Yoho's "safe" district not so much!

[kmlisle]

Our Fiscal Cliff Denialist Ted Yoho is, unfortunately, my representative and he has claimed in print to the New York Times that his support at home was embarrassingly high (for me). Now Ted does come from a gerrymandered district where my blue dot district who voted for Nader in the 2000 election and who has 3 lines at the voting booths, the third being for independents, is paired with a uber conservative town down the road. So his is considered one of those "safe" districts leading the Times to essentially describe us as Yoho's Yahoos (I am paraphrasing here).

However when you examine the editorial pages of both communities you find a different story both in letters to the editor and staff editorials. The Gainesville Sun reported 11 letters to the editor opposing Yoho and his tactics in one day. They published several of them along with a single supportive letter and wrote an op ed as well. read them here: http://www.gainesville.com/section/opinion

But this is my hometown which is a blue dot on the political landscape of North Florida. So lets look at our conservative neighbor to the south. I perused the editorial pages of the Ocala Star Banner and guess what I find there! Letters to the editor and staff editorials critical of Ted Yoho. here is my favorite:

This is for Congressman Ted Yoho.

I am a registered voter in Marion County, age 59, and a registered Libertarian.

Despite my philosophical leanings toward limited government, I want to make it clear that I absolutely feel that the House should approve the clean continuing resolution sent over by the Senate, and should approve the upcoming debt ceiling increase with no strings.

I am appalled by the irresponsible attitude and behavior of the so-called tea party wing of the House. We used to have grown-ups in the leadership of both parties.

Overall they are a more critical of both sides but this is not a supportive crowd for the Tea Party in general and Yoho in particular. Read more for yourself at http://www.ocala.com/section/opinion (warning there will be a limit of 5 articles per month before you must subscribe to each of these papers)

[CTyankee]

1. I love the letter by the "appalled" libertarian! What did he expect?

Apart from that, doncha just LOVE saying "Ted Yoho"?

[kmlisle]

2. As you might imagine he has a nickname of Yahoo locally

[blkmusclmachine]

3. Who is this yahoo?!?!

[kmlisle]

4. This is the Tea Party congressman who says that default would be good for the US and for the world

markets. Here is a politico article about him http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/debt-limit-deniers-98041.html

[gopiscrap]

5. Good

[gopiscrap]

6. BTW welcome to DU

[kmlisle]

7. Thanks

Its been a good place to be this week.

[SunSeeker]

8. I knew Ocala wasn't all bad. Isn't that where they filmed Flipper?

Welcome to DU!

[kmlisle]

9. They have made Tarzan movies at Silver Springs - Don't know about Flipper

Dolphins are salt water creatures. We kayak that spring and see some salt water fish and manatee but no dolphins. Silver Springs Run also has a healthy monkey population and you see them in the trees along the banks of the river. The forest and the springs are fantastic. I worked for that school district and it is well run with lots of great people to work for but the rural areas are generally Tea Party land or used to be. Still a lot of racism, especially older rural folk. But they seem to be waking up about some of the lies they have been told. The shutdown certainly has shown a light on the myth of "All Government is Big Bad Government".