Incumbent Republican Robin Hayes Lies, Whines and Lies Some More

I must admit I read Republican Congressman Robin Hayes' whine-fest in the Fayetteville Observer yesterday and my jaw hit the floor. Could the man sound any more like he knows he is losing? Wow.

Let's break it down:

Robin Hayes says the No. 1 issue this election is not Iraq. It’s the skyrocketing cost of gasoline.

The Republican from Concord says one way to begin lowering energy costs is to open more areas in the U.S. to drilling. The five-term incumbent agrees with President Bush and this year’s presumptive GOP nominee, John McCain, who are calling for more drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“My opponent won’t allow drilling,” Hayes said in a telephone interview.

His opponent won't allow drilling? Well, that's lie #1. Larry has never said he won't allow drilling on the millions of acres oil companies already have access to. He, like Heath Shuler, thinks the oil and gas companies need to account for their lack of drilling on the 68 million acres of federal land for which they already hold leases - land that reportedly could yield 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day.

Robin Hayes refuses to hold the oil industry accountable for their responsibility to utilize the land they already have access to. Instead, he wants to place our beautiful shoreline at risk . Of course, the fact that he owns up to $23 million in oil stocks and has received well over $200,000 in money to fund his campaigns from the oil industry could explain why Robin Hayes is open to giving away so much of our land without holding the big oil companies accountable. Larry Kissell wants to hold big oil accountable. He wants them to pump out the oil and natural gas they already have access to before giving them more land.

That's right, it's Democrat Larry Kissell who is demanding accountability and Republican Robin Hayes who is just posturing during an election cycle. Remember that whole E-85 gimmick he tried last cycle? Fill up with E-85 often, Congressman? How'd that work out for us? Did you succeed in lowering the price of gas for us the past two years? If you don't remember that stunt, that was when Robin Hayes proposed tax breaks (another Republican handout) to gas stations if they would equip to sell more E-85. He let that legislation die in committee. Very effective, Congressman Hayes. Very effective.

Let's continue with the Fay-O article, shall we?

Some people thought Hayes would win more handily in 2006 against Kissell, who was then a political newcomer with little backing from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Hayes said he wasn’t surprised. “It was just an unusual circumstance. As you look at it, we had a low turnout in my home county.”

Waaaaah. That's right, Congressman Hayes. We had a blue moon election cycle. You were at the top of the ticket and it was your responsibility to get out the vote. Great ground game you had there, Congressman. It's got to suck that your homies aren't inspired to vote for you unless there is someone else leading the ticket to bring them out to the polls.

Unfortunately for Hayes, though, it wasn't just the total number of voters that hurt his haul on election day in 2006. A smaller percentage of them were voting for him. In the two prior election cycles, Hayes had pulled in 68% of the vote in Cabarrus County. That dropped to 60% in 2006. I expect that number is even lower in this cycle's polling.

In the Fay-O article, Hayes promises to keep things as negative and nasty as he did in 2006.

Hayes said he won’t be doing anything differently in his campaign rematch.

That negativity is one reason so many Reagan Democrats and moderate Republicans in the district have turned away from Hayes. He sent out 6-8 glossy color mailers and only one promotional while the others were nasty, negative attack ads against Larry Kissell. Two ads used one of my copyrighted photographs without my permission. (more about that later)

Hayes, tries to defend his pitiful performance by attacking Larry again.

Kissell and previous Democratic challengers have said the job losses are one reason voters want change in Congress.

Hayes said Kissell’s complaints fail to take into account the jobs in different fields that have been created in the district.

“His main objective is to criticize and complain,” Hayes said. “We are working very hard not to lose jobs.”

No, Congressman Hayes, Larry's objective is to get elected and sometimes that entails pointing out your dismal record in Washington. He doesn't have to rely on ads that are a play on words, half-truths or blatant lies, Congressman Hayes. Larry can simply point out your miserable performance as a Bush lap-dog congressman.

I can't tell you how absurd it sounds to read that the man who fast-tracked as many manufacturing jobs to other countries as he could is, "working very hard not to lose jobs." North Carolina's 8th District is hemorrhaging jobs and Hayes thinks all he has to do is to staunch the flow. How about creating jobs, Congressman - and not jobs that will be taken by scientists moving into the 8th District, but jobs that workers in this district are either already qualified to hold or that they can fairly quickly train to perform. How about jobs that don't require a laid-off mill worker to go get an advanced degree.

You know, when I started writing this, I was going to make it funny. There is nothing funny about what Congressman Robin Hayes and his fellow Republicans have done to North Carolina's 8th District. Not a damn thing funny about it at all.