Yesterday I gave you background on Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and why I think Republican Primary voters must unite to defeat him.

Let me give you some more today.

Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) is one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress. He is unapologetic in his demands for smaller government. He has no shame in defying Republicans leaders in Congress, routinely voting against the party and in favor of budget cutting legislation. The guy is a conservative hero in Congress.

Last year, after Georgia’s Lt. Governor dropped out of the Georgia Governor’s race, the presumption was that Lynn Westmoreland would jump into the race and become the front runner. John Oxendine started calling Westmoreland repeatedly. The calls became so regular and so harassing, Congressman Westmoreland finally had to tell Oxendine to stop calling because Westmoreland would not under any circumstance ever endorse Oxendine.

Let’s step back for just a minute.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, Lynn Westmoreland served as an advisor for an insurance company. He was not paid. He had little policy influence. But he lent his name. The company was called SE US Insurance. Westmoreland served from 2001-2002.

Fast forward to 2007, five years after Westmoreland disassociated from the insurance company. SE US Insurance got into trouble and in 2009 was shut down.

As Icarus over at Peach Pundit notes, on December 9, 2009, John Oxendine called Westmoreland again to tell him Southeastern U.S. Insurance was being shut down and Oxendine questioned Westmoreland’s involvement.

Westmoreland pointed out that he had left the unpaid advisory board in 2002. Oxendine claimed to be satisfied and said it would just be terrible were it made public that Westmoreland had such a connection.

Let me quote Icarus:

So it was rather strange, this week, for Congressman Westmoreland to get a call from Georgia Public Television asking for his comment on his involvement in the failure of Southeastern US Insurance. Strange because the reporter listed his source as one John Oxendine, Insurance Commissioner. The man who pledged in an earlier call to do everything in his power to keep Lynn’s role from the press was now calling GPTV (the press?) to put pressure on Westmoreland. The reporter emphasized Westmoreland was not the subject of wrongdoing, but it was just what his exact role was that was the subject of the investigation.

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot?

Lynn Westmoreland had not done anything wrong, and had disassociated himself from the organization almost a decade ago. But because Westmoreland would not endorse Oxendine, Oxendine took it upon himself to try to smear Westmoreland, one of the true good guys, in the press.

How do we know all of this? Because Lynn Westmoreland decided to speak up.

Oh, and just two years ago, Oxendine took campaign contributions from the head of Southeastern U.S. Insurance Company. He didn’t mention that to the Georgia Public Television reporter.

John Oxendine must be defeated for the sake of the Georgia Republican Party.