Politico is reporting that businessman and former political aide Taylor Griffin will challenge Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC3) in the 2014 Republican primary.
I don’t normally write about House races, but this one is interesting for a couple reasons. First, Griffin is a former George W. Bush aide, with the pros and cons that entails. But more interesting than that is his opponent.
In case you’ve forgotten, Jones was named the most liberal Republican in the House by National Journal. He voted for the Iraq war, and joined then-Rep. Bob Ney in directing the House cafeteria to call French fries “freedom fries” — only to later say Dick Cheney would rot in hell because of the war. (Oh yeah, he also wanted to impeach Bush.)
That’s a lot of stuff to contend with. Sound like this might be a fun one to keep an eye on.
Update: This post originally said that Jones coined the term “freedom fries.” That distinction seems to belong to Rep. Ney.