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SCOTT TUCKER
Friday, February 29, 2008
IT’S A SAD state of affairs, albeit unsurprising, when gay rights advocates can’t bring themselves to say a nice thing about a Republican U.S. senator who twice led the charge against the anti-gay federal marriage amendment.
I take issue with the column Chris Crain wrote last week for the Washington Blade, “John McCain the McMaverick?” His column ignored several facts and distorted the truth.
Let me first examine Crain’s words about the Log Cabin Republicans’ strategy against Mitt Romney. Log Cabin challenged Romney in television and radio ads for his lack of credibility. We highlighted his past positions as a Senate candidate in Massachusetts, which are vastly different than the positions he took running for president. Our ads, which aired primarily in New Hampshire and Iowa, helped seal the flip-flop narrative that took Romney down.
Crain writes, “While there’s no question Log Cabin had a score to settle with Romney, who promised as recently as 1994 that he would be a more effective advocate for gay rights than Ted Kennedy. But is it really the Log Cabin view that Romney’s pro-gay past is inconsistent with being a true conservative…?”
No. That’s why the ads made no mention of gay issues. We targeted the ads to a very specific audience and sought to undercut Romney’s support among social conservatives — and it paid off. Romney’s flip-flops on every major issue became a theme of his campaign and led to his defeat.
Crain wrote that “gays should find no solace” in Sen. John McCain. While Log Cabin has not endorsed McCain and while his record on LGBT issues is certainly not perfect, Crain’s attacks on the Arizona Republican are not justified.
He says, “I don’t really understand why John McCain is so attractive as the ‘McMaverick Republican’ to GOP moderates, especially if they are gay.”
CRAIN IS CLEARLY not a McCain supporter — and he’s entitled to his opinion. But it’s surprising that Crain can’t see why McCain is an attractive candidate for GLBT Republicans.
McCain has effectively won the GOP presidential nomination with no help (and with outright hostility) from most so-called social conservatives. If elected, McCain will take anti-gay crusader James Dobson off speed-dial at the White House, which is a significant achievement for all gays and lesbians. Dobson declared he “would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances” in large part because of McCain’s lack of anti-gay credentials.
Crain dismisses McCain’s record opposing the anti-gay federal marriage amendment, saying “the president doesn’t get a vote on constitutional amendments and there’s zero likelihood that a President McCain will waste an iota of political capital opposing congressional Republicans on a marriage amendment.”
First, if the president’s opinion on a federal marriage amendment doesn’t matter, then why did Crain care when President Bush endorsed it in 2004? You can’t have it both ways. The truth is the president’s opinion on constitutional amendments matters enormously (the major reason Log Cabin chose not to endorse Bush in 2004) and it’s only fair to note that McCain, the Republican, twice voted against the anti-gay constitutional amendment. It took enormous political courage for a senator from red-state Arizona to buck his own party and the president on such a hot-button issue.
Crain continues, “It’s true that McCain doesn’t pander to the right with rhetoric about ‘traditional family values’ … Many moderates and libertarians still love McCain for calling out Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as ‘agents of intolerance’ back in 2000. But let’s not forget how McCain sucked up to both of them in advance of this presidential run, even speaking at Falwell’s Liberty University.”
In other words, it’s a deal-breaker when a politician “sucks up” to religious voters by appearing with anti-gay extremists? Then I guess Crain won’t be voting for Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama, who hosted a gospel concert featuring “ex-gay” preacher Donnie McClurkin, a man who says gays can “change.”
Are gay Republicans going to see eye-to-eye with McCain on every issue? No. But McCain is a drastic improvement over the gay-baiting politics that have too long dominated the Republican Party.
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