ad still excites deluded Georgia voters:



There's been some back and forth about Loudermilk claiming he was a fighter pilot-- he wasn't-- but it probably won't lose him the runoff. To show he can be as amusing as Barr, if he wanted to lie about his background, he could have claimed he was the son of Nashville songwriter John D. Loudermilk. This wasn't even his biggest song but "Tobacco Road" was a hit for the Nashville Teens, Jefferson Airplane, The Animals, Edgar Winter, Lou Rawls, Spooky Tooth, Status Quo, David Lee Roth, and the Blues Magoos. My fave: