Over at The City Paper, Pierce Greenberg reports that Brad Staats, the former GOP candidate who ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Congressman Jim Cooper in Tennessee's 5th District, was arrested early Sunday morning for allegedly slapping his wife.

From the CP:

Staats, a Republican, admitted to police that he “pushed his wife ... down onto a bed then left the location,” according to a Metro Nashville Police Department affidavit. The report also indicates that Staats' wife Bethany called police to their Hermitage home and told police Staats slapped her. “Ms. Staats did have a red mark on her left cheek consistent with her statement,” the affidavit reads. The former Republican candidate for Tennessee's 5th District was booked into Davidson County Jail at 3:39 a.m. on Sunday morning. Staats, 43, was charged with one count of misdemeanor domestic assault, posted a $5,000 bond and was released.

Back in August, I profiled Staats, a self-described "family-matters" conservative whom party officials described as a "top-tier candidate." He attracted national headlines last month, when he posted a picture of a gun on his Facebook page with a caption in defense of the Second Amendment including the message "Welcome to Tennessee, Mr. Obama."

Later, in an interview with the Tennessean, he was shocked at the suggestion that he might have been alluding to violence, telling the daily that he's "not one of those that would ever threaten the president."