Fresh off the anti-war awakening of Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), another North State Republican has given progressive bloggers something to chatter about. The Lincoln Tribune reports via Raw Story:

CARY -- A candidate for North Carolina Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court has announced on her campaign's blog that she is leaving the Republican Party and denounced the Bush administration's policy on troop withdrawal from Iraq. Rachel Lea Hunter, a Republican and a candidate for Chief Justice, likens Bush's administration to the "Nazis" and says that all who disagree with the administration are being branded as "traitors".

Incidentally, Hunter sees a direct line between attacks against her and the GOP uproar against Jones. As she writes on her blog,

Republican dirty tricks are not confined to just me any more. I also saw that Congressman Jones made the news by calling for a withdrawal of our troops. Whatever one may think about the war, one should ask when the mission will be over and when the troops can come home. Are we going to stay indefinitely? While it is nice that we are building Iraq, what about America? And what about the cost? Why do the Americans have to foot the bill when we can ill afford it? These are all legitimate questions to ask.

She also has a clear perspective on where the crackdown on dissent within the GOP fits in the history of recent political scandals:

[W]hat I find disturbing is that we are criticized for nothing more than the exercise of our constitutional rights. those who disagree with any aspect of the administration are branded as traitors and must be silenced. i thought the previous administration was bad because of the amorality. this is far worse

You can drop her a line and let her know what you think about all this.