CharO profiles DJ

Check it out:

"I wasn't really gunning for politics," the congressional candidate said in an interview during a visit here last week to meet with Democratic officials and old friends. "I had grown so disgusted with the status of politics in Washington in particular, I had ruled out in my mind any interest in pursuing elected office."

He changed his mind after being approached by folks in the community who were looking for a challenger to two-term Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican from Cherryville.

"My wife and I spent a lot of time thinking about it, praying about it," Johnson said. "We decided the country was facing some very serious challenges ahead of it, and that I could use my experience to help find some effective solutions."

I have to admit I like the coverage so far. Strange, since writer Lisa Zagaroli has a history of favoring the incumbent.

He has shown some early promise with his fundraising ability, having collected $123,000 in a few weeks.

She then appropriately mentions the overwhelming Republican majority in the district but Daniel has a good comeback:

"There's a lot of discontent in that district, just as there is nationwide," he said.

McHenry, he said, is part of the reason Washington manages to turn just about everything into a partisan issue -- health care for children, funding for the war and illegal immigration, as examples."His style of politics is an old style of politics that people are tired of, which is to be divisive, and to not come up with solutions but to bicker about the problems, to continue the inertia that has kept Washington from solving any of those problems," Johnson said."(He) is a huge part of stirring up that partisan rancor in Congress."

So far, so good, but now the article twists to the weird:

McHenry's press secretary, Wes Climer, said McHenry defends traditional family values.

Like when? When he attacked Nancy Pelosi for needing a larger plane than the previous speaker who lived much closer to DC? Or is Wes referrring to when he attacked bike-riders for being from the 19th century? Yeah, riding a bike is anti-family. Or maybe he's thinking back even earlier to when Pat he defended Representative Foley, stating quite clearly that the problem wasn't that Foley had had sex with pages but that the Democrats (out of power) somehow timed the disclosure for maximum value in election season.

Those are some family values, Pat. Good job, Wes.

"Some Washington politicians don't like the fact that Congressman McHenry won't accept the broken status quo, and it's telling that someone would criticize him for that," Climer said.

Criticize McHenry for being against the status quo? He would have to be against Bush and Rove and Tom Delay for that to be true and gee, Wes, it ain't. You're just digging a deeper hole, Wes. Maybe you should take some kind of remedial training in public relations. I hear the Wellstone Institute offers all kinds of campaign training. Oh, that's right, you'd have to actually care about people to be eligible for one of their classes.

As to Dear Lisa, if history is a predictor of the future, I bet she'll do plenty of McHenry articles without going to Johnson for a quote. Let's hope she proves us wrong. And that Daniel's spokesman has ethics and a brain.