Today in Republican Asshattery

First up, Chris Shays. [H/T to FDL]

After last Friday's debate with his opponent, Jim Himes, Shays was approached by a constituent who lost his job, lost value in his 401(k), and has a mortgage that he needs to pay. Instead of engaging in a conversation to talk about what the individual's options are, or to even lend some kind of sympathy to the matter, Shays insists on pointing to a pamphlet which shows his record on housing assistance. At one point, he just tells the individual that there's nothing he can do and lets his staff run with the rest of it. Unfortunately, I can't find a transcript for the entire thing, but the key points of the dialogue are captioned in the video.


Next up, Robin Hayes. [H/T to ThinkProgress]

At a McCain rally, the New York Observer filed this report on what Hayes had to say to the crowd:

“It’s like black and white,” someone in the crowd at the Cabarrus Arena & Events Center yelled out, laughing. McHenry let the remark pass and finished his speech. He yielded the microphone to Representative Robin Hayes, who prefaced his comments by saying it was important to “make sure we don’t say something stupid, make sure we don’t say something we don’t mean.” Republicans, he reminded the crowd, were kind people. Plus, he added, the liberal media had shown itself eager to distort such remarks. With the crowd duly chastened and put on best behavior, he accused Obama of “inciting class warfare” and said that “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.”

Yes, you read that correctly. He said not to say something stupid prior to his saying something blindingly fucking stupid.

In response to the story, Hayes' spinmeister tried to clean up his mess:

Hayes spokeswoman, Amanda Little says that Hayes absolutely denies making the comments that appear in the Observer article. She noted that other national reporters were at the event and didn't pick up on what the Observer reported.

The Hayes camp didn't have enough of their shit together that in 2008, someone's speech can be very easily captured and placed on something we call the Internet.


Only after this obvious proof was presented did Hayes finally concede to having made the statement which he completely denied. Of course, his concession made even less sense:

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.

It's great that someone who would have the temerity to say something so ridiculous wouldn't have an ounce of courage to stand behind it.

Another shining example of Republican asshattery.