US News
Republican gays standing tall, want party to come back to center
By Karyn Chenoweth Nov 3, 2007, 18:19 GMT
US Senator Larry Craig of Idaho EPA/Steve Conner
Despite the numerous sex scandals with right-wing conservative Republicans rocking the party, the core Republicans who are gay are speaking out and standing tall.
The GOP is the party that has courted the powerful evangelical Christian wing that regards homosexuality as a sin and same-sex marriage as a threat to the traditional family.
The gay Republicans would like to see more recognition for the prominent and affluent homosexuals who comprise the Grand Old Party, who believe in the party core principles yet live lifestyles antithetical to the vocal religious conservatives.
"I believe that the approach of the social extremists eliminates our party's ability to grow in the future," gay Republican Doug Warner told Ed Stoddard of Reuters.
Stoddard notes that gay-bashing was the cornerstone for the Republicans in their rise to power.
The leading Republican candidate for 2008 is former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani who supports gay rights, including "domestic partnerships" and equal rights under the law.
Over and over Republicans are turning up in the news involved in gay sex imbroglios, unsavory ones due to the nature of the affairs; the men involved are all married with children and they were vocal opponents to any gay rights.
Their exposed hypocrisy has put an enormous pressure on the party that once stood for small government and didn't involve itself with people's personal business.
Gays within the Democratic ranks have candidates that push legislation for their civil rights.
Stoddard reports that Warner's concern about his Republican party's direction has led him to become an active member in a growing movement of conservative gays called the Log Cabin Republicans. It claims to have 20,000 members nationwide with over 40 official chapters.
"Somewhere along the way our party was hijacked by the social extremists who say that government needs to regulate things that were once considered private," said Warner's partner Truman Smith, who works as a private consultant and is the president of Log Cabin's South Carolina chapter.
"If we believe in lower taxes and less government, what are we going to do? Become Democrats?" he asked.
Stoddard interviewed prominent members of the Log Cabin GOP, and all expressed a need for their Republican party to adapt and come back to the center, away from polarizing social extremes.
"When we make social issues our priority then the Republican Party loses independents and swing voters and loses elections," said Jimmy LaSalvia, Log Cabin's grassroots outreach director.
Stoddard's report underlines the problem the GOP faces as tension between the party's religious wing and those who favor low taxes and fiscal responsibility and a moratorium on sexual politics.
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Older Talkback
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Cheney only seeks to preserve them. Good for him. A weakened presidency is of no use to anyone.
As for the log cabin republicans: They ARE there, nonetheless.
THREE branches of government, dumbkopf.
'The Separation of Powers devised by the framers of the Constitution was designed to do one primary thing: to prevent the majority from ruling with an iron fist. Based on their experience, the framers shied away from giving any branch of the new government too much power. The separation of powers provides a system of shared power known as Checks and Balances (see Separation of powers). For example, the President appoints judges and departmental secretaries. But these appointments must be approved by the Senate.'
This President has failed to implement laws through 'signing statements', not vetoed anything of note for the first 6 years (that's one of his powers), and is now vetoing for political reasons. The Bush years serve as a splendid example of an Administration run amok, enabled by the GOP majority in Congress for 6 years, not to mention idiots who willingly put up with it out of their political bias, superceding the good of the Country.
What Musharraf is pulling off right now now doubt has Cheney in ecstasy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_powers#United_States:_three_branche s
Look at the state of the world today, from Afghanistan to Pakistan and Iran, and the lies that got us into Iraq; and then tell us how an unchecked Presidency is a benefit.
Watch '60 Minutes' tonight for the expose on 'Curveball', the phony who was one basis used to substantiate the WMD story re Iraq.
www.latimes.com/features/printedition/books/la-bk-roane21oct21,1,786694 6.story?coll=la-headlines-bookreview
Known as 'Curveball' to the Western intelligence community, he was just another Iraqi asylum seeker when he flew to Germany in November 1999. But what he had to say set him apart. Curveball 'wanted to share a secret,' Drogin, the national security reporter for the Los Angeles Times, writes. 'Biowaffen' was the word that made it into German intelligence reports. Germ weapons to you and me.
It was explosive stuff. Curveball was seen as a one-in-a-thousand find, a talkative chemical engineer who had helped design and build Saddam Hussein's mobile germ warfare program and could sketch out the proof for all to see. His information changed the focus of America's spy agencies, infected their analysis of the threat posed by Hussein and in the end became the Bush administration's hammer in its call for war on Iraq.
But Curveball was lying. Worse, Drogin shows, many people who doubted him, including some at high levels in the U.S. government, didn't seem to care. He gave them 'evidence' for a theory they already believed and became the needed spark for a war they'd already planned.
...are not illegal. Now, you may disagree, but as of now, that is the law. If you do disagree, just get a lawyer and go up to the supreme court...dumbkopf.
If you want agood example of abuse of power, go study the Clintons
FBI records scandal.
'dumbkopf'
SP4 I always thought you were an older gentlemen living in the past. Only an infantile jerk would call anyone a 'dumbkoff' unless of course you were in Germany.
Now to the point, I would love to see your (right wing) party embrace the gays that seem to have infiltrated your party. Your base would love that! I am sure the nascar, tobacco chewing, beer swilling redneck south will embrace the gays 'up north'. Good luck SP4.
If you want to advocate for gays, go to the democratic party walk up to the front runner and ask her why she rolled over on the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy enacted under her husbands term in office.
Then saunter over to the Southern Baptist's, predominantly democrats, and ask them why THEY do not advocate for gays, before you brand southern republicans with your bigotry, while letting them off the hook.
After THAT, go to the libnazi strongholds in Catholic Chicago and Mass., then ask them why THEY do not advocate for gays.
Liberals: They cannot live up to their own professed beliefs. Limbaugh was right...again!
By the way, what does NASCAR have to do with gays? Is there somthing about Tony Stewart we don't know or something? I'm a big race fan, but this one escapes me...?
(This article enumerates the dodges and other abuses that the Executive branch has put forth under their own unique interpretation of the separation of powers, including:
'In his first five years in office, he signed 750 such statements, more than twice as many as those issued by his father and Bill Clinton combined.')
www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-linde nberger_04edi.ART.State.Edition1.45c59ad.html
By a series of legal maneuvers only recently fully understood, Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have steadily expanded the scope and power of the presidency. The president, they argue, has the right to pull America out of a fully ratified treaty – and without consulting anyone, much less the Senate, whose role in treaty-making is stated so clearly in the Constitution.
The president alone, they've argued, has the power to end fighting in a foreign theater, never mind the fact that the Constitution says Congress, not the president, has the power to declare war. One lawyer for the White House has argued, in fact, that presidents need no involvement from Congress to go to war, much less to end one. A declaration of war is merely a legal nicety, unrelated to the actual fighting of one, he has written.
They also argue that many laws passed by Congress and signed by the president need not be followed or enforced. To bypass them, the president need only issue a statement at the time of signing, spelling out his objections. This is not a novel view, but Mr. Bush has carried it to a new level: In his first five years in office, he signed 750 such statements, more than twice as many as those issued by his father and Bill Clinton combined.
In other ways, too, Mr. Bush has sought to insulate the activities of the executive branch from the oversight of Congress and the courts. He has asserted so-called executive privilege more often, and to cover a wider group of activities, than any of his modern-day predecessors. White House lawyers have argued in court that some of its decisions – most notably its indefinite detentions of citizen and noncitizen enemy combatants – are not only legal, they cannot be reviewed by the Supreme Court or other federal courts.
SP4----there is a lot you 'don't get', but not enough time to list all of those.
I am really sorry I even have to explain what I was saying, but for you I will so you do not 'bust a nut' trying to figure it out. I was pointing out that your 'base' is made up of right wing nascar, tobacco chewing, beer swilling rednecks. Remember the right has picked up the south since Democrats decided to back equal rights, and you guys over on the right try and claim that you do. And the main point was you have a bunch of gays in your ranks and it is time you treated people based on what they can do for your party, not what they are---then when they come out of the closet it is not such a shock to your leaders....And of course you are incorrect in stating 'Then saunter over to the Southern Baptist's, predominantly democrats' you really need to study a bit more (which would be out of context for you) as these fine folks have moved over to your side. If we still had these people on our side we would win a few more elections in the South.
And secondly I was making fun of your dumbkopf comment, as I had not heard that out of a 'normal' human being in a while.
Likely invisible in real life, this is where he chooses to make a public ass of himself. Suddenly the thread is about HIM, instead of the topic.
These retards are hopeless, so let him live with his Clintonian fantasies, while neglecting Nixon, a true anti-semitic bigot and maniac. Run a poll today, and Clinton tops Bush every time. SEVENTY FIVE PERCENT of the public want a change in course from where Bush has led us.
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Core gay GOP'ers in the wrong partyNov 3rd, 2007 - 20:46:40
Seeking tolerance, and adhering to fundamentalist principles, are at odds as never before. These people will have a decision to make - their economic values may be aligned, but anyone seeking the right to be an individual, whether based on sexual orientation or anything else, will not find a welcome in today's GOP, which is being further battered by sex scandals and hypocrisy amongst their own elected representatives.
This Administration is restricting individual rights and sucking up power to the Presidency as never before, in the name of 'protecting us', but in reality fulfilling Cheney's dream of an imperial Presidency unencumbered by the niceties of having people disagree with him. He's managed to absorb the fact that his own daughter is gay, but extending that feeling to anyone else is out of bounds. Bush, a reformed drunk, is now the exemplar of good morals to this bunch of power-seeking phonies.
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