Taylor breaks agreed-upon debate format; Shuler leaves

[Spiffarino]

A debate between Congressman Charles Taylor (R-Liar) and Democratic challenger Heath Shuler ended abruptly when Taylor went against the agreed-upon debate framework by not showing up at the studio of Asheville's WWNC at the scheduled time, opting instead to call in from Hendersonville. His excuse for not being there was that he had a prior engagement. Hendersonville is less than 25 minutes away.

Matt Mittan was hosting the debate and had Shuler with him in studio. Shuler gave a short impromptu speech and took off his headset in disgust. Mittan said he was within his right to do so, given that Taylor had broken the rules that both candidates had agreed to.

Read about it here (there's an audio link now!):

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200661103043


Edited for clarity

[Spiffarino]

1. Another link about this story from MyDD

Sorry to self-reply, but MyDD has a good synopsis of exactly what happened. Much better than the Asheville Citizen-Times blurb.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/11/3/15541/3369

[Riddler]

2. Well I'll be!!! Who could've ever figured that a republican couldn't be trusted to keep his word!

[Spiffarino]

3. Yep, especially that Republican.

What a schmuck. He's already dodged seven debates and now wouldn't show up in person for this one. My guess is that Taylor is physically afraid of Heath. Republican politicians are notorious cowards and Taylor is no exception.

[brainshrub]

4. This was an important moment in NC-11.

Shuler just proved to liberals and conservatives alike that he's a fighter.

I wasn't going to vote for Shuler because he was too conservative for my tastes. Why vote for a conservative Dem if he's going to let himself get pushed around by the Republicans?

But now that I see that he's willing to kick back.

So yeah, Shuler's got my vote. I may disagree with him on some important issues, but he's got two things going for him:

1) He's Christian is the best sense of the word. (Pious without trying to smash his beliefs of others.)
2) Shuler will kick back when crossed by a sneaky Republican.