For another awesome example of what I call the New American Politics, check this out:
Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) has conceded that he did tell a North Carolina crowd that “liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God,” even though he initially denied making such a statement.
Now he says he didn’t mean it that way and he was just trying to rev up a campaign rally.
“I genuinely did not recall making the statement and, after reading it, there is no doubt that it came out completely the wrong way. I actually was trying to work to keep the crowd as respectful as possible, so this is definitely not what I intended,” Hayes said in a statement for Politico.
The comments were first reported by the New York Observer. When Politico linked to the Observer story on Monday evening, Hayes’ spokeswoman Amanda Little called and denied the report. Observer reporter Jason Horowitz told Politico he stood firmly behind the story. Politico left the quote in The Crypt blog but added the Hayes denial.
On Tuesday, two more reporters and two other witnesses confirmed the quote, but Little continued to deny it, calling the story “irresponsible journalism.” Little said she had just as many sources who would deny it, including Hayes’ staff and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who spoke before Hayes.
But then Politico obtained an audio file of the Hayes quote from radio reporter Lisa Miller of WFAE. Little backed down, saying that Hayes must have misspoken.
There was one small difference between the actual quote and the Observer quote. The Observer had missed that Hayes had included “and accomplish” in his comment, reporting it instead as, “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.”
Embarressing lies and hate-mongering. Hayes’ claim that he was just trying to rev up a campaign rally reminds me of this:
Last weekend, the chairman of the Republican Party in Virginia climbed on a folding chair and addressed campaign volunteers with a rallying cry linking Senator Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden. “Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon,” said the chairman, Jeffrey M. Frederick. “That is scary.”
The comment, exaggerating Mr. Obama’s association with the 1960s radical William Ayers, was reported by Karen Tumulty in Time magazine and it set off a commotion in the blogosphere.
Contacted on Monday, a spokesman for the Virginia Republican Party offered this defense: Mr. Frederick was quoting Rush Limbaugh.
“He saw a guy with a Rush Limbaugh shirt on, and he was trying to fire up the troops,” said Gerry Scimeca, the spokesman. “He was making a larger point about who’s prepared to lead the nation. It was a vivid way to drive the point home.”
At what point is it reasonable to accuse these people of trying to foment violence against this country?