Out in Politics: February 2008 Archives

Unless Hilary Clinton pulls off a couple of big wions on Tuesday, Barack Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee for president. I am a Clinton supporter and feel she is better qualified but I am not anti-Obama. I am further encouraged by this letter he has written to the LGBT people in this country:

I'm running for President to build an America that lives up to our founding promise of equality for all – a promise that extends to our gay brothers and sisters. It's wrong to have millions of Americans living as second-class citizens in this nation. And I ask for your support in this election so that together we can bring about real change for all LGBT Americans.

Larry Craig got scolded by the Senate Ethics Committee yesterday for his behavior during and after his humiliating arrest in an airport bathroom last year when he allegedly tapped his toe for sex with an undercover officer.

The toe-tapping was not the point of this "letter of admonition," it's about how Craig handed the officer his senate business card and said: "What do you think about that?" He was also taken to task for attempting to withdraw his guilty plea with the letter stating he did so after "your initial calculation that you could avoid public disclosure...proved wrong." Craig's claim that he did not know what he was doing when he pleaded guilty was "not credible."

There's more to the letter but basically, the senate is saying to Larry Craig: "You are a liar and a loser!"

I find Mitt Romney as offensive, inauthentic and soul-less as he is handsome.

This morning, I was watching his speech during which he announced that he was dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential campaign because, well, his campaign was a flop...a flip-flop. If you don't know who you are and constantly change what you believe, then you deserve to lose. I already do not like him but then I hear this part of the speech and nearly throw my shoe at the screen:

"The development of a child is enhanced by having a mother and father. Such a family is the ideal for the future of the child and for the strength of a nation. I wonder how it is that unelected judges, like some in my state of Massachusetts, are so unaware of this reality, so oblivious to the millennia of recorded history. It is time for the people of America to fortify marriage through constitutional amendment, so that liberal judges cannot continue to attack it!"

He's such a schmuck. The socially conservative voters who he's trying to court with that garbage completely rejected him - going with Huckabee. I'm sure this ambitious and very wealthy man is already looking ahead to four years from now but I'm quite confident he will have trouble being elected to his local city council - or any of the city council's in the many cities where he has homes.

I was hanging out with Gaywired.com's Ross von Metzke at the Stonewall Democrat's election night party at Here Lounge Tuesday night. Ross and I met at the NLGJA conference in San Diego last fall and he's a talented, smart guy. But I didn't think this video of me spouting off would end up online. I think I thought it was him practicing on me. The lighting is not very good (thank God!) but I don't sound like a total idiot.

To read Ross' piece, go to Gaywired.com

I don't know who else is in this photo but it's the only one I could find that had both Rosie O'Donnell and Hillary Clinton in it. Plus, Rosie's hair looked kinda funky.

Anyway, I was looking for a Ro-Hill pic because Rosie blogged on Wednesday about her hopes for a dream ticket of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

She writes, ..."They both seem to have the passion, plans, drive, and intelligence I want in my next president. Could a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket be our future? I hope so. I think America would benefit from the strengths of either individual, but if those strengths were combined, we might just have the Democratic powerhouse the country needs to turn itself around, and back into peace, prosperity and opportunity. May they both release the desire to receive for oneself alone -- and save the world together."

Rosie, telling it like it is, said she is "burned up and burned out" by politics and the leadership of George Bush who her former "View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck still inexplicably defends. Rosie writes: "Nearly everything his administration has done or stood for in the years since has been tainted by lies and corruption."

I gotta say, I've never been more excited to vote in a presidential primary. It meant an hour of rush hour traffic to make it home, vote, and meet my friend Evan for an early dinner at Spanish Kitchen on time. The scene at the Park LaBrea activity center was full of positive energy and people didn't seem to mind the long lines. I enthusiastically cast my vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton who I unabashedly support for the Democratic nomination.

After dinner, I headed over to a party at Here Lounge in West Hollywood for a big primary viewing party sponsored by the Stonewall Democrats. It was wall-to-wall gay peeps. Got there as Clinton was addressing supporters in New York. Here is a video of her speech:

Hillary had me at hello. But with Barack Obama coming on so strong, I watched his speech - which was terrific - with great interest, I had friends who had voted for him - although the crowd at the party was largely pro-Hillary - and I wanted to see if maybe I was missing something. As I said, the speech was terrific and he delivers it so beautifully. I see how people can feel so inspired. But I felt like it was also full of subtle cheap shots against Clinton as part of the "old" and Obama is part of the "new." I need more than that right now. I need specifics, I need a track record, I need someone who has real plans ready to be executed, I need someone who cares about the underdog. Barack Obama is some of those things but Hillary Clinton is all of those things.

Hey, she's already got my vote. I'm very excited at the prospect of Hillary Clinton becoming the first female president of the U.S. I'm excited because after the nightmare that has been the past seven years, I want competence in our nation's leader and I want compassion for all Americans. Obama is getting all the hype right now, and he says all the right things and sounds terrific saying them, but I favor Clinton because I feel that she is the best choice. I'm deeply disappointed that neither she or Obama advocate gay marriage, which I believe is simply equal rights for all, but I otherwise like her positions.

Here is a letter Clinton has written as a way of reaching out for the LGBT vote:

By Senator Hillary Clinton

As I have traveled around the country these past twelve months, what I sensed in my heart has been confirmed - America is embracing its LGBT sons and daughters with an acceptance and understanding as never before. On the campaign trail, a father of a gay son will ask about ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell. A woman will ask why she can be discriminated against just because of who she is. Sometimes they wait furtively for the crowd to thin and then whisper their confidences in a soft voice and sometimes they stand up proudly at town meetings and want me to share my views on how I will help lead the change to assure that this country fulfills its promise to everyone.

Let me tell you what I have been telling voters across America. I am fully committed to the fair and equal treatment of LGBT Americans. For seven long years, the Bush Administration has tried to divide us - only seeing people who matter to them. It's been a government of the few, by the few, and for the few. And no community has been more invisible to this administration than the LGBT community.

I will change that. The best evidence of what I will do as President is what I have already done.

I am proud of my record as First Lady, as a U.S. Senator and as a candidate for President in working toward the fair and equal treatment of LGBT Americans.

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