BREAKING NEWS!!

From Eric Dondero:

Embattled Virginia Democrat Congressman Tom Perriello, 20 points behind Republican Bob Hurt in the polls, is making a play for libertarian votes. In an interview with the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner Perriello told reporter Richard Sincere that he believed that ObamaCare was actually consistent with libertarian values.

From The Examiner "Congressman Tom Perriello explains his appeal to libertarian voters in Virginia’s 5th District" Aug. 11:

Perriello replied that he has “taken a strong position in terms of regulation of farming, and manufacturing, and other issues from a libertarian perspective.”

Referring to his votes to support the comprehensive health-care overhaul bill pushed by President Barack Obama (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), Perriello suggested that his vote was motivated, in part, by libertarian concerns.

“Again,” he said, “I think there are ways to understand some things that have been pitched as government takeover as really being about individual rights and libertarian rights,” for example, for “people to not get screwed by your insurance company, the right to not have to pay for other peoples’ illnesses.”

“To me,” Perriello said, these “have a libertarian undercurrent.”

Joe Sciarino, spokesman for the NRCC provided Libertarian Republican with this response:

“Congressman Perriello clearly lives in a fantasyland where, magically, voting for a government-takeover of healthcare somehow doesn’t constitute stripping Americans of an individual right. What’s next, that this bill was deficit neutral and won’t raise costs for consumers? If Perriello thinks the people of Virginia’s Fifth District appreciate his “efforts” on their behalf, we’ll just have to see how they respond in November.”

Story developing... LR will have more on this later today and tomorrow.