It doesn't take much effort to figure out that GOP candidate for governor of Florida, Bill McCollum, is a sleazy piece of work. His involvement with George "Rent Boy" Rekers as an paid "expert" witness for the state in failed litigation to block gay adoption speaks volumes by itself. Yet McCollum - apparently in a desperate play to garner the ultra-far right and Christo-fascist vote - has gone a step further and endeavored to revive the anti-gay adoption debate. Never mind that recent studies such as the one done at the University of Virginia have documented that children of same-sex couples do just as well developmentally as their compatriots in heterosexual headed homes. Like all true bigots, McCollum isn't one to let objective facts get in the way of his shrill demagoguery. Even the Pensacola News Journal found McCollum's latest behavior reprehensible and let him have it in an editorial over the weekend. Here are some highlights:*
There are few things as dangerous as a desperate politician frantic to elbow past an election opponent to grab votes on the extreme edge of a political party's "base." Case in point: Bill McCollum.
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Entering the race for the GOP nomination for governor, it probably never occurred to the lifelong conservative that another Republican could successfully run to his right. But billionaire Rick Scott, unknown to most Floridians just a few months ago, dumped tens of millions of dollars from his personal fortune into the race, and suddenly McCollum was looking — at least to right-wing GOP voters — like the "liberal" candidate in the race. So McCollum veered right, with his first target being illegal immigrants, a sure-fire GOP vote-getter already usurped by Scott.
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But now McCollum is onto one of the right's most reliable political boogeymen: homosexuals. In an interview last week, McCollum — as attorney general currently losing the state's court case to retain a ban on homosexual adoption — lashed out against gay foster parents, saying that their legal right to take in foster children should be revoked.
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McCollum has revealed just how desperate he is to win the GOP primary, even if it means trampling on the foster parent program. With a constant need for both foster parents and adoptive parents, the last thing these children need is for the state to go backward.
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Of course, Christianists and political opportunists like McCollum in reality don't give a rat's ass about children in need of stable and loving homes. Rather, it's all about inflicting their religious based prejudices on all citizens. The needs of children be damned..
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