Centerfield

I'd like to see a single quote from a Bush administration official in which any member of it "spread the grotesque canard that homos*xuality is a direct path to pedophilia". In fact, I've seen at least one Democratic candidate criticizing the Repulican House leadership for not being more responsive to the initial complaints about Foley being overly-friendly, simply because Foley was gay.

In fact, President Bush, while opposing "gay marriage" has supported civil unions and generally done a great deal to at least preserve, and sometimes expand, Clinton-era protections against discrimination based on s*xual orientation.

Remember those tapes of Bush's chats with a friend of his which came out last year?

Signs of Concern

Early on, though, Mr. Bush appeared most worried that Christian conservatives would object to his determination not to criticize gay people. "I think he wants me to attack homos*xuals," Mr. Bush said after meeting James Robison, a prominent evangelical minister in Texas.

But Mr. Bush said he did not intend to change his position. He said he told Mr. Robison: "Look, James, I got to tell you two things right off the bat. One, I'm not going to kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?"

Later, he read aloud an aide's report from a convention of the Christian Coalition, a conservative political group: "This crowd uses gays as the enemy. It's hard to distinguish between fear of the homos*xual political agenda and fear of homos*xuality, however."

"This is an issue I have been trying to downplay," Mr. Bush said. "I think it is bad for Republicans to be kicking gays."

Told that one conservative supporter was saying Mr. Bush had pledged not to hire gay people, Mr. Bush said sharply: "No, what I said was, I wouldn't fire gays."

Typical media slander-in-passing-without-citation story.

But you're quite right about Rep. Frank's hypocrisy.

Um, that wasn't Barney Frank, but Frank Rich. Though some of the testimonials to Gerry Studds can be taken hilariously out of context, even Barney Frank's.

Gerry was a forceful advocate for causes that were not always popular and that were consequently shunned by many politicians. --Barney Frank on Gerry Studds

Just not by Mark Foley!

Studd's widower's remarks are even better.

Gerry often said that it was the fight for gay and lesbi@n equality that was the last great civil rights chapter in modern American history. He did not live to see its final sentences written... --Dean Hara, Studd's spouse

But we hear he did do a few pages!

Sorry, just one of those days when I can't resist a straight line. (Oh no, I did it again.)

that was....bland

Yeah, it's not nearly as entertaining as Santorum comparing the gay lifestyle to "man on dog" stuff or--my personal favorite--Sen. Lott saying gays are akin to kleptomanics.

But let's bear with Tully. I have those moods where everything is a straight line with me, too. Cheer up, they eventually fade; ususally when somebody hits you for being irritating beyond bearing. ;-)

PS: you can usually find NYT columnists (on the left side of the aisle anyway) without paying subscription fees here. You can find more fun quotes from Tony Perkins (not the Pschyo one), Pat Buchanan, etc. here. (Though not the best one, where Falwell blames 9/11 on the gays.)

Jean, it's nice that you don't consider the ex-Louisianian Tony Perkins as Psycho... Having known the man down here, I'm not sure I can agree with you, though. ;-)

But I wanted the psycho Tony Perkins action figure! Sniff. It was gonna go next to my Howard Dean action figure! (Put it in front of a microphone and it sticks its foot in its mouth...)

Jean, why do I suspect that Truthout and HRC will be quoting people out of context a lot, and trying to blame centrists and mainstreamers for the mutterings of nutjobs? Following their tactics, can I blame Lynn Stewart on Ben Nelson, and you-know-who on Harry Ried? (Don't forget, you-know-who is a dedicated Democrat!)

Yep, that's all CPD sarcasm. Except the bit about the action figures.

I will note the point of Frank Rich's article, despite that horrendous Foley comment, which is that whenever the GOP is in trouble they go to god, guns and gays. Inre to gays it gets pretty nasty, especially from the proxies oon the religious right, including the implication that all gays are pedophiles etc. A simple search of google or yahoo brings up a number of interesting aspersions from that part of the GOP base. Nevermind that more than 90% of the pedophiles are hetros\..xual.

Speaking of action dolls, I recall a few people put out an Anita Bryant doll way back when- in various stages of pervy dress and undress. She had a problem with the "threat" of militant homo(Blankblank)xuality.

That filter - I can't use the full spelling of hetero**** cause it don't like s at the end of "ero".