The Religious Right hates Mitt Romney. We all know this. They do not want to vote for him under any circumstances. The trouble is that the “family values” wingnut crowd can’t seem to settle on which other primary candidate they hate the least — Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich? So some of them are digging their heels in for Santorum, others for Gingrich, and the infighting between the two camps is getting nasty:
Desperate to settle on one conservative alternative, Religious Right leaders backing Rick Santorum and those backing Newt Gingrich are now resorting to vicious attacks against what have long been seen as off-limits targets in presidential campaigns — the candidates’ wives.
Influential evangelical leader James Dobson set off the fireworks at this weekend’s Christian Right summit, giving a speech that lavished praise on Karen Santorum and asked whether Americans really wanted Callista Gingrich — “a woman who was a man’s mistress for eight years” — as their First Lady, according to sources who attended the meeting.
Translation: Daddy D called Callista Gingrich a whore.
One source described Dobson’s tone as “angry,” and said it seemed like Dobson was blaming Callista Gingrich for the couples’ affair, which began while the former House Speaker was still married to his second wife (this is Callista Gingrich’s first marriage).
“It was clear that, to him, the villian in this story is Callista Gingrich,” the source said.
Well, of course! In the fundamentalist Christian worldview, men are never responsible for their own behavior, which means Callista Gingrich must just be a vile temptress. Of course, that also means Newt’s second wife was also a vile temptress, as she lulled Newt into a sensual stupor, causing him to leave the bedside of his first wife, who was fighting cancer. Or maybe the problem is Newt?
The piece goes on to point out that the stories of Karen Santorum’s years-long love affair with An Abortion Doctor started circulating just after the big Religious Right confab in Texas where they were supposed to be deciding who to support, as a united front.
So basically, the religious conservative conversation has devolved to “slut slut slut slut slut!” and James Dobson started it. It’s nice to see them being a little more honest about their true beliefs.
Following the news that Newt Gingrich asked for an “open marriage” with his second wife when she found out he had been carrying on an affair with his current wife, Callista, for six years, Dan Savage has this to say:
Technically you’re not asking your wife for an open marriage if you’ve already been f*cking another woman for six years. You’re presenting your wife with an ultimatum. That doesn’t make you a proponent of open marriage, Newt, it makes you a CPOS.
But Newt’s got a new campaign slogan: “Screw as I say, not as I screw.”
Newt Gingrich, who spent the better part of the 1990′s carrying on an extramarital affair, all while leading a witchhunt against the President for his own marital infidelities, considers himself an expert on choices, apparently. You see, just like you can casually choose to take advantage of your wife’s being in the hospital with cancer and shack up with the newer model, Newt believes that you can simply choose whether or not to be gay. Here he is speaking to the Des-Moines Register:
Q: Do you believe that people choose to be gay?
GINGRICH: I believe it’s a combination of genetics and environment. I think both are involved. I think people have many ranges of choices. Part of the question is, do you want a society which has a bias in one direction or another?
I’d prefer a bias in the direction of reality, Newtie.
Q: So people can then choose one way or another?
GINGRICH: I think people have a significant range of choice within a genetic pattern. I don’t believe in genetic determinism and I don’t think there is any great evidence of genetic determinism. There are propensities. Are you more likely to do this or more likely to do that? But that doesn’t mean it’s definitional.
It’s a sad commentary on the state of affairs in this country when this man is even being asked his “opinion” on the subject, much less having it printed in the newspaper.
Q: So a person can then choose to be straight?
GINGRICH: Look, people choose to be celibate. People choose many things in life. You know, there is a bias in favor of non-celibacy. It’s part of how the species recreates. And yet there is a substantial amount of people who choose celibacy as a religious vocation or for other reasons.
And then there are some people who choose celibacy, but yet end up diddling altar boys.
Here’s the video. It’s particularly gross how he starts talking about “values” at the beginning, since Newt Gingrich is probably one of the most obviously amoral politicians I’ve seen in my lifetime.
On October 12, Peter LaBarbera (Porno Pete) upbraided blogger Joe Jervis for pointing out that the Ku Klux Klan agreed with LaBarbera on a particular issue. In a typical tizzy, Porno Pete had this to say:
I jest, of course. But Joe is serious–that’s the sad part. (Apparently he didn’t get the memo that the first one to call the other guy a “Nazi” in a debate is the automatic loser)
Actually, it was the Klan, not the Nazi Party. However that’s just a minor detail with the main point being that Porno Pete has a big issue with Nazi comparisons. (Although Porno Pete goes surreptitiously into gay leather events with his camera to smear an entire community, precisely the same way the Nazis filmed in the Polish ghetto for the movie “The Eternal Jew.”)
It is clear that Porno Pete believes that Nazi comparisons are for losers.
This is interesting because as Evan pointed out, Porno Pete’s buddies at the Liberty Counsel compared gay activists to Nazis on the radio this week. They did so after a cement block was thrown through a window — allegedly by LGBT activists — where Porno Pete was honoring Scott Lively, another hate group leader.
Staver: Well, when you go out and label somebody a hate group you think of the KKK …
Barber: It emboldens these people …
Staver: It also, it begins, you know, it’s the same thing that happened in the Nazi Holocaust where they start to just demonize and stigmatize and then at some point in time you don’t even think that someone’s human and then, you know, we look at it and our consciences are shocked but if you look at how it ultimately began where they began to just demonize and dehumanize them, that’s what’s happening with this labeling of hate groups.
So, where is Porno Pete? Why isn’t he denouncing the analogy made by Staver? His hypocritical silence is deafening.
It’s called “Gay Homophobe,” and it keeps track of how many days it’s been since “the last prominent homophobe was caught in a gay sex scandal.” Set your bookmarks accordingly!
In case you didn’t click, right now the answer is NINE. It has been NINE DAYS since a prominent homophobe was caught doing the gay stuff.
Senator Robert Arango, who was the Vice Chairman of George W.Bush and Dick Cheney’s Puerto Rico re-election committee in 2004, has been supposedly identified by the Puerto Rican TV show Dando Candela for placing naked pictures of himself on the popular gay social network application Grindr.
When asked about the pictures, Arango reportedly did not deny or confirm that it was him. The Latin news site Gunabee reports that the senator told the Dando Candela show, “You know I’ve been losing weight. As I shed that weight, I’ve been taking pictures. I don’t remember taking this particular picture but I’m not gonna say I didn’t take it. I’d tell you if I remembered taking the picture but I don’t.”
Arango’s alleged photos and possible posting on a same sex site may come as a surprise since the senator has been a vocal enemy against gay marriage and rights in San Juan. The site “JoemyGod” reported that he voted to ban gay marriage in 2009 (the bill failed), opposes civil unions, and used a duck to make fun of a campaign opponent in 2004 (labeling someone a duck is a homophobic slur used in Puerto Rico).
Hahah, “I can’t tell you if that’s me or not, I don’t know what I look like really?!” Yes, sir, and do you use Grindr? But no, the fact that Arango has been using Grindr is not a “surprise” to anyone who understands the insane correlation between public anti-gay views and secret gayness. It’s kind of a thing with our opponents.
UPDATE: Okay, so yeah, I kinda missed how truly awesome this story was as I was skimming and posting it earlier. Arango, as we see above, claimed that he was documenting his weight loss in his Grindr pictures, which really doesn’t explain the picture of his anus. This has led one of Dan Savage’s commenters to term posting pictures of one’s own butthole on a dating site a “Puerto Rican Diet Plan.” Congratulations, former Senator Arango, on your trim, toned anus.
This time, it’s in Indiana. Meet state representative Phillip Hinkle, who voted with his anti-gay compatriots to ban marriage equality in that state. Here’s what he does in his spare time:
Indiana state Rep. Phillip Hinkle (R) is embroiled in controversy after The Indianapolis Star discovered emails appearing to solicit the paid company of a young man, sent from Hinkle’s publicly listed email address.
In response to a M4M forum Craigslist post, Hinkle emailed the man, named Kameryn Gibson, and offered him $80 cash, with a tip of $50 or $60 “for a really good time” in the hours he proposed spending together at a local Marriott.
Gibson, whose ad lists him as 20 years old but is actually 18, said he met Hinkle at the hotel, and tried to leave when Hinkle said he was a state politician.
He said the lawmaker at first told him he could not leave, grabbed him in the rear, exposed himself to the young man and then later gave him an iPad, BlackBerry cellphone and $100 cash to keep quiet.
That same link goes to the Indianapolis Star, where they have reprinted the e-mails between Hinkle and Gibson. Here’s Hinkle’s original response to Gibson’s ad:
“Cannot be a long time sugar daddy,” the email reads, “but can for tonight. Would you be interested in keeping me company for a while tonight?”
The email offers “to make it worth (your) while” in cash, and offers a personal description: “I am an in shape married professional, 5’8″, fit 170 lbs, and love getting and staying naked.”
Fifteen minutes later, Kameryn Gibson replied: “Yes I can!” He also sent along his phone number.
What followed was an email exchange between phinkle46 @comcast.net and Kameryn Gibson. One email from Hinkle’s account asks “what will make you happy for giving me a couple hours of your time tonight?”
Gibson: “Wat (sic) can you give me?”
Phinkle46 @comcast.net: “How about $80 for services rendered and if real satisfied a healthy tip? That make it worth while?”
And on and on and on. So, let’s see…anti-gay male politician solicits young man for sex over internet, gets caught…
We’ll just file this under “typical stories involving anti-gay Republicans.”
Jeremy just had a novel idea for Maggie Gallagher, who is on the whine-trail this week about marriage supposedly being destroyed, redefined, being taken over by the government, blah blah blah, etc. For instance, she said this:
“Gay marriage is not an increase in liberty; it is a government takeover of an institution that government did not create and should not redefine.
When the government endorses a lie about human nature, there will be consequences.”
Yeah, whatever, Maggie. We still haven’t seen YOUR traditionally wed husband and you still don’t wear a wedding ring. Which leads to Jeremy’s idea:
If Maggie thinks marriage had been subjected to government takeover, then she and every single married person who agrees with her needs to return the marriage license that he or she obtained from the state.
DAMN RIGHT SHE SHOULD! Maggie, Brian Brown, whatever other Religious Right goons live in marriage equality states: if your marriage has been devalued, redefined, destroyed, taken over by the government, or whatever else, due to the inclusion of gay people in the institution, then return your now worthless marriage license and fend for yourself without the benefits granted to you by the state.
We are waiting with bated breath. Unless you really don’t believe your own BS and this is just about heterosexual supremacy, patriarchy and extreme butthurtness over the fact that the American people lose more respect for you every single day…
Yesterday, Teabagger Republican Representative Kristen Hansen introduced HB516, which would repeal all statewide or local ordinances which protect LGBT citizens in any way, shape or form. At the hearing for the bill, legislators refused to allow anyone opposed to the bill to be heard.
Yesterday, Teabagger Republican Representative Kristen Hansen introduced HB516, which would repeal all statewide or local ordinances which protect LGBT citizens in any way, shape or form. At the hearing for the bill, legislators refused to allow anyone opposed to the bill to be heard.
[...]
According to my source, Hansen will be outed at an upcoming meeting of University of Montana students.
We’ll have to see how this all unravels, but it must take an astonishing level of self-hatred to be such a hypocrite.
