“Watch Wolf Go Moderate”

An intriguing blog post at “In Through The Out Door”.

With the announcement yesterday by James Trautz that he is withdrawing as a Republican challenger in the 10th District against Rep. Frank R. Wolf, I’m going to make a prediction.

Wolf took a sharp right turn in his legislating over the past few months in an attempt to woo the tea party element to his campaign. But with the far-right challenger out of the picture, expect Wolf to move away from the fringe of the party and move towards the center, courting the moderate independents that make up a majority of the 10th District in Loudoun and Fairfax counties.

Also expect to see more “franked” mail arriving in your mailboxes; Wolf recently sent out 3 pieces of “constituent literature”, paid for at taxpayer expense, that looked very much like campaign mailers. Of course, it’s illegal to send campaign flyers at taxpayer expense, which is why those mailers are marked as “newsletters”.

For more on Frank Wolf’s lurch to the right in recent months, see “Frank Wolf: For it, before he was against it” by Rich Anthony.  As Rich points out, “Wolf has taken to repeated attacks on President Obama and his administration over the last year, causing many to speculate that [Wolf] may be concerned about his primary against self-described ‘tea party candidate’ Jim Trautz.” Now that Trautz is out of the picture, will we see Wolf breaking with Eric Cantor, John Boehner, and the “Party of No” in general? I’m not holding my breath, especially given that Wolf really is a right-wing Republican at his core, but it’s something to keep an eye on.

Of course, Wolf never was the “moderate” he sometimes masqueraded as before Barack Obama became president. But since then, Wolf has voted in hard-right-wing Republican lockstep against clean energy, health care reform, “Jobs for Main Street”, economic recovery, and many other top priorities for America and for his district.  

Of course, you’d never know any of that from the corporate media, which wouldn’t write something critical about their pal Frank Wolf if it was the last story on earth. Actually, come to think of it, when was the last time you saw anything at all in the Washington Post about the 10th CD race? Well, don’t be surprised if you never do. That is, until the obligatory Post endorsement of “moderate” (yes, the Post is largely responsible for pushing this false meme) Wolf this fall, that is. With the media completely failing to do its job, no wonder why Wolf is able to sculpt his image to his liking through his “franked” mailings. At your expense, of course.

P.S. Unlike Wolf’s votes for powerful, moneyed interests over middle class Americans, Rich Anthony supports “Main Street” over “Wall Street”.  What a concept, huh?