This week's column: Vim and venom
The following is an expanded and updated version of an earlier blog post:
Vernon Robinson seems to be having such a good time right now he can't help himself.
The GOP challenger to Democrat Brad Miller in the 13th Congressional District, Robinson lobs one memorable stink bomb after another on the Miller campaign with clever but mean-spirited commercials that play like bits from Dave Chappelle's show.
Spots on illegal immigration feature mariachi bands and a parody of "The Beverly Hillbillies" theme song. ("Well, the first thing you know ol's Brad's a congress-man, with all the sneaky aliens eating from his hand. …")
Then there are classic, oldie-but-goodie riffs on "The Twilight Zone" and "Leave It to Beaver" from his last congressional campaign.
Among highlights from Robinson's meeting last week in a 60-minute interview with the News & Record that stretched into 90:
He took the GOP-controlled Congress to task for driving "fiscal reality into the ground" but he supports staying in Iraq as long as it takes to "fight it out and beat the bad guys."
He said he missed the opportunity to have a side-by-side interview with Miller at the News & Record because he didn't get the message in time from his staff.
"It was an administrative foul-up," he said of the Sept. 8 interview, which Miller had consented would feature both candidates. "I would have loved the chance to excel."
After back-and-forth haggling over possible debates with Miller, Robinson confirmed that he has agreed to joint appearances with the incumbent on WRAL (Channel 5) in Raleigh, WTVD (Channel 11) in Durham and WXII (Channel 12) in Winston-Salem.
When asked why his ad campaign is so relentlessly nasty, he noted that Miller's last Republican opponent, Virginia Johnson of Greensboro, ran "googly-bear ads and was crushed."
A big, beefy bear of a man himself, Robinson added: "You have to give people a reason to fire (Miller)."
The country's leaky borders could be fixed lickety-split, he said, with the right military help. "We could secure the borders by midnight with 5,000 Marines and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)," he said.
He said the Bush administration "has punted" on enforcement and said he would "hammer employers hard" with fines and jail time on immigration violations.
"The government needs to send a clear signal that we're not tolerating this anymore," he said.
On the fact that he does not live in the district in which he is running, Robinson said, "It's a nonissue. The reason I don't live in the district is because Brad drew the district."
Robinson is right. While a member of the state Senate, Miller was chairman of a legislative redistricting committee that created the boundaries for the 13th District, where he has won the seat twice.
It is "irrelevant" where he lives, Robinson added.
"Quite frankly, I could do a better job of representing the 13th District on the moon than Brad Miller because his values are off the chart."
Robinson, an Air Force veteran and Air Force Academy graduate, also lamented that so few U.S. leaders or their families are serving in the military.
"We have a Congress and an executive branch largely made up of people who never served. Of the 15 members in North Carolina's delegation, one served. In Congress as a whole, 25 percent served and it's dropping like a rock. Not only that, but their children are not serving. This is not Teddy Roosevelt's America anymore."
All four of Roosevelt's sons served in the military; one was killed in action.
Robinson, who is African American, discussed his strategy to break the Democrats' stranglehold on the black vote. "Ninety-five percent of black voters voted for Brad," Robinson said.
A campaign mailer aimed at black voters attacks Miller for living in a predominantly white neighborhood and frames abortion as a form of genocide against black people. That's evidence, Robinson said, that Miller is out of touch with black voters.
Finally, he insisted that Sixth District Rep. Howard Coble of Greensboro has endorsed him even though Coble's people don't quite describe it in those terms.
Coble's PAC has given Robinson's campaign $1,000, Coble's office confirmed, describing it as "support." Pressed on the issue, however, a Coble spokesman admitted that's splitting hairs. "It would be pretty disingenuous to write a check for $1,000 and not call it an endorsement," Coble's chief of staff, Ed McDonald, said last week.
McDonald added: "Just because we've contributed to Robinson's campaign doesn't mean we agree with everything he says. Absolutely not."
In fact, Coble's PAC has given donations to all of the Republicans in North Carolina who are running for Congress.
Said Robinson: "Howard is solidly behind me."
Someone once asked me, as a person who has known Robinson for more than 20 years, if I think he actually believes all of his wild-and-woolly rhetoric. Which, in many cases, takes generous liberty with the facts.
Most of it, I would guess, although his message is much more caustic than in the old days. Back then, during his time as a professor at Winston-Salem State University, he seemed more concerned with vouchers and charter schools. He was relentless but not nearly as in-your-face.
Always, however, Robinson has been a political junkie who has won only one elective office in his life, as a member of the Winston-Salem City Council.
But winning almost seems to be a bonus. Robinson appears to enjoy the journey as much as the destination. And, as distastefully over-the-top as his campaign ads have been, they are wicked, memorable and, well, inspired.
He has tapped effectively into campaigning and raising money on the Internet, an inspiration he credits in part, ironically, to Howard Dean.
You could see him making cash hand over fist as a Rovelike tactician for someone someday. But I wouldn't bet on it.
Robinson strikes you as someone who would only want to be a strategist for Vernon Robinson.
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