Republicans branching out to old Dem stronghold.

Scrat wrote:

Like many celebrities who have made a name by being outrageous muckrakers, Savage showed his ass, and in doing so, has lost whatever credibility he had outside of a fringe following that does not represent that core of conservative thought.

(Or if they do represent that core, then I am not in agreement with it.)

To me, Savage might as well have lost his temper with a Jewish caller, and suggested the caller should have been shoved in an oven. There's no backing up from that kind of remark; no explaining it away. It reminds me of a line from a song by James McMurtry, "Too Long in the Wasteland":

Quote:
"Whisky don't make liars, it just makes fools,
So I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said..."

Substitute "anger" or "frustration" for "whiskey" above, and it fits perfectly. Savage didn't mean to say it, but wouldn't have said it were it not in his heart.

I would have bet big money that there was nothing Scrat could say that I would be willing to sign on to -- but I woulda lost.

This posting actually makes sense.

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In the five pages I have read of this thread-pages 1 & 2, and the last three-nobody has mentioned the key ingredient of this supposed "breakthrough".

This Log Cabin Republican initiative is backed by the New York Republican Party.

Which may not have a lot in common on this issue with the rest of the Republican Party nationwide.

Look how the Republicans are going after Kerry for the fact that he is from Massachusetts. The Republicans are trying to sell the nation on the idea that the Northeast is a separate place from the rest of America, while the "real" people live in the West, (except for the Coast) and the South-which just happen to be Republican strongholds.

If Kerry had come from New York, does anyone think that the Republicans would not be mentioning New York with the same snide tones that they now reserve for Massachusetts?

Fact is, the Republicans will probably tolerate this kind of thing from a Northeast state because they will take anything they can get from the place. It is not in their stronghold region, so if they have to "give" a little in their core beliefs in order to pick up possible Senators and Representatives from the state-well, that's politics.

But perhaps my analysis is wrong. Sofia-can you please tell me some important national Republican figures from outside the Northeast region who have endorsed this intiative? Anything from Cheney, for instance, or any Cabinet secretaries? How about the head of RNC, Marc Racicot-any word from him? Smile

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breakthrough--a breach, an entrance.

They got in through NY.

I didn't say they had saturated.

Cheney has finally made a public statement that he thinks gay peeps should be allowed to marry. He also said he backs the President's position.

These things take time.

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Then, there was this--that nobody talked about...
-------------
Bush appoints gay man as head of scaled-back AIDS office
This and other recent presidential appointments get mixed reviews
By Peter Cassels
Published: Thursday, April 12, 2001

Bay Windows staff

Activists are welcoming the appointment of the first gay person to head the White House AIDS Policy Office, but have expressed concern over a decline in funding levels for domestic programs. While the Bush administration plans to restructure the function in an attempt to address the epidemic internationally, some observers believe the new AIDS czar will not have the clout of his predecessors in the Clinton White House.

Gay and lesbian advocates also point to the nomination of an evangelical Christian to head the White House Office of Personnel Policy and religious Right adherents to key positions in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as indications that the administration is the most conservative in history.

The White House announced April 9 that Scott Evertz, 38, of Madison, Wisc., will become the nation's first gay AIDS czar and that he will head a restructured AIDS office. Said to be close to HHS Secretary and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, Evertz is president of the state chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) and was one of a dozen openly gay party members who met with Bush in Austin, Texas, during the presidential campaign.

Asked to comment on the appointment, Kevin Ivers, a national LCR spokesperson, instead referred Bay Windows to a statement on its Web site, which reported that Evertz met with then-candidate Bush in April 2000 and played a key role in a July meeting with LCR Executive Director Rich Tafel and Thompson on a successful LCR effort to insert language on national AIDS policy into the Republican Party platform.

A Roman Catholic, Evertz has been a fund-raiser for the Wisconsin Right to Life anti-abortion group and a Catholic AIDS ministry. His current job is with a Lutheran foundation for the aging. As a volunteer, he worked with Governor Thompson on legislation providing hospital visitation rights for gay and lesbian partners. He also raised funds for AIDS clinics in the state and a mission hospital in Kenya. In 1994, he ran unsuccessfully for the Wisconsin Legislature as an openly gay Republican candidate.

Instead of capitalizing on the historic appointment on a gay person to head the AIDS office, the White House declined to discuss Evertz's sexuality or its significance in either politics or policy, living up to Bush's repeated campaign statements that he would not consider an individual's sexuality in making appointments----
------------
They applaud the gay guy, and criticised the Christian guy...

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They appointed a homosexual to an office dealing with an issue that is largely homosexual oriented. They de-emphasized his sexual orientation as much as possible.

Look, there is a fair percentage of non homosexuals who think that gays have rights. Among these are people who agree with the Republicans on other issues. If you don't give some indication that the Administration believes gays have some rights, that is enough to drive away many who might like some things the Republicans have to offer, but can't stomach an unremittingly antigay party.

The Republicans had to do something to qualm the apprehensions of these GOP leaners who were put off by all the antigay rhetoric coming from it's supporters. This was it.

Meanwhile, I am still looking for a sign of some national Republican figure going on TV in a speech or press conference and making clear that they endorse this policy of reaching out to homosexuals.

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As for Cheney finally making some noises about some support for gay marriage, that is a singular case.

Parents are supposed to stick up for their children, to an extent, even if the children are wrong.

If a son robs a bank with a gun, the parents are supposed to do what they reasonably can to get the son a lawyer, give testimony on the son's behalf during sentencing, etc. Parents are expected to do this.

Opposition to gay marriage might be the right thing to do in the eyes of many potential GOP voters, but it clearly entails a put down of homosexuals, no matter how soft-pedaled. And a man should stick by his daughter, to some degree.

Cheney's unrelenting opposiiton to gay marriage, while having a famously lesbian daughter himself, put him in a bad light. He became the man who will insult his own family in order to keep his job.

Even people somewhat opposed to gay marriage are likely to be put off by such a position of a man with a gay daughter. They would feel that he should use position to do something for her and her group.

So Cheney finally changes his position. Not, everyone knows, because he feels it is the right thing, but because he is expected to stick up for his daughter.

Fatherhood should trump principle, even in the eyes of gay marriage opponents.

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Re: Republicans branching out to old Dem stronghold.

Sofia wrote:

I don't think this is exactly what Abe had in mind, but the Log Cabin Republicans are gathering steam.

Another old Dem stronghold, no longer. [..]

Me: thrilled.

It looks like the Log Cabin Republicans have already learned enough about Bush-style Republican-ism ... Republicans they are. But the George W. Bush Party is not theirs.

Gay Republican group won't endorse Bush

MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 11:25 a.m. ET Sept. 8, 2004

NEW YORK - The largest group for gay men and lesbians in the Republican Party has voted overwhelmingly against endorsing President Bush for re-election this November because he favors a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The National Board of the Log Cabin Republicans voted 22-2 Tuesday night against endorsing President Bush marks the first time since the organization opened a national office in Washington, D.C., in 1993 that its members have not endorsed a Republican nominee for President.

Log Cabin endorsed Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election and endorsed George W. Bush in 2000. Exit polls confirmed that about 1 million gays and lesbians voted for Bush in the 2000 election, including nearly 50,000 in Florida alone, Log Cabin said. [..]

Quote:

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Its still tough being a gay Republican:

In central Minnesota, a Republican State Senator who otherwise had hewed close to the socially conservative line, last year opposed an effort to force a floor vote on a constitutional gay marriage ban, and soon thereafter outed himself as gay.

Otherwise, he's still a red state type of candidate, opposing abortion, supporting gun rights.

Now he is running for re-election. He won the Republican Party's endorsement too, if barely. But he faces a strong primary opponent in Kevin Goedker, a city councilman.

Quote:

[Goedker] says it isn't because his opponent is gay. But he's making an explicit appeal to voters whose values guide them in the voting booth.

"People of high moral values and integrity must rally and support candidates who will work to bring ethics, morals and family values back into government," Goedker's brother Gene, his campaign treasurer, wrote in a fundraising letter. [..]

Goedker [also] said he wouldn't vote for Koering in the general election.

"In my opinion I think it'd be tough to be gay and to be somebody I'd vote for based on some of the life choices they make," Goedker said.

Gay GOP candidate runs in Minn. primary

The article quotes the Victory Fund, which raises campaign funds for gay candidates, as saying there are currently 325 openly gay elected officials in the country, out of about 511,000 elected offices:

"The group doesn't break that figure down by party, but "the vast majority of them are Democrats," spokesman Denis Dison said."

It also notes that "Like Koering, most prominent gay Republicans came out only after they were in office, including U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona and former U.S. Rep. Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin."

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nimh wrote:

Gay GOP candidate runs in Minn. primary

Koering won the primary, with a persuasive if not overwhelming 55%/45% margin.

Senators in marriage-ban spotlight post primary wins

Quote:

In the Brainerd area, Republican state Sen. Paul Koering also faced criticism from an opponent for his stand on gay marriage. Koering voted to prevent a vote on same-sex marriage on the Senate floor in 2005. Koering is gay, but says he voted against the measure because it didn't move through the proper legislative channels.

Conservative groups also campaigned against Koering leading up the primary election. Koering says in the end, that tactic didn't work.

"Our campaign has had just about everything thrown at it that could possible happen, and I still prevailed, so it shows that people in Minnesota don't like negative campaigning," he said.

Koering finished with 55 percent of the vote. His opponent was Brainerd City Council Member Kevin Goedker. Goedker campaigned heavily on "family value" issues, and said his campaign had nothing to do with Koering's sexuality.

Koering assumes that's not the case, and that his primary challenge was directly related to his personal life. Either way Koering says the fact that he's gay didn't matter much to voters.

"I think what they did is looked at my voting record and they judged me on that voting record, and they said, 'yep, we're going to give Paul a vote of confidence,' and I think that's what happened here," Koering said.

"But where they are clear is that right now let's just leave the status quo alone, let's just leave the current law in place and not deal with the constitutional amendment," he said.

Johnson, Koering, fight off challengers

Quote:

Koering v. Goedker

At around 11:30 p.m. Koering said he overtook Republican challenger Goedker, who said Koering was too liberal to represent the district.

"I think I won because I continued to run a positive campaign," Koering said late Tuesday. "In this race, I had everything thrown at me that could possibly be thrown at me and I still won."

Koering publicly acknowledged his homosexuality in 2005, after he voted against a move to force the full Senate to take up a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and its legal equivalent. This year, he supported a move to take up the amendment.

Koering, a first-term Senator who beat a long-time DFL incumbent in a close election four years ago, said there is "one reason and one reason only" that Goedker opposed him. Because he is gay.

Goedker said his objections to Koering were broader.

"I decided to run because I didn't feel that my views weren't being represented down in St. Paul," said Brainerd real estate agent Goedker. "As I looked through his entire record, all his votes, it was very obvious that he was very liberal on several issues."

Although others were sure Koering had won, at 11:45 p.m. Goedker said it looked like it would be hard for him to win but he wasn't yet ready to concede.

Minnesota Citizens in Defense of Marriage, a pro-amendment group, has highlighted the race and said Koering has voted with "Senate liberals" on a host of issues.

Koering won the endorsement of his party in April and has also gotten backing from the NRA, the MCCL and other powerful groups, he said.

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Republicans branching out to old Dem stronghold.

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