Starting the day with Howard Coble

I caught up with Rep. Howard Coble, the Republican who represents North Carolina's 6th Congressional District, at an 8 a.m. meeting with about a dozen people from a small business networking group at the State Farm Insurance office in northwest Greensboro.

The congressman obligingly responded to questions from the group, which included a couple professional photographers, folks in marketing and publishing ventures, a senior care business owner, a commercial real estate broker and a financial advisor. Most of their questions reflected national preoccupations: healthcare reform legislation, the breakdown in civility, the impact of the Tea Party movement on national politics, economic recovery and maintaining the solvency of entitlement programs.

One of the small business owners expressed the view that healthcare reform was needed, but the bill signed by President Obama undermines the good of reform by killing jobs. Another asked the congressman how he would design healthcare reform if it were in his hands.

"I would start all over," Coble said. "First of all, none of this ram-ram, 'you're gonna have it whether you like it or not.'.... From what my Republican colleagues have told me, it was a one-car, one-party funeral."

Several of the participants were concerned that the ugly tenor of some of the rhetoric from grassroots conservatives has discredited an otherwise sound message. Coble briefly discussed the Tea Party movement, which he described as "spirited" and "frustrated," but indicated he sees unaffiliated voters as a more formidable political force.

Coble is facing an unprecedented five challengers in the Republican primary this year. None has explicitly aligned themselves with the Tea Party movement, but all emphasize solid conservative credentials. Their campaign themes variously stress urgency, common sense and returning government to the control of the people.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has pledged an effort to "repeal and replace" the healthcare reform bill signed by Obama, but Coble counseled against unrealistic expectations. He predicted that no action will be taken until at least 2012, when Obama faces reelection. Like every other Republican member of the US House in the North Carolina delegation, Coble has urged NC Attorney General Roy Cooper to join a legal challenge against the healthcare bill on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. "As to whether they'll prevail," Coble said, "I don't know."

As usual, the congressman regaled his audience with folksy anecdotes. After one woman revealed that her husband had worked for Lorillard Tobbaco Co., Coble noted that he was a former user of Big Red chewing tobacco, "made by Lorillard — local product."

"I'm very high on Lorillard," Coble said, adding that he quit chewing tobacco after a tough conversation with his doctor. "He 'splained something to me."

A question about Greensboro's prospects prompted the congressman to go on at length about his friend and campaign treasurer, who also happens to be the city's mayor.

About Greensboro's outlook, Coble said, "I think favorable."

Then he noted that Mayor Bill Knight was mentioned in The New York Times.

"I was in the Coast Guard with Bill Knight," Coble said. "I've known Bill Knight for four decades.... I introduced him at the Natural Science Center. I said, 'During the time he was my accountant, I served not one day in jail.'"

The congressman's district schedule today included an 11 a.m. stop at the grand opening of the Precor manufacturing plant in Whitsett, and a string of appointments in Burlington, including lunch at Hursey's Barbecue, a 12:30 p.m. speech to an honors class at Walter M. Williams High School and a tour of the Firequip plant. The congressman will hold prescheduled appointments with constituents at his office in downtown Greensboro beginning at 3 p.m.