A struggling economy. Soaring gas prices. An unending war in Iraq. U.S. Rep. Sam Graves skipped the country's critical issues when he launched his first attack ad against former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes. Instead, the Missouri congressman went for fearmongering in ads that played like Rush Limbaugh's greatest hits. "Yes to same-sex marriage," the narrator said as two women danced to lame disco music with a presumably gay, cowboy-hat-wearing illegal immigrant. "Yes to abortion. Yes to amnesty for illegal immigrants." The message was clear: The good, God-fearing people of northwest Missouri had nothing gay to fear as long as they re-elected Graves. His second ad hit Barnes for appearing as a '50s-era homemaker on the cover of Camp, a Kansas City magazine that covers gay issues. The narrator intoned: "The Kansas City Gay Pride Club supports Kay Barnes' agenda to make same-sex marriage the law in Missouri." Graves defiantly stood by his ads: "My opponent wants to spend all of her time out in San Francisco raising money," Graves told us in June. "That's the values that she reflects, so we're going to point that out."