I just read this on Bloomberg:
In the end a 40-minute delay in the vote was broken after the Republican leadership convinced Representative Robin Hayes of North Carolina to switch his vote to yes.
Yup, that's my Congressman for you.
CAFTA is hugely unpopular here in NC and some of our Republicans broke ranks and voted against it. But not Hayes. After months of speaking against CAFTA, he caved under pressure. I've only lived here two months and I can already tell he's a weak vessel.
Here's a little story. I was in the Detroit airport, waiting for my flight home to my new home in Charlotte, and watching CNN. Some slack-jawed yokel was on there maintaining that Saddam sure as heck did have something to do with 9/11. Even the CNN host gave him some shit but he stuck to his guns. I didn't recognize Hayes on sight, but then I read the caption at the bottom of the screen. Nice first introduction to my Congressman, yo.
...what I wanna know is, who's going to challenge this Gitmo-loving uber-moron? I can't find reference to a challenger anywhere online and the Observer didn't mention anyone definite as a challenger in its recent article about the Hayes race:
Hayes is on both parties' lists mostly because he's a Republican representing a district with many more registered Democrats (195,452) than Republicans (118,069). Unaffiliated voters in the 8th District total 71,963.
The ratio of Democrats to Republicans in his district hasn't kept Hayes -- a wealthy member of the Cannon textile family -- from easily outspending and outpolling his past two opponents. And so far, no Democrats have announced plans to challenge him in 2006. A few names have surfaced as possibilities -- including state Rep. Rick Glazier of Fayetteville and Charlotte lawyer Chris Kouri, who ran an energetic campaign against Hayes in 2002, only to lose 54 percent to 45 percent.
Hoping to scare away any formidable Democratic opposition, national Republicans and their allies have already begun funneling money to Hayes' campaign. He is among 18 House Republicans receiving contributions from the so-called "Million Dollar Club" -- a dozen business PACs representing Wal-Mart, R.J. Reynolds, UPS, Pfizer and others. He's also one of 10 House Republicans considered at risk enough to get a piece of the $1.62 million raised by his colleagues in this election cycle as part of the Retain Our Majority Program campaign.
Hell, if he's not gone by 2008, I'LL run against him.
But with his stunning CAFTA betrayal, he should be toast.