Posted on 10/17/2006 8:07:39 PM PDT by jern
By MIKE BAKER, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 39 minutes ago
U.S. Rep. Brad Miller (news, bio, voting record) chuckled through most of the first debate with his Republican challenger, who led a tense and often awkward discussion about sex-related issues Tuesday.
Vernon Robinson, who has run a series of brash advertisements about the two-term Democratic congressman, charged that Miller wants to import homosexuals to the United States and supported scientific studies that would pay teenage girls to watch pornography.
"Those are San Francisco values, not North Carolina values," said Robinson, repeating a common theme of his campaign.
A bemused Miller countered by blasting Robinson for a campaign mailer that implicitly suggested the congressman was gay and criticized Miller for being "childless." Miller's wife had a hysterectomy more than two decades ago.
"It's clear that Vernon Robinson is obsessed with sex," Miller said after the 40-minute debate, which also touched on issues ranging from Iraq to North Korea to illegal immigration.
During the debate, Robinson complained that Miller was one of 129 co-sponsors of a bill that would have allowed homosexuals to bring their partners to the United States.
After the debate, Miller acknowledged supporting the bill and said the measure would have produced "a form of a civil union. It is a limited, modest, legal recognition of a long-term relationship so we aren't forcing gays to be in temporary, casual relationships."
Robinson repeatedly talked about how Miller voted in 2003 to support a package of research grants for the National Institutes of Health, noting that they contained research on the sexual arousal of girls, the masturbation habits of old men and other sex-themed studies.
While Robinson asked voters to look at Miller's record in Congress, Miller asked voters to look at Robinson's record in campaigns.
"They know every campaign he runs consists of things he just makes up, wild distortions or ridiculous exaggerations," Miller said. "The voters of this district have already figured out that this is what this campaign's about."
Robinson, a former university business professor, began his political career in 1988 with an unsuccessful run for the state Senate. He's entered about a dozen races for office, including North Carolina superintendent of public instruction, the state House and his local board of education.
Robinson's deep conservative convictions helped him win a spot on the Winston-Salem City Council in 1997. While he earned re-election four years later, he was ousted last year after he erected a 1-ton monument of the Ten Commandments in front of city hall.
ping
Okay, why would anybody want to import homosexuals when there's a good-sized supply of domestic poofs?
Arrrgggh. Somebody better fire the opp researcher.
"why would anybody want to import homosexuals "
Don't you know French homosexuals are higher class?
Robinson is great when it comes to ads. He has some really funny ones.
Ya know, some people are just plain scumbags. Attack the man's ideas, not his wife's uterus. Why in tha hell would you even mention his kids or lack of kids in the first place?"
And I don't care who is of what party, have people no sense of decency anymore? If the south was still Southern a duel would be in order
Just asking. I am not in NC now, but I am in Coble's district anyway, so it wouldn't have been mailed to my NC address.
Facts don't matter to Robinson.
He did the same thing last election.
It has been a huge embarassment to this state.
Don't feel bad about it...my state has given the world Fred Phelps...maybe we could swing a three-way trade for a prospect outfielder
No! We just got rid of John Edwards, sort of!
Robinson is a nutjob. He's basically like a Republican Maxine Waters.
I wish we had a few more Steeles' and Watts' and a few less Robinsons.
He's worse than she is; he should know better.
I agree......... decency is taking a back seat.
I asked the same question as you when Ann Coulter surmised that the Jersey Girls were enjoying their husbands' deaths, and then asked the world on Vannity and Colmes how we knew that their husbands weren't going to DIVORCE them before 9/11.
Annie was stone cold wrong, but many here could not and cannot admit that.
But overall she's great. I have three of her books.
But those remarks of hers were pathetic and uncouth.
Makes me wonder how she was raised.
;-)
She'll be much better in about ten years.
Vernon Robinson BUMP!
Man, I hope he wins. Miller is a real scumbag.
By the way, I didn't realize that the AP was publishing opinion columns these days. I never heard of this "Mike Baker" before, but his column clearly seems to be written from the viewpoint of a sodomite.
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