How can Wendell Fant claim to be a Progressive?

Wendell Fant, the man with self-admitted ethics issues who is trying to get on the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate to challenge his former employer, incumbent Democratic Congressman Larry Kissell, claims to be an ardent supporter of progressive policies. Yet no more than a month ago, Mr. Fant was publicly supporting Kissell's "NO" vote on the Health Care Reform bill. And, while I was in Raleigh last week, I heard a rumor from legislative aides that Mr. Fant was calling around asking people what the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was. It seems to me that supporting a petition drive to put an ethically challenged opponent to Health Care Reform who doesn't even know what the Stimulus Bill is hardly constitutes sound stewardship of the dues of the hard working members of SEIU and SEANC. While it is questioable that a legitimate progressive, unaffiliated challenger in this race would do anything more than hand the seat to a Republican, running a fake progressive who does not support or even have knowledge of the progressive agenda can only serve to hurt the progressive movement. No sensible person would ever consider this a serious challenge.