S.T. Karnick at The Reform Club asks this important question after the CPAC meeting this past weekend. For those who missed it, GPW covered the very promising news that Log Cabin Republicans participated in the event. And, LCR has come on strong to support President Bush’s Social Security reform effort.
From The Reform Club:

Can born-again Christians join with Log Cabin Republicans to support changes in Social Security and then go out separately to very different places afterward, and still see each other as true allies? This is a question that should be central to the discussion on the Right, as we seek to consolidate recent successes and create a movement that can truly compose a long-term majority of the American people.

Isn’t that what politics is all about…. joining coalitions as needed to govern? I think so.
Unfortunately, there is also this more pessimistic view of the CPAC meeting from Ryan Sager at TechCentralStation. No one said this would be easy.

Okay, that was an admittedly sensational headline….but you will see my point after I’m done I hope.
In its Sunday edition, The New York Times published transcripts of secret tapes of then-Governor George W. Bush. The tapes were made by a former Bush aide, Doug Wead, who apparently recorded Bush without his knowledge. In my neck of the woods, by the way, that is illegal.
LittleGreenFootballs has a good sum-up. (Hat tip to GP Reader, V the K)
The Times highlights a very important struggle Bush was having with conservative Christian leaders over gays in America.
[Read more…]

I noticed these two items at BoiFromTroy today…
Senator Offers Limited Apology – Hartford Courant

“It’s a sickness, I think,” Colapietro said in a story about same-sex marriage published Saturday by his local newspaper, the Bristol Press. “It’s not a cure for the sickness allowing them to marry.”
Colapietro was quickly criticized on an Internet bulletin board devoted to Bristol-area politics and in person Monday during a conversation with Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, who is gay.
“I feel bad they took the word `sick’ as derogatory,” Colapietro said Monday. “It wasn’t meant that way.”

That reminds me of the Jessica Rabbit line…. “I’m not bad, I was just drawn that way.” So I guess I’m gay, but not sick… because he didn’t mean it that way? How else would one take that other than derogatory. I mean clearly his apology didn’t mean he found gay salvation over the weekend. It means he found CYA.
Then there’s this number from Pennsylvania State Representative Thomas Yewcic: Pennsylvania lawmaker wants repeal of pro-gay protections — the Advocate.

A Pennsylvania lawmaker has proposed a bill that would remove a section from Pennsylvania’s hate-crime laws that bans harassment based on sexual orientation. Democratic state representative Thomas Yewcic of Cambria said he filed the bill in response to the arrest of five evangelical Christian protesters at a gay pride festival in Philadelphia. The five were charged with violating Pennsylvania’s Ethnic Intimidation Act when they disrupted the event with a bullhorn preaching that homosexuality is a sin. The Repent America demonstrators resisted a police order to pull back, and police said they were concerned about possible violence.

Now, he is probably right and even some of the pro-gay groups in Pennsylvania question the validity of using this law to squelch free speech. After all, if you applied it to ACT-UP I would imagine throwing batteries and condoms at some one might be a bit worse than telling someone they are a sinner. We are all sinners, after all, no?
But wouldn’t you have expected these comments and initiatives to becoming from conservative Republicans, not Democrats?
Verrrrry interesting. I will keep a watch on this potential trend.
-GayPatriot: gaypatriot2004@aol.com

I’m soooooo tired of the “Jew Working for the Nazis” analogy. It is so 1980s. Here’s the first email from a retired US Air Force guy (or so he says).

Your organization makes about as much sense as Jews for Zyklon-B .. hope that you enjoy four more years of increasing persecution from those who think you are in league with the devil. The only Gay Patriots are those who were kicked out of the military after serving honorably .. Leonard Matlovich, Keith Meinhold, the female Lieutenant .. (I used to know their names because I thought that the Navy should devote more resources to exposing crooks than to outing gays)

He also closed his email with this in his signature: “Patriots vote Democratic” Yeh, they also coddle Communists and Islamic Fascists. That’s no patriot to me.
And here’s number two.

Wow, a fag who likes Bush. Now that’s a sad state of affairs. Get a clue, Bush is wrong for this country!
I shouldn’t have to tell a suburban queen to get his head out of his ass and wake up and smell the hypocrisy!
Being a jewish fag myself, I find it scary how fags like yourself are embracing Bush.
Well even in Nazi Germany, some jews embraced Hitler thinking they would be immune from the bite- they were mistaken!

Sorry if I missed the memo from the Gay Borg… but are we allowed to call each other “fags”? I mean if Jerry Falwell or James Dobson used that word, there would be screaming queens in the streets of San Francisco up in sleeveless-shirted arms.
Oh… are we allowed to use the word “queen”?
Does anyone else see the irony in two gays who claim to be tolerant and embrace diversity using hate-filled speech against folks who have differing views on politics? And how does that advance the political discourse? Just asking.
-GayPatriot: gaypatriot2004@aol.com

Isn’t this interesting….
Fewer Gays Being Discharged Since 9/11 – Washington Post (you have to be registered to view *sigh*)
This explanation from gay rights organizations in the Post article is the predictable story line….

Pressed for personnel since the battle against terrorism began, the military needs to keep its numbers up and is not discharging gays as it once did.

And here is the quote from the Human Rights Campaign.

“These falling numbers point to an erratically enforced law that needs to go,” said HRC’s David Smith.

But I would suggest there is another factor. And I have to give the credit to PatriotPartner for this…
President Clinton faced pressure to look conservative on gay issues. So, he signed DOMA, and instituted Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. But he also had to enforce DADT. So it seems to be the “erratically enforced” law (signed by Clinton) may have only been enforced by Clinton. But how come HRC doesn’t give any credit for year-to-year declines in DADT discharges to President Bush? Because they aren’t the non-partisan gay rights group they claim, of course. They are the gay rights mouthpiece of the DNC/Howard Dean with their black tie upper class gay social dinners.
Perhaps, as I have said before, President Bush could give a rat’s ass whether or not a productive person in his Administration or the US Armed Forces is gay or straight. So maybe they just aren’t enforcing anymore.
Yes, I believe a part of it is because of the strain on the military. But it isn’t the answer entirely. True blue conservatives don’t care about people being gay. In fact, they probably want to ignore gay issues. They don’t want sexual politics shown on the evening news at all. So why be surprised that under President Bush, the military’s gay discharges have hit an all-time low?
No one really cares if you do your job to the best of your God-given abilities! Unless of course you are interested in special gay quotas. But who would want that? Maybe upper class, fundraising, money grubbing Washington gay insiders?
-GayPatriot: gaypatriot2004@aol.com

You wouldn’t know it from this press release by the Human Rights Campaign, but the Early Treatment for HIV Act was reintroduced this week by a *gasp* Republican United States Senator. None other than Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), who has come light years in his understanding of gay and HIV/AIDS issues. If you weren’t an astute political watcher, you would assume that since Hillary is the co-sponsor and all Republicans hate gays, that Senator Smith must be a Democrat.
Wrong.
Log Cabin Republicans got it right.
Isn’t it funny that when liberals go after something that Republicans are doing that they oppose, they make sure to identify them as Republicans in the media, press releases, etc. But you can bet they go out of their way to hide the truth when a Republican like Gordon Smith steps up to the plate.
He’s just another name without party identification according to the HRC, because all Republican Senators are evil, aren’t they?
-GayPatriot: gaypatriot2004@aol.com