Artur Davis, former Alabama Democratic representative and candidate for governor, has taken another step toward earning his Republican stripes. The recent convert weighed in on Vice President Joe Biden's controversial remarks about how the Republican Party's alleged goal to "unshackle" the nation's banking system would put "y'all back in chains" before a largely African-American audience at a campaign event in Virginia the day before.
"When I heard him reach to the bottom of the deck and talk about one party putting people in chains, when I heard someone that I admired and had been on platforms with talk about ordinary conservative principles as being essential racial viciousness, because that’s the allegation he was making yesterday, I was disappointed by it," Davis said on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. "It's a divisive tactic that's insulting to African-Americans," Davis said. "It's insulting to the American people. It's insulting to the legacy that he used to build up as an orator who used to know how to inspire people instead of strike fear in people's heart."

The former lawmaker is also hitting the trail for the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee in Virginia on Wednesday to "discuss Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s bold ideas to strengthen the middle class and deal with our long-term debt."

Davis served four terms in Congress and left after his 2010 failed bid for governor in his home state. He was a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats and the only African-American lawmaker to vote against President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act. Davis, who was a national co-chairman of Barack Obama's first presidential campaign and seconded his nomination at the Democratic National Convention in 2008, announced his party switch in May.
"I think the Obama administration has candidly gone too far to the left. You can raise all kinds of questions on whether that's good politics or not," Davis explained Tuesday on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. "Obviously the election will determine that."

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(Photo: Birmingham News /Landov)