The American Spectator

Left-wing rage over Georgia Rep. John Barrow’s vote against ObamaCare has reportedly prompted the powerful MoveOn.org political action committee to target him for defeat in this year’s Democratic primary.

Barrow was among those “Blue Dog” Democrats slammed last summer by MoveOn.org radio ads that said when he “recently had a chance to help fix our health care crisis … [he] sided with the special interests and insurance companies.” Sources in Georgia tell the American Spectator that MoveOn.org’s PAC has already purchased time on Savannah stations for more anti-Barrow ads.

Barrow has been under steady fire by his Democratic primary opponent, former state Sen. Regina Thomas. “We’re getting lies and more lies… . Six years of lies is enough,” Thomas told supporters last week. Other Democrats are also reported to be considering primary challenges to Barrow, whose vote against the president’s health-care plan has cost him support among black voters in the 12th District.

The challenge from Thomas — now apparently backed by MoveOn.org, rumored to be prepared to spend a six-figure sum to defeat the incumbent in the July 20 Democratic primary — represents the left side of the political bind in which Barrow now finds himself pinched. On the right side, five Republicans are seeking the nomination to face Barrow (or Thomas) in the general election. The latest addition to the GOP primary field is Ray McKinney, a nuclear power project manager who placed second in the 2008 primary to John Stone, who isn’t running this year.

Such are the pressures on Barrow that some Georgia Republicans now believe that the Democrat may be contemplating a switch to the GOP, which would set up a divisive situation much like that in Alabama’s 5^th District, where national Republican support for party-switcher Parker Griffith has enraged grassroots GOP activists.