The Flu Epidemic Hits CPAC

I know it’s been a pretty rough weekend for those of us who consider ourselves liberal. Those of us who consider ourselves equal to all other Americans, even though many of our fellow conservative Americans are fighting the good fight to keep equality a word in the dictionary.

Yes, it’s been a rough weekend. Almost like having the flu. I don’t think I could count the times I wanted to violently puke after having to swallow the bull rhetoric being spewed at the annual CPAC.

Of course, you’ve seen many low-lights from the event, as there certainly weren’t any highlights…except perhaps the infighting which is a clear cut indication that the GOP is not a unified coalition of those who believe in the rich getting richer while the rich screw everyone else…But there were some more notable moments that seem to have gone relatively un-noted.

One, Michele (Bat S–t Crazy) Bachmann’s statement which lit up the eyes and warmed the hearts and brought cheers from many anti-gay conservatives in attendance:

“It’s ‘take back Washington’ time. We’ve got the fever.”

Yes, and as I mentioned, those flu-like symptoms, perhaps they really did have fevers?

Confident of big GOP gains in November’s congressional elections, Bachmann called her Republican Party “the majority in waiting” and drew applause when she proclaimed, “We are in the middle of a political bull market.”

Now, in all sincerity, does Michele Bachmann even know what a “bull market” is?

And perhaps the flu is an epidemic in Minnesota? The state’s governor, Tim Pawlenty had this message to liberals:

“We’re planting the flag on constitutional grounds, and if you try to take our freedoms, we will fight back.”

“Take our freedoms”? Like what, the freedom to deny millions of Americans health insurance? The freedom to deny LGBT citizens equality? The freedom to run the American economy into the ground even worse than the Republican party already has?  What exactly was he talking about?

Pawlenty in 2012: I Support Creationism, But Not Gay Rights

From Right Wing Watch:

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has been busy quietly working to impress the Religious Right has he contemplates a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, which goes a long way toward explaining his views as revealed in this Newsweek interview, including his belief in creationism and the revelation that while he once may have supported equality, he doesn’t any more, going so far as to recant for a past vote in support of anti-discrimination legislation.

Let me ask you about social issues your party has been dealing with. In her book, Palin claims that McCain’s handlers wanted her to be silent about her belief in creationism. How would you describe your view?

I can tell you how we handle it in Minnesota. We leave it to the local school districts. We don’t mandate a curriculum or an approach. We allow for something called “intelligent design” to be discussed as a comparative theory. It doesn’t have to be in science class.

Where are you personally?

Well, you know I’m an evangelical Christian. I believe that God created everything and that he is who he says he was. The Bible says that he created man and woman; it doesn’t say that he created an amoeba and then they evolved into man and woman. But there are a lot of theologians who say that the ideas of evolution and creationism aren’t necessarily inconsistent; that he could have “created” human beings over time.

I know you are opposed to gay marriage, but what about medical benefits for same-sex couples?

I have not supported that.

Why not?

My general view on all of this is that marriage is to be defined as being a union of a man and a woman. Marriage should be elevated in our society at a special level. I don’t think all domestic relationships are the equivalent of traditional marriage. Early on we decided as a country and as a state that there was value in a man and a woman being married in terms of impact on children and the like, and we want to encourage that.

Right Wing Groups Have Dissension Among the Ranks

Tim Pawlenty’s evangelical Christianity and his ties to the 30-million-strong National Association of Evangelicals (now chaired by the pastor of Pawlenty’s Eden Prairie church, Leith Anderson) has remained strong.

In 1993, Pawlenty was one of 11 House Republicans to vote for the Human Rights Amendment that outlawed discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation. It was the first legislation in the nation to offer protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. While he was running for governor in 2002, he has repeatedly said that vote is the only one he regretted from his days in the Legislature.

When labor unions asked for health benefits for same-sex partners in state labor contracts in 2001, he vehemently opposed those benefits.

In 2004, he signed a pledge to support a constitutional anti-gay marriage amendment. “Traditional marriage is itself a pledge, and I will take a pledge to defend it,” he said. “Some issues are too important to play the field with.”

In 2006, he appeared in an anti-same-sex-marriage video produced by the Republican Party of Minnesota.

Despite all this, Pawlenty was criticized for “promotion of homosexual agenda” in 2006 by the religious right group EdWatch. “Homosexual advocacy groups are being funded by grants from the state Department of Health under his authority,” wrote EdWatch in a letter about Pawlenty. “Additionally, under Governor Pawlenty’s supervision, his administration is actively promoting the indoctrination of students into a homosexual worldview and value system.”

Looks like the witch-hunt for those gay agenda supporters continues.