Demagogue

The Associated Press reports on a debate among candidates in a North Carolina congressional district:

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller 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.

... 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 ....

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'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.