So long as you're not being divisive about it...

Picking up where Katherine Harris-wannabee Rep. Michele Bachmann left off, Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) told a campaign crowd in North Carolina on Saturday that

"liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God."

Making matters worse, Rep. Hayes (by the way, "Robin?" Really?) initially denied making the odious statement quite vociferously, though he has since been confronted with an audio tape of his speech and has been forced to admit it.

His defense now is that "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.” Yeah, good one.

Thanks to our friends at Politico and The New York Observer for bringing this mendacity to light.

My favorite part of the article is that Hayes had followed Rep. Patrick McHenry, also a North Carolina Republican, who laid out the choice between McCain and Obama.

"It's like black and white," yelled someone from the crowd.

Subtle.