The Importance of Re-electing AG Mark Herring in 2017

Last evening, we attended a fundraiser for Attorney General Mark Herring at the home of our friends Tim Bostic and Tony London, the lead plaintiff's in Virginia's federal court marriage equality case that brought equal marriage rights to Virginia and state's within the 4th Circuit.  I was in a bit of a fog given my hand surgery yesterday morning and the prescription pain pills I was on (Rush Limbaugh's favorite!), but attended since we were on the host committee. It was a very nice evening and underscored why it is critical that Mark Herring be re-elected next year, especially since his likely opponent is right wing Republican Bob Bell whose positions are akin to those of Ken Cuccinelli, including his off the charts homophobia and disingenuous "family values" positions.  

Before Mark Herring made his remarks to those attending, Tim Bostic made an introduction which outlined the difference that Herring has brought to the office of the Attorney General.  Here are a few highlights from Tim's notes and statements which he was kind enough to share with me:

For 20 years the Republican Party had controlled the office of the Attorney General, using the job to increasingly pursue ideological agendas that ignored the needs and rights of their constituents.  The logical extreme was found in in Ken Cuccinelli, who went to court to fight against access to affordable access to health care insurance, to deny LGBT Virginians the equal treatment they deserve, to silence a UVA scientist . . . and to shut down health clinics for women.  In 2013, Virginians had had enough. They swept in a new team and they went to work.

Just 10 days after being sworn in, Mark Herring had a chance to show Virginians a different approach to the job, and to remind anyone who had forgotten after two decades of one-party control, that the Attorney General can stand up and fight for the people he represents.  He joined the fight for marriage equality, guaranteeing that Virginia would fight all the way to the Supreme Court for the fundamental rights of its people, when many times before, Virginia politicians had stood in the way. He has fought on the side of the people of Virginia every day since.  In case after case, his actions have been upheld, and they have made a real difference in the lives of Virginians.

Tim went on to list 15 different areas in which Mark Herring has brought positive change, ranging from making college more affordable, protecting women's clinic's from closure, addressing campus sexual violence, filing a brief with 22 other attorneys general to defend the Affordable Health Care Act, addressing heroin and prescription drug abuse, defending Virginia's Chesapeake Bay clean up plan, aiding Southwest Virginia landowners in receiving millions of dollars in natural gas royalties, seeking to hold big banks accountable for gambling with state retirement funds, brokering a deal to keep Sweet Briar College open, and establishing the first ethics and gift policy for his office. 

All these positives could be undone if Mark's likely Republican opponent, Del. Bob Bell, a would be Ken Cuccinelli clone, were to be elected in 2017.  On his own website, Bell makes it clear that, like Cuccinelli, his prime concern is pushing through special rights for far right Christians, including license to discriminate laws, diverting public education fund to private interests, unrestricted gun rights, and "states rights" under the 10th Amendment - an argument used throughout Virginia's history to support slavery, the Jim Crow laws, force prayer in schools, and, of course, open discrimination against LGBT Virginians.  Here's a sampling of what Bell's agenda would likely be via his website:

Rob Bell is pro-life.  In their most recent scorecard, he received a 100% rating from the Family Foundation.  

Rob also supports the traditional definition of marriage, and voted for Virginia’s Constitutional marriage amendment. He supports  . . . religious liberty.

Rob supports the ability of parents to make educational choices for their children.  In addition to supporting tax credits for school tuitions, he strongly supports home schooling.  . . .  Rob has repeatedly patroned the “Tebow Bill” to give home schoolers better access to extracurriculars at their local public high school.

Rob also supports school choice for public school students.  In 2012, he co-patroned House Bill 1626 to create tax credits for scholarships for students to attend private schools.  

Moreover, the 10th Amendment specifically states that all powers not delegated to the federal government “are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

In 2010, Rob co-patroned House Bill 10, which opposed the individual mandate in President Barack Obama’s health care law and helped form Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s legal challenge against it. 

Rob is also a strong supporter of the Second Amendment which he believes protects right of law-abiding citizens to own firearms for hunting, target shooting, self-defense, and other reasons. Rob is a gun owner, a concealed carry permit holder, an NRA member and a longtime member of the Rivanna Rifle & Pistol Club. He is rated ‘A’ by the NRA.

Rob also supports screening for illegal drugs to receive cash welfare benefits.  He thinks it is a terrible idea to give someone cash if they are addicted to methamphetamine or crack cocaine.

To garner a 100% score with The Family Foundation - a hate group in all but formal designation - Bell voted for a "personhood" bill that, if enacted, would have banned most forms of contraception in Virginia, and supports the closure of women's clinics that are often the sole source of health care for poor women.  He is obliviously an opponent of LGBT rights of any kind and uses the euphemism of religious liberty" to support special rights that place conservative Christians above the law. Similarly, Bell wants to shift public education funds to home schoolers and allow home schoolers on public school sports teams even as they reject the very same school educationally.  Common sense gun laws are anathema to Bell, and he would emulate costly drug testing laws of other states for welfare recipients where such tests have failed to turn up any drug abuse problems on the part of recipients.  Likewise, he opposes expanding health care for working class Virginians without health insurance.

What is remarkable - actually it's not with Christofascists - is that while Bell wears his supposed religiosity on his sleeve, most of his agenda is diametrically the opposite of what the Gospel message would call one to do. 

In short, having Bell in the office of the Attorney General would be a disaster.  Between now and the 2017 elections, be assured I will address this topic more and we have already offered to host one or more fundraisers for Mark Herring at our home. 

Anti-Gay Johnny Joannou Faces Primary Challenge

Challenger, Steve Heretick

Some would argue that Del. Johnny Joannou has been a Democrat in name only.   On important issues, he has repeatedly sided with far right Republicans in contrast to fellow Democrats.  On gay rights issues, Joannou has been most disappointing.  When Tracy-Thorne-Beglund was up for appointment to the bench in Richmond, Joannou failed to support him and took the coward's approach of not voting at all.  When Attorney General Mark Herring made the determination not to defend Virginia' foul Marshall-Newman Amendment, Joannou joined the Republican chorus of critics.  The political blog Blue Virginia has called Joannou outright homophobic.  And on an issue important to hundreds of thousands of Virginians - i.e., Medicaid expansion - Joannou again sided with the forces of backwardness in the Virginia GOP.  It is far past time that Joannou be pushed into retirement.  Thankfully, as the Virginian Pilot reports, Steve Heretick, a Portsmouth attorney and former Portsmouth city councilman, is challenging Joannou in the June 9th primary.  It is crucial that people turn out and vote for Heretick.  Here are highlights from the Pilot:

Voters might be more focused on beaches than ballots, but the June primary contest for this House of Delegates seat is high stakes.

That's because the Democrat who wins will likely have an easy road come November in the heavily Democratic 79th district, which covers parts of Portsmouth and Norfolk.

Del. Johnny Joannou, 75, a Portsmouth attorney and fixture in the statehouse for decades, is facing a rare challenge.

Steve Heretick, 54, a Portsmouth attorney and former Portsmouth city councilman, is looking to unseat him in the June 9 election.

Heretick is going after Joannou on two main issues: Medicaid expansion and tolls.

He criticized Joannou for being the only Democrat in the 2014 General Assembly session to vote against expanding Medicaid - as allowed under the president's Affordable Care Act - to insure as many as 400,000 low-income Virginians. The measure failed in the General Assembly.

"We have the best health care technology and close to half a million working people in this state who have already paid for it who can't access it because of people like Johnny Joannou," he said.

Heretick also accused Joannou of not doing enough to stop the tolls that started last year on the Downtown and Midtown tunnels. The tolls were the result of a deal brokered by former Gov. Bob McDonnell and the Virginia Department of Transportation with a private company to build a new Midtown Tunnel and other road projects.

Specifically, Heretick said Joannou could have used his status as a member of a powerful House budget committee to try to block the deal. Joannou is one of six budget "conferees" in the House.  "You get one of these issues in a generation - and he didn't do a thing," Heretick said.

 Again, if you live in the  79th district, which covers parts of Portsmouth and Norfolk, get out an vote for Steve Heretick.

Texas GOP Legislator Seeks "License to Discriminate" Against Gays

Campbell with Nutcase closet case, Rick Santorum

Jumping on the bandwagon of trying to legislate special rights for right wing Christian extremists, Texas state Sen. Donna Campbell (R) has introduced a proposal would strengthen existing protections in Texas for the “right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief."   While dressed up as a way to protect "religious freedom," Campbell's proposal seeks to create a license to discriminate.  While gays are perhaps the first intended target, non-Christians and minorities had best get prepared to face discrimination based on feigned religious belief.  As usual, it's all part of the Christofascists' self-centered selfishness and view of themselves above the law.  Here are highlights from Think Progress:

Texas businesses would be allowed to fire LGBT employees and turn away LGBT customers under a new proposal issued Monday by state Sen. Donna Campbell (R).

Campbell’s proposal would strengthen existing protections in Texas for the “right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief,” a legal maneuver that critics have described as a “license to discriminate.” This year, many state legislatures have considered putting the religious rights of business owners over the civil rights of would-be customers. Similar proposals in Kansas, North Carolina, South Dakota, Arizona, and Oregon ultimately failed this year, while a number of other states have held that the law protects LGBT folks from discrimination even if that discrimination is based in scripture.

These laws have come into vogue after numerous anti-LGBT small business owners have refused service to LGBT clients in Kentucky, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, Iowa, Colorado, and other states in recent years. Many of these disputes involve bakeries and other vendors who refuse to contract for services at same-sex weddings, but some businesses have refused to print Pride t-shirts or put rainbow frosting on an order of cookies.

Conservative political forces have leaped to these companies’ aid, arguing that their religious convictions about sexuality trump everyone else’s civil rights against discrimination. Those calls grew louder after this summer’s Supreme Court decision that a retailer called Hobby Lobby did not have to provide health insurance that covers birth control due to the company’s religious views, a ruling that reversed decades of precedent whereby legal protections tied to religious faith were limited to actions that did not impede other people’s rights.

Sen. Campbell’s new proposal in Texas is her second bite at the license-to-discriminate apple. Her first, in 2013, didn’t go very well. Critics pointed out that by amending the state constitution as she proposes, lawmakers would empower Westboro Baptist Church protesters to attend military funerals rather than protesting them from afar.
While many conservatives are convinced that the religious liberty to discriminate against LGBT coworkers and clients is under attack, there are still 29 states where it is completely legal to fire someone for their sexual orientation. Workplace discrimination against transgendered people remains legal in 32 states.

Mike Rogers Outs "Family Values" Senator John Barasso (R-WY)

Once again we are witnessing the hypocrisy of closeted Republicans who have virulently anti-gay voting records while having gay affairs themselves.   The latest hypocrite to be exposed is Wyoming Senator John Barasso (pictured above) who true to form markets himself as a "family values" politician and votes anti-gay.  Some argue against "outing" anti-gay politicians, but I support it 100%.  If these individuals don't want their private lives to be fair game for media exposes, then they need to stay out of the private lives of others.  Back2Stonewall looks at Mike Rogers' outing of Barasso.  Obviously, it will be delicious watching the details come out now that Barasso failed to come out himself.  Here are story highlights:

Washington, D.C.’s Mike Rogers who is best known for his activity in outing closeted gay republican  politicians who actively oppose equality for LGBT Americans and was lead subject of Kirby Dick’s documentary Outrage took to Twitter this morning to point out GOP traditional values Senator John Barasso who appeared on Fox News Sunday should have taken the opportunity to come out of the closet.

Barrasso was quoted as saying, “I believe in limited government, lower taxes, less spending, traditional family values, local control and a strong national defense,” and said he has “voted for prayer in schools, against gay marriage and [has] sponsored legislation to protect the “sanctity of life”

When reached for comment, Rogers who has had a 100% record on outing closeted GOP politicians replied: ”My tweets stand on their own”.

 I first collaborated with Mike Rogers in 2004 when we outed former Virginia 2nd District Congressman Ed Schrock who, like Barasso voted anti-gay all the time, but sought gay trysts on the sly.   Great job Mike!!

Sensing Impending Loss, Cuccinelli Changes Campaign Staff

As noted in the prior post, the 2013 Virginia elections are perhaps the most important ever for LGBT Virginians.  Thus, the boyfriend and I have been doing all we can to support the Democratic ticket of Terry McAuliffe, Ralph Northam and Mark Herring.  We have been to fundraisers for all three (we are going to another one for Northam next week), we have housed a McAuliffe campaign worker and we have our yard sign already in place.  Local readers should check out my column in the September 15, 2013, edition of VEER Magazine in which I make the case as to why all forward thinking voters need to vote for McAuliffe.   

The good news is that Ken Cuccinelli seems to be rightfully tanking in the polls and a sense of desperation appears to be overtaking Cuccinelli's campaign.  But, pro-equality, pro-women, and pro-minority voters cannot get complacent.  It is critical that Cuccinelli - and the rest of the Family Foundation nominated GOP slate - lose by a land slide.  Nothing short of a staggering defeat will force the Virginia GOP to come into the 21st century and kick the Christofascists to the curb where they belong.  If the GOP slate loses, there will be no opportunity to claim they lost because the ticket was not conservative enough.  And the message Virginia can send against far right extremism can reverberate all across America.

The Virginian Pilot reports on changes in Cuccinelli's campaign staff as even the insane Cuccinelli seems to realize that his campaign is sinking.  Here are highlights:

Some senior staff members working to get Ken Cuccinelli elected governor have had their roles redefined in a move that insiders say was made to reinvigorate the Republican's campaign.

The announcement at a Monday meeting in the campaign's Springfield headquarters came as Cuccinelli tries to reframe his race with Democrat Terry McAuliffe. It was also made as anxious supporters and donors take note of recent polls showing Cuccinelli trailing.

Adjustments or not, structural changes this late suggest there's internal worry, University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato said.

"You do not shake up a winning team," he said. "You shake up a team when its campaign seems to be losing."

Sources familiar with the Cuccinelli campaign who spoke on the condition of anonymity say things haven't reached panic mode.

"They are circling the wagons, trying to rescue the campaign," said a Republican familiar with the inner workings of Cuccinelli's operation.

Said another: "They are putting people more in charge that know him best" to improve things in the critical weeks after Labor Day.

Polling can shape perception, and the Real Clear Politics average of three polls in the past month have Cuccinelli more than 7 percentage points behind McAuliffe.

This week, the Rothenberg Political Report reclassified Virginia's gubernatorial contest as "Leans Democrat" after labeling it a "Pure Toss-up" since May.

Other distractions stemming from his work as attorney general seem more of Cuccinelli's own making because he chose to keep that job while seeking higher office. Those issues have interfered with the campaign's attempt to make the race a referendum on McAuliffe's resume as a political money man with a questionable business record, some Republicans lament.

"McAuliffe isn't looking like the devil to the business community as Democrats sometimes do," said the GOP source familiar with fundraising.

 I cannot stress enough how important it is that those who want to move Virginia forward, expand equality, stop voter disenfranchisement and support women's' rights turn out vote on election day.  The Virginia GOP - and by extension, the Christofascists and Tea Party - must suffer a humiliating defeat on November 5th.

It’s Time to "Out" Lindsey Graham

John Aravosis has a timely post at America Blog that calls for and investigation of Senator Lindsey Graham and "outing: him.  I agree wholeheartedly with John.   There is no reason why closeted gay politicians who daily harm normal gays who are simply trying to go about live their lives should be given any deference.  Their hypocrisy is disgusting and, in my view, they need to pay a price for the evil they are doing to other.  That's why I contacted Mike Rogers and help set things in motion to out former Virginia Congressman Ed Schrock.  

For background, Schrock had the second most anti-gay voting record in the House and pandered to the Christofascists by making numerous statements about his concerns about gays looking at other service members in the shower.  Meanwhile, he himself was trolling for gay sex and stupidly met a guy I knew who immediately called me.  When I  confronted Schrock's office, Schrock called me himself on his cell phone and then I received threats from his staff.  I don't doubt that Graham is engaging in similar conduct.  Therefore, he needs to be outed - the sooner, the better, although waiting until the GOP is locked into him as the party nominee has a sense of deliciousness to it as well.  Here are highlights from John's post:

It’s time to finally out Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).  Graham has had it coming for a while now. Not because he’s a Republican. But because he’s an anti-gay Republican. And while it’s one thing to be gay and a closet case, it’s quite another to be a hypocrite, an anti-gay gay, someone who uses his power to harm others in the name of morality, all the while knowing secretly that he is one of the others.

In this case, Graham’s hypocrisy that broke the camel’s back is immigration reform. I have it on good authority from someone intimately involved in the immigration reform process that Lindsey Graham is the central reason that the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), which would help stop the forced deportation of foreign-born gay spouses, is being blocked from being added to the immigration bill. While other Senators might be bluffing about their opposition to addressing the immigration needs of gay binational couples in immigration reform, I’m told Graham isn’t bluffing.

The obvious question arises as to why Graham is holding gays hostage in the immigration bill. 
One theory is that UAFA is Graham’s legislative beard. A beard is a woman a gay man socializes with in order to throw off suspicions that he’s actually gay. In this case, the theory goes, Lindsey Graham is using UAFA in order to throw off the suspicions of the Tea Party voters back home who are challenging him in a high-profile primary. Their suspicions are that: A) Graham is a liberal; and B) he’s gay.

Graham’s support for immigration reform is hardly helping him dispel the closet liberal image.  But his opposition to UAFA, the theory goes, is a two-fer: It let’s Graham oppose something, anything, related to immigration reform (his support for the measure has been a thorn in his side with the far-right back home), and it has the added benefit of bashing gays.

Lindsey Graham voted against the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, because he believed that gays should not be serving in the US military.   .   .   .   .   The question facing us is not whether you or I think Lindsey Graham’s sexual orientation is relevant to a public policy debate.  The question confronting us is whether Lindsey Graham thinks one’s sexual orientation is relevant, and he does.  So by the Graham Standard, America deserves to know if Air Force Reserve Colonel Lindsey Graham is gay.

I don’t know if Lindsey Graham is gay.  But I’m having a difficult time believing that he’s straight (and I’m clearly not the only one). And what’s more, he seems to be having a difficult time proving it, or even explaining it.

Lindsey Graham decided long ago that one’s sexual orientation was fair game for politics, then so be it.  It’s time someone did an in-depth investigation of whether Lindsey Graham is gay, straight, or asexual, because under the Graham Standard, America has a right to know.

I agree with John 100%.  Graham needs to be outed if he's gay.

Ken Cuccinelli - WTF Is Wrong With Virginians?

Anyone sane who has followed Ken Cuccinelli's behavior in office as Virginia's Attorney General ought to know that the man is, at least in my view, seriously mentally disturbed.  Moreover, he is the face of the worse elements of the extreme far right.  The man is not only ethically challenged as the Star Scientific saga has shown, but more frighteningly, he wants to implement a Christofascist version of Sharia law and would bring back the sodomy laws.  Everyone other than angry straight white males ought to be running screaming from the man.  Yet an early Washington Post poll shows Cuccinelli - a/k/a Kookinelli on this blog - with a slight lead over Democrat Terry McAullife.  Hence why I ask, WTF is wrong with Virginians?  Here are highlights from the Post article on the poll:

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has an early lead over businessman Terry McAuliffe in their race for governor, a new Washington Post poll shows, even as most voters in the commonwealth have yet to engage in the nationally watched contest.

Six months before Election Day, Cuccinelli (R) has a slender 46 to 41 percent edge over McAuliffe (D) among all Virginia voters and a significant 51 to 41 percent lead among those who say they’re certain to cast ballots in November. But those numbers may change before then: The poll found that barely 10 percent say they are following the campaign “very closely” and that nearly half of the electorate says they’re either undecided or could change their minds.

Having never held office, McAuliffe is the lesser-known quantity in this year’s contest, giving both sides the opportunity to try to define him in coming months. Fully 70 percent of Virginia voters say they know “just a little” or “nothing at all” about him or his qualifications to be governor. Even 65 percent of Democrats know little about the party’s nominee.

There is also broad uncertainty about Cuccinelli — 52 percent of voters say they know little about his qualifications — but the public continues to give a more positive than negative assessment of his work as attorney general. About 54 percent of voters say that he has “high personal moral and ethical standards,” about triple the number saying that he does not.

Cuccinelli is up in the race because he has overwhelming support from the GOP base. Among all registered voters, he’s backed by 95 percent of Republicans, 73 percent of conservatives and 62 percent among white men.

McAuliffe beats Cuccinelli by a big margin among nonwhite voters, 57 to 21 percent, but that is far from Obama’s tally of 83 to 16 percent in the state’s exit poll. Even state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath) scored 76 percent among nonwhite voters in his unsuccessful 2009 gubernatorial bid.

McAuliffe and Cuccinelli are about evenly matched among female voters (Obama won women’s votes by nine percentage points), and the Democrat is lagging among younger voters, too.

One potential positive for McAuliffe is that 45 percent of voters aren’t yet following the race closely. And McAuliffe does far better among those very closely tuned in than he does among those yet to pay much attention.

The boyfriend and I find Kookinelli to be so scary that we will be housing a McAuliffe campaign staffer for several months in the lead up to November's election.  Should Kookinelli win, it would be a terrible message to progressive businesses and talented workers who could well decide that Virginia is too extreme and look for other places to locate.   As for minorities, women and gays, Kookinelli wants to take Virginia back to the 1950's or earlier.

Paul Ryan's Views on LGBT Americans

Click on image to enlarge

If Paul Ryan's draconian budget proposal - which even the morally bankrupt Catholic Bishops recognized as "immoral" - isn't enough to scare you, LGBT Americans have additional reasons to fear Ryan in any kind of national office:  he has a ZERO score under HRC's rating system and would basically like to make us permanent fourth class citizens under the Constitution and the nation's laws.  Some may have scoffed that Nate Silver says that Ryan ranks as conservative as Michele Bachmann, but on LGBT issues Ryan and Bachmann are completely on the same page.  The man is scary.

Meanwhile, the Log Cabin Republicans are thrilled with the Ryan pick.  They strike me as little better than someone Jewish supporting a Nazi Party candidate in Germany in the 1930's.  I keep asking myself, WTF is wrong with them?

Exposing Mitt Romney’s Anti-LGBT Agenda

A new effort to educate Americans about Mitt Romney's extreme anti-gay, pro-bigotry agenda has been launched.  “Mitt Gets Worse” is a super PAC partnership between the American Bridge 21st Century and the Courage Campaign.  Besides clearly demonstrating that Romney is a nightmare for LGBT rights, the campaign underscores Romney's willingness to lie over the years to pander to whatever interest group and/or demographic group he thinks will bring him votes.  The man doesn't have a genuine bone in his body - or at least not one associated with greed and vulture capitalism.  The New Civil Rights Movement looks at this new endeavor to wake people up to the real Mitt Romney.  Here are highlights:

Four leaders within the LGBT community are helping to launch Mitt Gets Worse with their personal testimonials in what they’re calling an “oral history project and rapid response campaign.”

Adam Bink, Director of Online Programs at Courage Campaign joins Kathleen Henry, who was the chair of the Governor Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth — until he rescinded the executive order that created the commission. Also premiering on the Mitt Gets Worse website are Julie Goodridge, a lead plaintiff in Goodridge v. Dept of Public Health — the lawsuit that brought same-sex marriage to Massachusetts, and Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of the Family Equality Council.

[T]hey will be publishing more first “person accounts of LGBT activists and organizers who have played key roles in this fight,” the Mitt Gets Worse campaign states:

Year after year, Mitt has moved further and further toward the extreme right. The Mitt Gets Worse campaign is an oral history of Mitt Romney’s efforts to diminish the rights and the freedoms of LGBT Americans, told by supporters, activists, and LGBT advocates that have personally been impacted by Mitt’s anti-equality agenda.

Many believe Romney secretly supports LGBT civil rights — just as many believed George W. Bush did before, and during, his campaign and subsequent eight years in the White House. Regardless of what we think our elected leaders believe, it’s clear that the Republican party has become ruled by far right wing radicals and religious zealots.

Romney’s recent failure to stand up to them when he had his first chance — during the six days Richard Grenell was the national security spokesperson for Mitt Romney’s campaign, until the infamous Bryan Fischer forced Romney to fire him, or let him resign (whichever you want to believe.)

Romney has proven time and time again that he will not stand up to special interests, and will say and do anything to get elected. Why would he be any different on LGBT civil rights — when he’s repeatedly sold us down the river?

Why Rick Santorum Won't Wear Well With Sane Voters

While Mitt Romney won the Maine caucuses - did anyone else notice that the total number of votes for all candidates was tiny? - much of the political chatter is nonetheless about Rick Santorum's upward movement in the national polls among Republicans. In addition to Mitt Romney's flip flopping like a fish in the bottom of a boat, I suspect one reason Santorum has been doing well is that until now he hasn't received the full spotlight treatment. Once that happens - as with Cain, Perry and Gingrich - Santorum to many will smell like a dead fish. Recall that after a term in the U.S. Senate, Santorum lost his Senate seat by 18%. Stated another way, once Pennsylvanians really got to know him, they did not like what they saw. That increased familiarity could be the kiss of political death again. A piece in The Daily Beast looks at why Santorum's "positives" could quickly turn into "negatives." Here are some highlights:

[T]hose qualities of Santorum’s that seem so positive and compelling now will be seen for what they really are: dead weight. Let’s take them one by one:

POSITIVE: Santorum’s Christian piety is a refreshing alternative to Gingrich’s personal corruption and Romney’s seemingly infinite malleability. The guy really believes what he says!

NEGATIVE REALITY: The guy really believes what he says! The breathtakingly low turnout in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado meant that the angriest and most alienated sector of the Republican party went to the polls: the white evangelicals and Tea Partiers. . . . . for the precious swing voters who will decide the election and who sat out Tuesday’s empty political exercises, Santorum’s narrowness and fanaticism are not inclusive enough of their own interests. When it’s mostly fundamentalist Protestants who care about the Catholic issue of birth control, you know you don’t have an issue with permanent appeal.

POSITIVE: By harping on the culture wars, Santorum has found an answer to one of this political season’s sharper ironies. While people care most about jobs and the economy, rhetoric about jobs and the economy tends to be dull and uninspiring, especially from the Republican side.

NEGATIVE REALITY: The culture wars are not what they used to be. Particularly among the lower-class whites that make up the evangelicals and other disaffected voters momentarily rallying around Santorum, the family structure is crumbling. Teen sex and teen pregnancy are rampant. Drug use is skyrocketing. Divorce is proliferating. . . . . A few months or even weeks down the road, all but the most diehard Santorum supporters will realize, on the visceral level, that his rhetoric has not caught up to their reality.

POSITIVE: In an age of confusion and uncertainy, when everything solid is either melting into air or being compressed into the latest, about-to-be-obsolete gadget, Santorum sounds bracingly like Savonarola.

NEGATIVE REALITY: Santorum may sound like Savonarola, but he comes across as Little Nell. Whereas the touchstone of conservative masculinity and leadership was Ronald Reagan, with his indefatigable, unruffled smiling composure, Santorum is a whiner. . . . . He just doesn’t seem presidential. He gives the impression of an ineffectual man trapped in a dream of power, for which he is completely unprepared.

POSITIVE: Santorum does indeed seem to be an authentic, believing Christian.

NEGATIVE REALITY: In his callousness toward the poor, his intolerance of gays, his compassion for the high profits of drug companies, his love of war, he represents the ruthless, remorseless, unworldly side of Christianity. . . . . . But even worse than his hardness toward society’s unfortunate and unconventional, Santorum has committed the worst sins of contemporary political life. A passion for big government. A lust for earmarks. Payback to campaign contributors. And Senate votes that seem to have a pricetag on them. Santorum the professional politician will have to say a lot of Hail Marys for his corruption-rife years in the Senate. The problem is that the Protestants who are voting for him now don’t believe in the redemptive powers of penance.

Let's hope Santorum gets the full spotlight treatment soon so that he can then be banished back to the political wilderness.

More Anti-Gay Insanity in Africa

Sometimes I think the clergy in countries like Burundi, an impoverished East African nation, are in league with the corrupt political leaders in search of ways to hold onto political power. Rather than address issues such as crushing poverty (per capita income is $400 per year), horrific political corruption, high infant mortality, and a basket case economy, these parasites focus on issues like persecuting gays and thereby keep the ignorant populace focused elsewhere so that they do not come to realize how badly they are being screwed by both the politicians and the self-indulgent clerics (62% of the population is Roman Catholic). I have said repeatedly that Catholicism and reactionary religion in general does best in areas of low educational levels and high ignorance (think the Deep South in the USA). Here are some highlights from The Advocate:

*

Tens of thousands of people from Burundi, an impoverished East African nation, demonstrated Friday in their capital of Bujumbura to demand the outlawing of homosexuality, reports Agence France-Presse. The demonstration, which drew up to 20,000 people, follows the government's failure to implement a law that would have criminalized homosexual acts. On February 17, senators voted through a draft criminal code law that abolished the death penalty, but rejected an amendment that outlawed homosexuality.

*

At Friday's protest, Jeremie Ngendakumana, the ruling party's chairman, said, "[We are] protesting today to support the [view of the] majority of Burundians that homosexuality should be punished by law. Homosexuality is a sin. It is a culture which has been imported to sully our morals and is practiced by immoral people."

The Jindal Menance

As always, Barack Obama was eloquent in his speech last night which was generally well received by the public based on available polls. The true issue will be whether or not the stimulus package begins to take effect and whether or not irresponsible banks can be reigned in and caused to start making loans again to get the economy moving. The Republican response was delivered by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who if one will bother to do their homework is in reality a far right religious extremist. Sadly, the Washington Post is carrying a boot licking column entitled "The Jindal Phenomenon" today that utterly disregards the extreme nature of Jindal's views. This lack of balanced reporting and lasiness on the part of reporters is precisely how the nation has been sold poor political leaders, not to mention the Iraq War. One would almost believe that the column's author, Michael Gerson, was a paid propagandist for Jindal. The real Bobby Jindal is far different than what Gerson depicts. Here are some samplings of the real Jindal, first from the Guardian:

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He was born and raised a Hindu, but converted to Catholicism and also has links to Protestant churches. Unusually for a Rhodes scholar, he believes in creationism, a viewpoint that increases his appeal to Christian evangelicals. Jindal's politics are firmly on the Republican right: he is opposed to abortion, embryonic stem cell research, gay marriage and the moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling. One of the most controversial incidents from his past was a claim to have witnessed an exorcism, though he has since partly rowed back on that.

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One Louisiana blogger has complied 37 reasons to vote against Bobby Jindal, including:

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Bobby Jindal voted with President Bush 90% of the time and with the Republican Party 97% of the time, according to Congressional Quarterly.

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On August 29, 2005, Bobby Jindal called FEMA’s coordination with the State “tremendous” during an interview on CNN.

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Bobby Jindal opposed Emergency Appropriations for Louisiana hurricane recovery (HR 1591, Vote 186, March 23, 2007).

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Bobby Jindal believes in teaching creationism and/or “intelligent design” in the classroom.

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Bobby Jindal supports Social Security privatization.

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Bobby Jindal voted to cut $70 billion in taxes for the wealthiest Americans (HR 4297, Vote 135, May 10, 2006).

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Bobby Jindal voted against allowing Medicare to negotiate on prescription drug prices (HR 4, Vote 23, January 12, 2007).

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Bobby Jindal’s multi-pointed “health care plan” fails to address the elderly or the physically disabled. Despite the fact that the elderly and the disabled account for the bulk of Louisiana Medicaid spending, Jindal supports Medicaid privatization (without any consideration for those most in need).

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And on gay rights, Jindal is clearly an enemy of gay equality and received a zero (0) rating from the Human Rights Campaign. A detailed rundown of Jindal's position on issues can be found here at On the Issues. Truth be told, Jindal is not some new kind of Republican. Rather, he represents the same poisonous GOP policies, just clothed in a different ethnic package. It is sad that the Washington Post cannot do a better job of doing its homework.