Starts at minute 1:30.

Earlier this week, “Pastor Rick” Warren denied he’d ever supported Proposition 8, California’s anti-gay amendment — despite the existence of video of him giving it his unqualified endorsement.

Now “Dr.” Laura Schlessinger, who made a name for herself with homophobic rantings, has also done a complete about face:

KING: Basically, five states now say you can have it [same-sex marriages]. What do you think of that? What are you laughing at?

SCHLESSINGER: Well, I don’t have much of an opinion on it.

KING: You have no opinion on it?

SCHLESSINGER: Not much, no.

KING: But you’ve always favored that marriage must be between a man and woman.

SCHLESSINGER: I’m very big on human beings finding love, attachment and commitment and being faithful to it, because there’s more to benefit when there is real, true commitment and faithfulness to it. I still believe, as just every president has, and all the people who ran for office, that marriage is a sacrament between a man and a woman. So not calling it marriage works for me. But that two people would have that sort of commitment to me is a very healthy and very positive thing in their lives and society as a whole.

KING: So, you favor marriage between a man and a woman, but you applaud the fact that even people of the same sex can have that kind of commitment to each other.

SCHLESSINGER: That’s a beautiful thing and a healthy thing.

It would be very interesting to know what led to her change of heart.

Former Republican Former New Hampshire Former Sen. Bob Smith

An already crowded race just got a little busier — and much stranger.

Former New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith (R) has announced he will run for the Florida seat currently occupied by Mel Martinez, who is not seeking re-election. Why would a New Jersey native who transplanted to New Hampshire think he could represent Florida? The answer is, because he cares not a whit about what Floridians want. Bob is all about Bob, and Bob is so far to the right, the dial breaks off before it reaches him.

“I have concluded that I can no longer ‘sit on the sidelines’ in this fight for the soul of America,” Smith wrote, per the [Manchester, N.H.] Union Leader.

Smith won election to the Senate in 1990, taking over for Sen. Gordon Humphrey (R), but lost a primary battle in 2002 to then-Rep. John Sununu (R). Smith ran for president in 2000, first as a Republican, then as an Independent…

Smith said he left the GOP because it had moved too far to the left

Known for being perhaps the most conservative Republican in the Senate during his tenure, Smith said he left the GOP because it had moved too far to the left. It’s a theme Smith signaled he will use again as he runs to reclaim a seat in the upper chamber.

“It’s time for Republicans to start acting like Republicans again!” Smith wrote to supporters.

Riiiiight. And what does that look like, Bob? Wait, don’t tell me. I don’t think I can stand the answer.

Smith’s chances might not be so good. While he has been a Florida resident since last year, moving to Sarasota to sell real estate (whoops!), some here might not embrace him as a true resident. Or even a true Republican. Bob says he’s rejoined the GOP, but he might be more of a Libertarian. Bob writes editorials for the Constitution Party, aka the U.S. Taxpayers’ Party.

In addition, he’s got a ton of competition, likely including U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek (D), former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio (R), U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns (D), State Sen. Dan Gelber (D), and Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio (D). Republicans are also braced for an announcement that our esteemed governor, Charlie Crist, will go for the seat.

Chief of Office of Legal Counsel nominee Dawn Johnsen and State Department Legal Counsel nominee Harold Koh

Republicans are so determined to continue to cover up the Bush administration’s illegal and immoral torture of suspected terrorists that they are threatening to “go nuclear” over Obama nominations if more torture memos are released.

A Republican Senate source confirms the strategy. It now appears that Republicans are seeking an Obama commitment to safeguard the Bush administration’s darkest secrets in exchange for letting these nominations go forward…

Few informed independent observers find much to credit in the objections

The release of the memos that the Senate Republicans want to suppress was cleared by Attorney General Eric Holder and White House counsel Greg Craig, and then was stopped when “all hell broke loose” inside the Obama administration, according to an article by Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff. Newsweek attributes internal opposition to disclosure of the Bush-era torture memos to White House counterterrorism adviser and former CIA official John O. Brennan, who has raised arguments that exposure of the memoranda would run afoul of policies protecting the secrecy of agency techniques and has also argued that the memos would embarrass nations like Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan, Tunisia and Egypt, which have cooperated closely with the CIA in its extraordinary renditions program.

Few informed independent observers, however, find much to credit in the Brennan objections because the techniques are now well-known, as is the role of the cooperating foreign intelligence services—any references to which would in any event likely be redacted before the memoranda are released. Moreover, the argument that the confidence of those engaged in torture—serious criminal conduct under international and domestic law—should be kept because they would be “embarrassed” if it were to come out borders on comic.

Johnsen, an Indiana University law professor, is a former American Civil Liberties Union and National Abortion & Reprouctive Rights Action League lawyer. Is any further explanation needed about why the right wing would object to her nomination? Koh has been the subject of a shouted campaign by Mormon FOX News pundit Glenn Beck and others, who have convoluted Koh’s adherence to international law into a charge that he would enforce sharia (Muslim law, which makes no distinction between religious and secular laws). Both Johnsen and Koh are thought to support release of the Bush torture memos.

A Wordle word cloud from Jon’s recent post about Michael Savage calling Mormon Glenn Beck a hemorrhoid with eyes

This is just too effing cool. You go to this site and paste in your text and it creates a word cloud. You’ve seen those, right? But not like this, I’ll bet. You can spend endless hours hitting the “randomize” button and seeing how your text displays in various themes and colors and not get tired of it. And oh yeah, you can kind of use it to check your SEO, if you’re into that kind of thing.

See for yourself at Wordle.net.

In a vicious slur against hemorrhoids, Michael Weiner, the right-wing hate jock who works under the name Michael Savage, has attacked fellow hate jock Glenn Beck, a Mormon who is now the darling over at Fox News, by accusing Beck of stealing his material and by referring to him as a ‘hemorrhoid with eyes.’ Transcript via Salon.com’s War Room:

[Presumably Glenn Beck] listens to the show everyday and then copies it the next day with graphics. You have to give it to the hemorrhoid, he’s not bad… The hemorrhoid with eyes has a very good pair of ears, I have to hand it to him… What’s with the overacting? What’s with the overemphasis of everything and the crying? What’s that all about?… I’m afraid the guy’s going to have a nervous breakdown on the air… This guy’s on the edge everyday… Good luck to him. Personally I think the guy is going to have a crack up on the air — which is going to be very good for ratings.

Howard Ahmanson, the heir to one of Southern California’s great family fortunes and a major contributor to right-wing extremist causes, including most recently donating $1 million to Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage amendment, has shocked the California political establish by abandoning the Republican Party and now says he’s a Democrat.

Conservative Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker broke the story after the hyper-reclusive Ahmanson agreed to speak with her:

In what one might call a biblical move, Christian philanthropist Howard Ahmanson — one of three major funders of California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriages — has abandoned the GOP for the Democratic Party.

No one ever said the multimillionaire isn’t idiosyncratic.

In a rare interview Thursday, Ahmanson shared some of his thoughts about why he switched parties.

In a word, taxes.

Specifically, he was offended by the California Republican Party’s insistence during a recent state budget battle that there would be no tax increases for any reason, no matter what.

“They’re providing one issue and it’s just a very silly issue,” Ahmanson told me by telephone.

So, without fanfare, Ahmanson printed out an online form and mailed in his Democratic Party registration. Thus far, he’s heard nothing back, but confesses to hoping he’ll receive a little card or something.

Early in his life, Ahmanson, now 58, was a follower of the late Rousas John Rushdoony, who was an advocate of replacing the Constitution as the foundation of U.S. law with the Bible, which meant, among many other barbaric practices, that gay people would be stoned to death.

Parker writes that Ahmanson’s views on social matters has “mellowed” a bit:

Rushdoony’s ideas captured Ahmanson’s imagination in what the philanthropist now calls “my wild youth,” but he has mellowed. Ahmanson certainly doesn’t believe that homosexuals should be executed, as some of his critics have suggested, but he does believe that gays should “come to Christ and then recover.”

He is also no longer the welfare abolitionist he used to be, “though I hate the attitude that welfare, once granted, is a moral entitlement that can never be reduced. And Social Security and Medicare are included in my definition of welfare.”

Ahmanson has not completely abandoned his GOP tendencies, however. Parker wrote that while he liked Sarah Palin in the presidential campaign last year, he plans on supporting Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal in 2012.

Via Keith Olbermann on “Countdown” last night — Republican Party boss Limbaugh had a mini-meltdown on the air yesterday when a conservative caller dared to criticize Limbaugh — not because of Limbaugh’s statements saying he hopes America fails — but because of Limbaugh’s support for torturing suspects.

Here’s a transcript (via HuffPo) of what the conservative caller dared say to Rush Limbaugh:

[…]

Left: Warren on Larry King’s show this week; right: Warren’s statement endorsing Prop 8 last October

On CNN’s Larry King show this week, megachurch preacher Rick Warren tried to rewrite the history of his opposition to gay marriage and his support of anti-gay Proposition 8 in his home state of California last year.

Lie #1: I Never Issued a Statement Or Endorsed Prop 8

On the King show, Warren said he was “not an anti-gay marriage activist,” and then made two patently false statements about his public pronouncements on gay issues. First he said:

During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never — never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going.

Warren is wrong about the timeframe. Prop 8 was launched in early 2008 and was over in November, not "two years."

But he was not merely misspeaking when he said he’d “never once issued a statement, never — never once even gave an endorsement” on Prop 8. That was a lie. Here’s a statement from Warren about Prop 8 (see video above on the left) that he videotaped in October:
[…]

Paper towels in Paris?

A fascinating new poll uncovers a bellwether for larger issues. Rasmussen asked registered voters if they agree with the statement that “over the years, the United States has shown arrogance, been dismissive, and even derisive” toward our ally, Europe. While they didn’t say over which years, we would guess they mean those in which George W. Bush was president. Only 37 percent agreed with that assertion, while 47 percent disagreed and 16 percent weren’t sure.

Much more surprising to me was the reaction to the next question: would it “be better for the world if Europe became more like the United States?” With no more specificity on in what ways Europe might emulate us, a whopping 54 percent thought it would. These folks presumably want Europeans to work a minimum 50 weeks per year, drive cars instead of walking places, and buy palettes of paper towels and weed and seed at Costco while munching burgers and fries from a plastic bag. And take lots of overpriced drugs for heart disease and diabetes.

Only 22 percent agreed “things would be better [if] the United States would become more like Europe.” After all, who wants to buy fresh food in quantities you plan to consume in one day from small, nearby grocers, have health care provided whether you work for a big company or not, and speak a second language? I mean, yuck.

Not surprisingly, answers varied based on party affiliation.

On all questions, there are strong and substantial partisan divides. Democrats, by a two-to-one margin, say that the U.S. has been arrogant and dismissive of Europe. Republicans, by a three-to-one margin, disagree. So do most voters not affiliated with either major party. However, while 51% of unaffiliated reject the notion that the United States has been arrogant, 32% say it’s true…

By an 8-to-1 margin, Republicans say it would be better for Europe to become more like the United States. Democrats agree, but by a much more modest 45% to 29% margin. As for those not affiliated with either major party, 46% say Europe should be more like the United States while 27% hold the opposite view.

Just as lots of polls showed a small, hardcore base of support for Bush no matter how much he screwed up, this survey reflects an underlying current that probably won’t ever change. If you’re a Democrat, you likely think there are good things we can learn from others. If you’re a Republican, you think you’ve got the “how to live” market covered, and information should only flow one way — from you to the less enlightened. Luckily for the rest of us, you can only speak English.

If the term “egg roll” brings Chinese restaurants to your mind, then I’m not alone. But the annual event held at the White House the day after Easter (Easter Monday?) will be a little different this year anyway, so that’s O.K.

Gay people are invited.

That’s right, gay moms and dads and their children are invited to attend the White House Egg Roll.

Representatives from Family Equality Council, Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and other groups confirmed they were invited and encouraged to have their members participate.

“The Obama administration actually reached out to us as an organization, and said we want gay families there, and they are an important part of the American family fabric,” said Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the Boston-based Family Equality Council, which is helping spearhead the effort to organize families to attend.

In the very recent past, things were a bit different.

In 2006 during the Bush administration, more than 100 gay families attended the egg roll in part to make the statement that they should be welcome. Some conservatives accused gays and lesbians of trying to “crash” the event and turn it into forum for ideological politicking.

In 2006 during the Bush administration, some conservatives accused gays and lesbians of trying to “crash” the event

This year already feels different, said Colleen Gillespie of Brooklyn, who helped spark the 2006 effort.

“We feel so welcomed and embraced, and that in a very real way, I think we can just go as a family and enjoy it,” said the 42-year-old assistant professor at New York University’s school of medicine, who is attending with her wife and their daughters, Ella and Zelda. “We don’t have to fight for our right to exist and be treated fairly.”

So what do you do at an egg roll? Apparently, you actually roll eggs across the White House lawn. Where I come from, an adult hid the eggs and then you tried to find them. It was called an Easter egg hunt. This egg rolling thing is a full-contact activity, according to the warning on the White House web site.

The White House Easter Egg Roll dates back to 1878 and is an event designed to encourage children and their families to come outdoors and celebrate the start of the spring season. This year’s theme, ‘Let’s go play’, encourages America’s youth to lead healthy and active lives. The White House will open the South Lawn to children age ten and under, along with their families, to enjoy sports, cooking classes, live musical performances, storytelling and, of course, the traditional Easter egg roll. Please come dressed to be active and participate in all of the events.

Cooking classes? I wonder if they’ll whip up some Chinese.