Brad Miller, NC-13 v. Gun-totin' Shit-slinging Vern

Well, folks, old "one bullet, no gun" Robinson is up to his old tricks again. This time he claims that Brad Miller voted to allow child molesters to migrate into this country. Looking back on his past campaigns, it appears he's running out of unbelievable material - like calling Virginia Foxx a liberal - and he's now churning out crap that even turns Republicans against him.

Every pundit and expert I checked from Charlie Cook to Chris Cilliza has said that Miller is safe. Every person who's ever campaigned against a challenger like Robinson knows you don't listen to that. You have to campaign to win, so the good and honorable Brad Miller is having to put up with these unbelievable claims and outright lies being flung from Vernon Robinson.

Robinson has sent out a fundraising email. I will include as much as I can.

In business if someone isn't performing in their job, you fire them. Well unfortunately, we have yo wait 100 more days before we as citizens can stand up and tell Brad Miller, "You're fired!"

The truth is Brad Miller has voted FOR open borders, FOR amnesty for illegal aliens, FOR homosexual marriage, FOR flag burning, FOR higher taxes, FOR extreme gun control, FOR partial birth abortion, and FOR taking"under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and FOR allowing foreign alien child molesters to migrate to the United States.

That doesn't sound like a Congressman who is performing his job of serving the people of his district and his country. It sounds more like a Congressman who cares more about the support of his radical left-wing friends than he does about the people he supposedly serves!

Vernon Robinson has made a joke out of his candidacy. Even among Republicans there are those who consider him an embarrassment. Looking at all the information available online, this isn't a new phenomenon. The only people on the right who seem to get a kick out of Vernon Robinson are the people you wouldn't want your son or daughter to bring home to meet you.

Recently the chairman of the group, African American Ministers in Action (AAMIA) spoke out against Robinson. In a piece from May of this year the Reverend Tim McDonald had this to say:

Vernon Robinson’s divisive and intolerant rhetoric is profoundly disappointing. I had hoped that by the 21st Century our nation would have advanced beyond such vitriol. One of the Vernon Robinson ads places many of our American brothers and sisters in the same category as Osama bin Laden. Another implies that Latino immigrants are trying to take over our country. One says that ‘black hoodlums need to stop stealing and start getting jobs.’ Others are explicitly anti-gay. This sort of rhetoric is low-minded and designed to pit one group against another. It is simply unacceptable.

God commands us to love our neighbors and to avoid bearing false witness against them. Regrettably, Vernon Robinson’s rhetoric does neither.

Re-read that if you missed the part where the good Reverend basically calls Vernon Robinson a liar. "God commands us to love our neighbors and to avoid bearing false witness against them. Regrettably, Vernon Robinson's rhetoric does neither." That's pretty powerful standing on its own. But there's more, much more.

In February 2005 Robinson spoke at Bowdoin College in Maine. He had been invited by the College Republicans to celebrate Black History Month and not every conservative on campus was happy about it - but not for the reasons you might imagine. An op-ed by staff of The Bowdoin Orient wrote:

The proper and strongest argument against the College Republicans' decision to host Vernon Robinson isn't that he was offensive or failed to properly "celebrate" Black History Month. It is that he offered absolutely nothing constructive.

:::snip:::

From evidence gathered Tuesday night, Vernon Robinson is a caricature of a conservative thinker, not an actual one. And in hosting him the College Republicans managed to reinforce unfortunate stereotypes of conservatives as bigots, reactionaries, and hurlers of incendiary slogans. Thoughtful conservatives should consider this sort of solicited representation negligent on the part of our ostensible on-campus leadership.

:::snip:::

And so the cost of Vernon's visit goes well beyond his honorarium. It is the opportunity lost to invite someone who has real intellectual heft—someone who has the power and purpose to change minds. All Vernon Robinson did was harden what was already in people's minds.

The words speak for themselves. This piece is nicely written by a student who admits to being a conservative himself. So, according to a conservative, Vernon Robinson is a caricature of a Republican with no real intellectual heft and has nothing constructive to add. Ouch. Double Ouch. Go read the entire piece. It will be worth your time.

Back in 2004 in a conservative publication, The American Daily, a guest editorialist claimed that Vernon Robinson was bad for Bush. The writer was the Policy Advisor for the chapter of College Republicans at Duke University.

The Robinson campaign is best characterized as highly negative. The councilman joined Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado in criticizing President George W. Bush on immigration policy. Robinson even stated that the Republican Party was to blame for America’s immigration crisis. The rhetoric was so hot that former U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp withdrew his endorsement of Robinson. It was later reported by NCRumors.com that the Bush campaign quietly informed Robinson’s staff to resign for the sake of their careers.

Ouch, again. Robinson's staff encouraged to disassociate themselves from Robinson by the very campaign that brought us Karl Rove? That's harsh. It's certainly understandable, though. It's hard for me to imagine that anyone with any decency would want to have their names forever linked with a Robinson campaign. But, that's just me.


Also in 2004 Mother Jones awarded Vernon Robinson the "Diddly Award". The flightless eagle award is given to the right-wing congressional candidate least likely to soar. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Fellow nominees included Alan Keyes, James Hart and Tom Coburn. Way to go , Vern! You must be so proud.

One of the best pieces I can find written during 2004 comes from World O'Crap where the writer dissects one of Vernon Robinson's fundraising emails sent through the NewsMax service. It is long and hilarious and worth a read.

Going way back to 2003, Vernon Robinson gave a speech (PDF) to the Florida chapter of The Christian Coalition. In the speech, Robinson whines and bemoans the fact that little Rickie Santorum wasn't shown any love by his fellow conservatives in Washington when he spoke out against homosexuals. Old Vern had this to say:

I saw what happened a few months ago when Senator Rick Santorum – a fine American if there ever were one -- made some very modest comments about homosexuals and the constitution. He said only what every person in this room knows to be true. But what happened? The homosexual activists and their willing friends in the news media attacked and vilified Rick Santorum as though he had said homosexuals should be castrated.

:::snip:::

What really upset me was that when Rick was attacked, I didn’t hear or see a single congressman or senator rise to his defense. They all ran like rats to find cover out of fear that they, too, would become a target – afraid that they, too, would be called a religious zealot, or a bigot, or something called a “homophobe”. Senator Santorum must have felt like the old Hebrew Lot, trying desperately to find one good man in all of Sodom. But no one stepped forward. They just hung him out to dry. Every conservative in that congress should have put his or her arms around Rick and said to the media, “Rick is absolutely right; now what are you going to do about it?”

That just did not happen.

Now, let's just pretend for a second that I'm Vernon Robinson. If I were Vernon Robinson do you know what I would do with this? I would take that passage where old Vern says those men should have been hugging little Rickie Santorum and I would say, "Vernon Robinson encourages members of congress to engage in homosexual acts." That's the Vernon Robinson approach to the truth. Ok, let's quit pretending I'm old Vern, because that's just gross.

With all of the negativity surrounding Vernon Robinson it's difficult, if not impossible to locate any substance to any of his campaigns. He never seems to represent anything positive. He's adept at raising large sums of money from out of state. Maybe that's because people living in North Carolina simply know better. It doesn't take long to tire of Robinson's tactics and the thought that he could wind up in Washington simply leaves me with a sick feeling.

Since Vernon Robinson doesn't have a record in Washington to talk about, we have to go back to his days serving on Winston-Salem's City Council. Basically, Robinson failed to show up to govern. From the Winston-Salem Journal in November 2005 we have this little tidbit:

Robinson was absent for seven of the public-safety committee's 15 meetings since
October 2003, according to city records of those meetings. He also did not attend 20 of the 22 meetings of the public-works committee, of which he is also a member.

In other words, Robinson doesn't show up. He gives the excuse that meetings were intentionally scheduled so that he would be home taking care of his family and would not be able to attend. Ahh, yes, Vern. Let's play the victim. Everyone's out to get old Vern.

The only other indication that Robinson lacks the necessary skills to abide by rules of ethics in congress is this report from the FEC listing the fine levied on the Robinson Campaign because Vernon Robinson failed to file his report. Sloppy bookkeeping? Intentional disregard for the law? Maybe Vernon Robinson will let us know why his campaign did not file the necessary reports with the FEC and then didn't respond to their request for the report. Or maybe, he'll just play the victim again and claim those reports were required at a time when he was licking his wounds. It's a conspiracy, right Vern?

The shit's getting deep here in North Carolina. Robinson has been relentless and is probably just getting started. While he plays dress-up and panders for the gun vote, Brad Miller is doing his job representing the people of the 13th Congressional District. While Vernon Robinson is trying to figure out which lie hasn't become stale from use in past campaigns, Brad Miller is working hard to lead our country in the right direction.

Brad Miller isn't my congressman but I'm very proud to have him representing my state. Maybe the right thing to do is to just ignore Vernon Robinson. I guess the way I look at it, Brad Miller is standing up for us in Washington so the least we can do is stand up for him when the shit is flying fast and furious from Vernon Robinson.

Join with me and let Brad Miller know that we're getting his back. Leave a comment or leave a contribution. Thanks everyone!