GOP Freshmen Turn into Frankenstein Monster

Just as the Republican Party leadership prostituted itself to the Christian Right, so too did the leadership pander to the Tea Party and Neanderthal elements seeking to sweep the party in 2010.  Having won a majority in the House of Representatives, these extremists soon showed their true colors and have been much of the cause of the GOP's inability to get legislation through Congress and its default position of opposing every Democrat initiative.  It's a classic case of focusing on short term advantage without thinking through the longer term consequences.  An article in the Washington Post addresses a new book, “Do Not Ask What Good We Do,” that looks at the debacle.  Here are highlights:

Time and again last year, House Republican leaders faced a nearly in­trac­table opponent: the very freshman class that propelled them into the majority with the historic 2010 midterm elections.  Revolting from the very outset of the 112th Congress and later wreaking internal havoc during talks to increase the Treasury’s ability to borrow funds, the massive freshman class repeatedly created problems for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), according to a new book.

The infighting reached such a point in the fall that some newcomers requested that the weekly freshman meetings be disbanded, because they had turned into shouting matches, with freshmen loudly criticizing the leaders.  “You’ve created a monster,” Rep. Renee L. Ellmers (R-N.C.), a former nurse elected in 2010, warned House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), according to Draper’s book.

Draper’s book was based on interviews with more than 50 House members, including some freshmen he interviewed more than a dozen times, as well as many current and former senior aides. The resulting work paints a different picture than that often presented by Boehner’s leadership team, which frequently proclaimed there was no “freshman problem,” as the group’s overall voting patterns were similar to those of the rest of the GOP conference.

Accounting for nearly 40 percent of Boehner’s conference, the freshmen exercised their clout early and often, imposing their will on the rest of the House Republicans. 

“I didn’t come to Washington to be part of a team,” Rep. Raul R. Labrador (R-Idaho) told the book’s author.  The very first major bill brought the first revolt, when leaders presented a funding bill for federal agencies that cut $33 billion from the previous year’s tally. Labrador rushed to the microphones at the Capitol basement meeting to promote the $100 billion in cuts that had been promised in the 2010 campaign manifesto.

“Some of the freshmen don’t have a grasp of what the facts are, and they’re going to rebel. You’d be finished,” Reps. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), Steven C. LaTourette (R-Ohio), Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) and Patrick J. Tiberi (R-Ohio) warned Boehner, according to Draper’s interviews with two of the men.

The leadership has clearly lost control of the patients who constitute the majority in the asylum know as the GOP.  The Frankenstein Monster has been unleashed and only severe electoral defeats will rein it in.

More Sunday Male Beauty

The Nazi Pope's Misplaced Ire

While Benedict XVI, sometimes referred to as the Nazi Pope on this blog, cracks down on American nuns for not being anti-gay and anti-contraception enough, the world wide sex abuse scandal continues with daily coverage out of Australia, Ireland, and of course, the USA, especially the Archdiocese of Philadelphia of late.  With incontrovertibly evidence that bishops, cardinals, Popes - and a Trustee of Boston College - appear to have knowingly protected sexual predatory priests who likely worldwide sexually abused hundreds of thousands of children and youths, the misdirected ire of the Nazi Pope is noting short of ridiculous, not to mention the height of hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy.  A column in the Boston Globe looks at this latest display of moral bankruptcy.  Here are highlights:

Pope Benedict XVI can’t wait to crack down on “radical feminist” nuns.  But will he ever really crack down on protectors of pedophile priests?

A Vatican-led investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious cites the nuns’ silence on abortion and same-sex marriage. How bad is that up against the silence of church officials, from parish priests to the Vatican, who ignored and concealed child sex crimes?

By ironic coincidence, news about the Vatican’s effort to rein in the conference — the largest and most influential group of Catholic nuns in the United States — broke the same day the Rev. Bradley M. Schaeffer resigned from the Boston College Board of Trustees after growing public criticism over the role he played in supervising a former Jesuit priest who allegedly molested dozens of children over a span of 40 years.  

The juxtaposition of the two events exposes a familiar church mindset.  Perceived threats to his authority swiftly grab the pope’s attention. Accountability for long-ago threats to children is still something to dodge.

This follows Benedict’s recent condemnation of dissident priests. During a Holy Thursday Mass, the pope publicly rebuked a group of Austrian priests who challenged the church on priestly celibacy and the ban on female priests; disobedience would not be tolerated, he said.  What he [Benedict] does tolerate is a worldwide network of priests who enabled sexual abusers.  Unlike dissidents, they are not called out in St. Peter’s Square and no one is put in charge of reeling them in. They are free, like Schaeffer, to end up on the boards of prominent Jesuit institutions — until public pressure forces them out. 

As reported by the Globe’s Michael Rezendes, Schaeffer was the leader of the Jesuits in the Chicago area when an anguished father came to him in 1993 with concerns about an inappropriate relationship between Donald J. McGuire, then a Jesuit retreat leader, and the man’s young son. Schaeffer neither investigated the complaint nor contacted police. Instead, he sent McGuire for treatment of a sexual disorder. Afterwards, he acknowledged he knew the treatment did not cure McGuire.  Today, McGuire is serving 25 years in federal prison on child sex-abuse charges, while the Jesuits face a lawsuit for their failure to protect one of McGuire’s alleged victims. 

 

Schaeffer stepped down after the Boston College independent school newspaper, The Heights, called for his resignation and a group of faculty members met with Boston College President William P. Leahy to make a similar argument.  He continues to serve in the study center and is still a board member at Georgetown University, Loyola University Chicago, and Brebeuf Jesuit, a prep school in Indianapolis.

Benedict has apologized for the clergy sexual-abuse scandal and launched ongoing investigations of widespread allegations. But he does not jettison all those who broke the church’s sacred covenant with children. There are too many and the chain of accountability leads directly to him. It’s much easier to condemn naughty nuns.

Benedict's moral bankruptcy and hypocrisy make a tawdry whore look virtuous.  Why does anyone listen to anything this monster says?

Why Are the Christianists So Afraid of Love?

I came across this video which is in Spanish with subtitles (skip the initial advertisement) which makes me ponder once again as to why the Christianists are so terrified of same sex love. Is it because of their own damaged psychological/emotional state? Or is it because their house of cards like faith cannot withstand anything that suggests that the Bible passages cited to condemn us might just be wrong?  Because obviously, if those passages are wrong, then they must confront the reality that much more in the Bible is likely wrong as well.  Love is love and in this troubled world, love should be celebrated.

Pro-LGBT Religious Voices Absent In Mainstream Media

I often complain about the laziness of much of the mainstream media and its willingness to give a platform to the leaders of registered hate groups such as FRC's Tony Perkins who besides being vitriolically anti-gay has white supremacist associations that somehow never get mentioned by anchors and commentators who typically allow Perkins and those of his ilk to spew anti-LGBT lies unchallenged.  A new study from GLAAD and the University of Missoui Center on Religion & the Professions confirms that I'm not imagining the bias and confirms the slanted coverage of religious views on LGBT individuals and our legal rights.  Pro-LGBT religious views are almost completely absent from news coverage while the anti-LGBT coverage is far over represented in comparison to the percentages various denominations bear to the total population.  Here are highlights from Think Progress on the mainstream media's flawed coverage:

A new study from GLAAD and the University of Missoui Center on Religion & the Professions finds that pro-LGBT people of faith are the “Missing Voices” — severely underrepresented in mainstream media. In fact, three out of four religious messages about LGBT issues over the past three years have come from people who identify with anti-gay faith traditions. Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics were by far the most represented in the media, with mostly negative messages to share.  .   .  

The study also notes that the proportion of these messages does not reflect the U.S. population. Evangelicals appear more often (34 percent) than their presence in the population should warrant .  .  .  .  and the frequency of anti-LGBT Catholic messages (over 50 percent) conflicts with the strong LGBT support among American Catholics (over 71 percent).

Perhaps the most troubling result of the study was the discovery that the media constructs a conflict between religion and the LGBT community. Those hostile to LGBT people were often identified with their religious identity, while those who were supportive or neutral were not.  ThinkProgress similarly documented that progressive voices of faith were completely absent from the Sunday morning political shows’ conversations about religion.

The Far Right's "Reign of Terror" Has Crippled Congress

In remarks that are sure to cause hyperventilating among some readers, David Axelrod has blamed a "reign of terror" by far right extremists for the gridlock in Congress and the refusal of members of the Congressional GOP to put the interests of the nation ahead of partisan politics.  Axelrod also maintains that Mitt Romney is out of touch with the reality faced by most Americans, a statement that I believe is 100% on point.  As for the extremists, Axelrod doesn't name them, but it's pretty obvious that he's referring to the Christofascists in the GOP base and the anti-tax extremist led by Grover Norquist and his minions.  Then, of course, there is the ignorance embracing Tea Party crowd.Here are highlights from Huffington Post of Axelrod's statements:

Republicans in the U.S. Congress are under a "reign of terror" imposed by the party's conservative wing that also has pushed presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to the right, President Barack Obama's senior campaign strategist said on Sunday.

David Axelrod, in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" program, cited the Obama administration's plans for immigration reform as an example of Republican intransigence in Congress.  The political process in Washington should not be "monolithic opposition to everything the chief executive wants to do as a political strategy," Axelrod said, adding that an "implacable group of Republicans" had blocked any possibility of immigration reform.  "I think there are a lot of Republicans in Congress who want to cooperate ... but they're in the thralls of this reign of terror from the far right that has dragged the party to the right," he said.

Axelrod said Romney, the former Massachusetts governor in line to be the Republican challenger to Obama's re-election in the Nov. 6 election, has nothing new to offer voters.  People don't know Mitt Romney very well," he said on CNN. "They see a businessman. They hope he has new ideas. When they find out what his ideas are, slashing taxes at the top for the very wealthy ... they're going to think, 'This is very familiar. We've tried this. This was a big failure.'"

Axelrod said Romney's campaign for the Republican nomination had been a negative one, based on attacking his opponents rather than spelling out ideas. When he does, I think people are going to judge them for what they are, which is backward-looking and a repeat of what got us into this mess in the first place," he added.

Sunday Morning Male Beauty

A Schism at Exodus International?

The "ex-gay" crowd are facing more and more legitimate scientific evidence that their claims that gays can "change" is little more than self-serving horse shit.  Why self-serving?  Because it gives "ex-gays for pay" a career they'd otherwise be without, it provides snake oil merchants with a source of income, and it provides a tool to Christofascists who seek to dupe elected officials with the "choice myth" in order to oppose LGBT equality under the civil laws.  The most recent blow to the "ex-gay" cause was Robert Sptizer's retraction of his 2003 research that supported the theory that at least a small percentage of reparative therapy participants might actually be able change their sexual orientation.  Sensing the drift of where the science is going, Exodus International president Alan Chambers has modified his claims concerning "change."  This has caused a shit storm with some within the fraudulent "ex-gay" industry as Warren Throckmorton notes.  Here are some highlights:

Apparently, Exodus President Alan Chambers’ recent comments about change of sexual orientation have not been well received by some Exodus ministry leaders. Earlier today, Andy Comiskey posted a link on his website which called for changes at Exodus in light of his disagreements with the Exodus President.

The controversy relates to Mr. Chambers recent statements that “99.9% [of people who have tried] have not experienced a change in their orientation.”

Comiskey’s newsletter comes just days after Robert Spitzer retracted his 2003 paper on change efforts. If anything, Chambers seems to be articulating a stance more in line with where many researchers are moving, without changing his basic theological position. Perhaps, it is inevitable that tension will come between those who continue to promote change and those see Exodus as a support group for same-sex attracted evangelicals. 

I have long argued that these programs need to be shut down for being both fraudulent and dangerous.  Sadly, some in the Christianist set care nothing about the harm that these programs do to participants.  Having known individuals who went through these programs, all the did was truly damage them emotionally.

Does California Foretell the GOP's Future?

Many times I've argued that the GOP is committing long term suicide by focusing all of its efforts (other than insincere lip service) on aging and/or uneducated white Christian conservatives to the exclusion of younger voters, educated voters and minorities.  What this has resulted in in California may well foretell what will increasingly become the norm in states with large Hispanic populations and other demographic combinations that see the preferred GOP demographic move to permanent minority status.  A piece in Politico looks at the GOP's dismal situation in California.  Here are highlights:

If you want to know why no one is talking about which way California will go in the November presidential election, the answer is simple: Mitt Romney doesn’t have a prayer.  It’s not the polls that lead to that conclusion. All you have to do is look at the state’s latest voter registration statistics.  They’re really quite stunning in what they reveal about the GOP’s fade toward irrelevance in the nation’s largest state.

There used to be a time when California regularly produced talent for GOP presidential ticket. And from 1952 through 1988, the Republican nominee carried the state in every presidential election but one.  Now, it’s nearly impossible for a Republican to get elected statewide -- so California doesn’t produce anyone with enough stature for the national GOP ticket. The massive Democratic voter registration advantage helps explain why.

 

The GOP actually has a majority of voters in 30 of California’s 58 counties. But that number is misleading. If you look at the list of the 10 counties with the highest percentage of Democrats, they tend to be some of the more populous in the state – places like Alameda (Oakland) Los Angeles (LA), Contra Costa (Bay area), and San Mateo (Bay area) counties.

The 10 counties with the highest percentage of Republicans tend to be among the least populous counties, all of them located inland.  The data, the trendlines and the state's demographics don’t paint a pretty picture for the GOP. But more than anything else, they signal that California’s 55 electoral votes are firmly in President Obama’s pocket.

Bob "Governor Ultrasound" McDonnell Does a Fast Dance on Abortion

With a number of articles now predicting the Bob "Taliban Bob" a/k/a "Governor Ultrasound" McDonnell's chances in the GOP vice presidential sweepstakes have plummeted, it looks like Taliban Bob is jettisoning some of his decades old opposition to abortion in almost all cases in a desperate attempt to make himself more palatable.  Taliban Bob's spokesman is trying to spin the changes as a case of McDonnell's views not having been properly understood.  He's taken a position for roughly 20 years and only now it's "misunderstood"?  I don't think so.  Not surprisingly, the Virginia Christofascists are none too happy with Taliban Bob.   The Washington Post looks at McDonnell's effort to do his own version of Etch A Sketch reset.  Here are some highlights:

As a legislator, attorney general and governor, Robert F. McDonnell has said he opposes abortion in all but one instance: if continuing the pregnancy would put the woman’s life in danger.  But McDonnell, a possible vice presidential candidate, recently said through his spokesman that he would also allow it in cases of rape or incest.

The statement has prompted many supporters and opponents to believe that he has modified one of his core political stances. Some suspect he has done so to improve his chances of being picked as a running mate for presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, whose own position on abortion has shifted over time but makes exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the woman.

“That shocks me,’’ said Olivia Gans, president of the Virginia Society for Human Life, which endorsed McDonnell for governor. “I have never heard him make those comments. It was certainly not his position when he ran for attorney general or governor.’’

But McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said the governor’s position has not changed. It has been misunderstood, he said, over the past two decades. He did not explain why McDonnell had not tried harder to correct the record if that was the case.  Since McDonnell’s days as a delegate from Virginia Beach, countless news accounts have reported that he opposes abortion except when the woman’s life is in danger.

Political observers say McDonnell’s inclusion of rape and incest exceptions could help him on the national stage, allowing him to appeal to conservatives who oppose abortion rights while picking up the backing of moderates and independents.

Most pundits weighing McDonnell’s vice presidential prospects say the chairman of the Republican Governors Association’s biggest negative is that he may be perceived as too socially conservative, especially after signing a bill into law last month requiring that women undergo an ultrasound before an abortion.

Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, said McDonnell is trying to change his views after years of being out of the mainstream.  “Privately, he still holds extreme positions while publicly he is trying to portray himself as someone else,’’ she said. “You don’t switch your viewpoint on this overnight. These are your core values. It’s obvious governor McDonnell is trying to Etch a Sketch his record.’’

For years McDonnell has prostituted himself to the worse religious extremists in Virginia and it would be poetic justice if that is what now sinks his national level ambitions.  Bob, you should have thought about these issues a bit more in the past.