Category: Blogroll

Obama’s Dinner Party from Hell

Trish

Graphic by Jake Turcotte appears at the Christian Science Monitor

If I were Barack Obama, I could think of few things worse than the dinner party he recently attended at George Will’s house.

Who was on the guest list?

The New York Times’s David Brooks, the Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer, CNBC’s Lawrence Kudlow, National Review’s Rich Lowry, and the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol.

No Joe the Plumber? No. He’s over in Israel covering a war.

Good Lord. What must that have been like? I bet Obama staggered outside afterward and tossed back a few Rolaids, chased with a couple of stiff shots. At least that’s what I would have done.

Gay Bishop Who Almost Imploded Anglical Church to Pray for Obama

Trish

In yet another gesture to the gay and lesbian community, Pres.-Elect Obama has invited Bishop Gene Robinson (any relation to Michelle Robinson Obama?) to deliver a prayer in the lead-up to the Obama inauguration.

New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, at the center of the Anglican church’s global battle over homosexuality, will speak on Sunday on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial…

Robinson has called the choice of Warren a slap in the face. But he said on Monday he did not believe Obama invited him in response to the Warren criticism but his prayer would help ease concerns among gay and lesbians.

He said he believed the invitation, which came about two weeks ago, was made because he endorsed Obama in May last year. The two also met during the presidential primary.

I’m sure the invitation was at least in part because of the reaction to Rick Warren but I also don’t think that’s a bad thing. Obama was never going to un-invite Warren but he’s willing to show he’s learning. Learning is good.

Robinson said he advised Obama several times during his presidential campaign.

“I was very early on taken with his anti-polarization message,” he said. “So part of the invitation came out of the albeit brief relationship that we have had.”

The 77 million-member Anglican Communion, a global federation of national churches, has been in upheaval since 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated Robinson as the first bishop known to be in an openly homosexual relationship in more than four centuries of church history…

Joe Solmonese, president of gay rights advocates the Human Rights Campaign, called Robinson’s selection “encouraging.”

Incoming Obama Press Secretary Says Obama Plans to Dump Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell

Trish

Is it me or does Robert Gibbs just seem really nice? And doesn’t it sound like he says, “the dumbass don’t tell” policy? If so, right on, brother!

“Open for Questions” is a feature at Change.gov where people can submit questions directly to Pres.-Elect Obama. This is the second time such questions have been addressed.

During this second round, we decided to leave the voting open significantly longer, but even with that extra time we were surprised to see the final totals: 103,512 people submitted 76,031 questions and cast 4,713,083 votes. We can now be confident that the success of the first round was not just about a new trick, but just a hint of the willingness of the public to permanently change the way they interact with their government. There’s plenty of room to grow.

For this round we refined the process to make it more user-friendly, and broke out the questions into categories. We think this made for a more interesting experience, and ensured that a broader array of questions could get exposure. But we also wanted to try a new way of responding to the questions, so this time instead of text answers, we asked incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to sit down with us. Since there were so many popular questions in so many categories, we tried to pull out some of them that had been addressed previously by the President-elect or Vice President-elect in order to focus the video portion on questions that haven’t been as specifically addressed during the Transition.

The complete five-minute video follows.

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Bushes Bump Obamas at Blair House So Former Aussie PM Can Stay Overnight

Jon Ponder

Rachel Maddow has been all over this story (see video above), which is being referred to as Bush’s “final insult.” Let’s hope so:

The veil is lifted. We now know who is booked at Blair House, kicking President-elect Barack Obama and his family to the waiting list and across Lafayette Square to the Hay-Adams Hotel.

The only overnight visitor at the presidential guest manse is none other than John Howard, a former Australian prime minister and leading member of President Bush’s coalition of the willing in Iraq.

Howard and his entourage will be bunking at Blair House on Jan. 12, the night before he, former British prime minister Tony Blair and Colombian President Álvaro Uribe are to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bush, said Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for first lady Laura Bush.

First Lady Laura Bush also has a daytime event scheduled in the facility this week.

The Obamas needed to move into Blair House early because their daughters needed to start school on Jan. 5.

Richardson Steps Down Sooner Rather than Later

Trish

It’s not Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.) we are concerned about. It’s the possible taint on the incoming president that worries us. Already, according to a recent Gallup poll, one-quarter of the public believes someone on the Obama staff did something funny with Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The exact question asked was:

On a different topic, as you may know. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been charged with conspiracy in trying to profit from naming Barack Obama’s replacement in the U.S. Senate. Just your best guess, do you think any member of Barack Obama’s staff has done anything illegal in connection with this matter, or not?

The answers were:

  • 26 percent — Yes, has done something illegal
  • 60 percent — No, has not done anything illegal
  • 13 percent — No opinion

Richardson took himself out of the confirmation process for Secretary of Commerce after it became clear he would be embroiled in controversy for the foreseeable future.

Richardson took himself out of the confirmation process after it became clear he would be embroiled in controversy for the foreseeable future

Richardson, in a statement also released by Obama’s team, gave no details on the probe except to say that it “promises to extend for several weeks or, perhaps, even months” and “would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.”

…The grand jury in Albuquerque is looking into Beverly Hills, California-based CDR Financial Products Inc., which received almost $1.5 million in fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority in 2004 after donating $100,000 to Richardson’s efforts to register Hispanic and American Indian voters and pay for expenses at the Democratic National Convention in 2004…

Obama is known for selecting only squeaky clean people, or failing that, for proactively controlling future damage, as with the overseas ties of Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton’s husband, former Pres. Bill Clinton.

I am in the 60 percent of people who think Obama’s team will be found to have done nothing more with Blagojevich than piss him off by refusing to pay him off. I had my qualms about Bill Richardson from the get-go but I couldn’t really say why. We’ll give the governor the benefit of the doubt but I hope no one else will cast any compromising shadows over the incoming administration.

Stampede! Elephants Flee D.C. Ahead of Inauguration

Trish

Politico:

“What better way to mark the Obama Inauguration (and his millions of adoring fans that will be in DC) than to get out of town to fabulous Las Vegas!” wrote Charlie Spies, a Republican lawyer and former CFO to Mitt Romney’s campaign in a blast email to GOP friends. “We hope you can join us for dinner and a fun evening on Monday, January 19th to celebrate the last few hours of our Republican president in the White House.”

Spies and his wife Lisa, a Republican fund-raiser, have gotten about 15 takers so far for this last supper or, as they billed it in the e-mail, their own “Inaugural in Exile.”

They’re far from alone. Other [Republicans] will usher in the new era from the slopes, the islands, the NFL playoffs and even on a serendipitously-timed honeymoon. Full Democratic control of Washington may be a bitter pill, but it’s easier to get down from a lodge, beach, 50-yard-line or, especially, honeymoon suite.

If only they would just stay gone.

What Was Up with Rick Warren’s Surprise Visit to West Hollywood?

Jon Ponder

Rick Warren, the right-wing meg-achurch preacher from Orange County, Calif., who is set to give the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration next month, made a surprise visit last week to a thrift store in the heart of West Hollywood, southern California’s gay Mecca, that left a lot of us locals scratching our heads.
Obama’s invitation has catapulted Warren to fame. In just three short weeks, he has become the most famous conservative in California, bar none.
The store, which is a branch of a locally famous chain called Out of the Closet, a non-profit that benefits HIV services, is on Santa Monica Blvd., about three blocks from Pensito Review’s West Coast office. I did not find out about Warren’s appearance there until later, which is probably a good thing because Out of the Closet sells shoes.

TMZ, the television and internet gossip network that is also based nearby on the Sunset Strip, had an exclusive report on the visit, including a photo of Warren with the thrift store manager, Erol Sarabi, that was apparently taken on a cell phone:

[Warren] bought 8 to 10 books, two of which were his own (that doesn’t help with his Amazon ranking). Warren told Sarabi not to believe everything he reads, that he does a lot for AIDS research and was happy that Out of the Closet does free AIDS testing…

By the way, Warren gave a signed copy of his book to Sarabi. The inscription from the Bible, Proverbs 19:21: “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

What Warren was up to here is a bit hard to suss out. Out of the Closet is hardly a gathering place in West Hollywood — thrift stores are not usually hangouts — so if his intent was to make a show of his support for the gays, he would have done better by stopping next door at the Gold Coast, a bar catering to older gentlemen his age, including especially those with his body type.

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Is Same-Sex Marriage the Equal Rights Amendment of the Gay Rights Struggle?

Trish

Rallying for the ERA, circa 1972

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

This might be as good as it gets, for both women and gays.

That’s the Equal Rights Amendment, top to bottom. And while it seems like an inoffensive no-brainer of a statement, in almost a century, it has yet to become the law of the land. Since it was drafted in 1923 shortly after the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote, the ERA has remained tantalizingly out of reach.

Those who have opposed it, including such icons as Eleanor Roosevelt, have cited squeamishness over the role of women in the military, a threat to single-sex education, loss of Social Security benefits for widows, and even a broadening of abortion rights as excuses not to pass it.

Ironically, the success of the women’s movement of the ’70s and ’80s is largely to blame. So many discriminatory laws were overturned, especially in employment, that the ERA began to be seen as unnecessary. In fact, many post-feminist era young women have no idea that gender equality is not guaranteed in the Constitution.

I predict a similar fate for same-sex marriage.

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All Openly Gay Obama Cabinet Members Should Resign in Protest over Warren Invite

Jon Ponder

Oh, wait, there aren’t any openly gay people in Obama’s cabinet:

President-elect Barack Obama last week announced the last of his Cabinet nominees, revealing that none of his department heads would be openly gay. The omission, combined with Obama’s decision to invite Rev. Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration, led [the Human Rights Campaign,] the nation’s largest gay rights group to demand that Obama quickly prove his commitment to gay and transgender Americans.

The HRC’s plan includes:

  • Issuing an executive order within the first 100 days of his administration to reaffirm protections for federal workers based on sexual orientation while expanding them to include gender identity.
  • Working with Congress to enact hate crimes legislation within six months.
  • Developing a plan within 100 days to begin the process of repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” [DADT] law, which prohibits openly gay people from serving in the military.

The first two items are relatively simple, but repealing DADT could be problematic. Not long after Pres. Bill Clinton took office, he stumbled in an attempt to repeal military regulations that prohibited gay people from serving in the military, particularly because he faced opposition from Colin Powell, who then served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as from Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, including the chairman, Sam Nunn of Georgia.

This stumble led to DADT, a bizarre compromise under which gay people can serve in the military as long as they deny who they are and stay in the closet.

Now, 15 years later, Powell has (sort of) reversed himself on DADT, saying it ought to be reevaluated. Sam Nunn retired into much deserved irrelevance years ago. More importantly, at least one national poll indicates that Americans are ready to scrap DADT:

The ABC News/Washington Post Poll, which has tracked the issue for 15 years, shows that public attitudes that were in line with the [DADT] policy in 1993 no longer are.

The poll posed two questions.

The first was: “Do you think that homosexuals who do not publicly disclose their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the military?”In 1993, 63 percent said yes; in July 2008, 78 percent said yes.

The second question was: “Do you think that homosexuals who do publicly disclose their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the military or not?” In 1993, only 44 percent said yes; in July, 75 percent said yes.

Repealing DADT is still something of a trap for Obama because it could provide ammunition for Republican charges down the road that he is too liberal. A much safer course would be to disinvite Rick Warren from speaking at the inauguration.

Inaugural Slate Includes Pro-Gay Rights Minister

Trish

The full program for the inauguration of Barack Obama and Joe Biden has something for almost everyone. I say “almost” because I’m not seeing any Islamic participation. Maybe it’s just too touchy for someone who spent most of his campaign denying rumors he was a secret Muslim to throw in a monologue from Dave Chappelle.

But the program does include one name that’s been overshadowed by the heavier-weight (and I mean literally — Rick, can we talk? You gotta lay off the cheeseburgers, big guy) pastor of Saddleback Church. Rev. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will give the benediction.

Lowery: “When you talk about the law discriminating, granting a privilege here and denying it there, that’s a civil rights issue. And I can’t take that away from anybody.”

Rev. Lowery is sort of an anti-Warren, actually…Lowery, by contrast, has courageously supported gay marriage. In 2004, Rev. Lowery told ABC News he supported same sex marriage. “When you talk about the law discriminating, the law granting a privilege here, and a right here and denying it there, that’s a civil rights issue. And I can’t take that away from anybody.”

Rev. Lowery is a United Methodist and has joined the struggle in that denomination for equal rights for gay Methodists to be ordained. In 2000, Lowery gave an extraordinary speech where he called for full inclusion in the body of Christ for all Methodists, gay or straight, saying he preferred to err “on the side of inclusion.”

Those with more in-church experience than me will have to let me know how a benediction compares with an invocation. The full line-up, as announced last week, follows.

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