Did I mention he's also a Nazi? http://oaklawn.patch.com/articles/republican-congressional-candidate-says-holocaust-never-happened#c It's hard to know where to begin with this one. Of course, this guy is a long shot to actually win the nomination much less the seat but I do have to wonder how a guy who is a self confessed national socialist is able to run in a Republican primary. I mean shouldn't claiming to be in the party be a requirement to running on a party ticket? That just seems logical to me.
It will be interesting to see exactly how many votes this guy gets in the primary process because Oklahoma is often mentioned as being a place with a relatively large number of neo-nazis, militia members, white nationalist groups, etc... I expect their total numbers aren't that large but this should help actually quantify by putting a minimum number out there.
You know he is dead, right? He was a conservative Republican for 21 years (7 in office) and the rest as a conservative Democrat. Byrd is really only notable as a southern racist in that he didn't finish up in the Republican Party. Bird ratted in 1959 so he couldn't switch back in 1964 when the rest of the conservative southern racists went GOP.
I remember Nova discussing this when someone wondered how a socially conservative Democrat got elected in Mississippi. In some parts of the country, people are staunchly in lock-step over social issues, even if they toe the party line on fiscal matters.
