Will gays and lesbians turn Republican out of frustration with Obama?

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Oh, please. I get that Obama hasn't done nearly enough for gay rights, and I've been deeply critical of him for not doing enough and for not being progressive enough (specifically on DADT and same-sex marriage), but there isn't about to be a mass migration of gays to the Republican Party just because a couple of somewhat high-profile Republicans, McCainiac Steve Schmidt and Bushie Ken Mehlman, the latter recently uncloseted, along with the independent-minded and barely Republican Meghan McCain, are publicly defending same-sex marriage, or because other Republicans with little profile at all are either softening their views on gay rights or daring to come out against their party's long-standing opposition not just to gay rights but to homosexuality generally.

At HuffPo, Sam Stein quotes an anonymous "prominent Democratic consultant" as saying that Obama should feel "uncomfortable" with all these Republicans to the left of him on gay rights. But what are we really talking about here? Schmidt, Mehlman, and McCain aren't exactly the movers and shakers of the GOP, nor do they really have that much public profile. McCain has greater media presence than the other two, but she doesn't have much influence, if any, on the party. "We get the bad rap as Republicans being against gay marriage," she told Fox News recently. "[Obama] isn't doing anything for the gay community." Republicans deserve the rap. This is a party, after all, that proposes putting a ban on same-sex marriage in the Constitution and that has a theocratic-oriented base that is deeply anti-gay, a party that from top to bottom espouses bigotry and that is moving further and further to the right. And while Obama hasn't done enough, it's just not true that he hasn't done anything. Earlier this year, for example, he banned visitation discrimination against gays and lesbians at any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.

As Stein notes, "LBGT voters are not, of course, monolithic," and, while I am not gay myself, I certainly think it's fair to say that on most issues a significant majority of gays and lesbians are much closer to Obama and the Democrats than to the Republicans. Will frustration with Obama drive some of them to the GOP? Well, sure, but some heteros are turning away from Obama, too. What of it?

It seems to me that the anonymous consultant is fearmongering and that very few people are paying attention to what Schmidt, Mehlman, and a tiny minority of Republicans are up to. In contrast, the Republican position on gay rights, including same-sex marriage, is pretty clear, and there's no indication it's going to change anytime soon.

If some gays or lesbians prefer to back a party that hates them and that seeks to treat them like non- or unequal citizens, or as some hell-bound domestic enemy, well, that's their problem (and ours, to the extent that Democrats lose votes), but I suspect that most of them would rather register their displeasure and disappointment with the party that actually has a history of fighting for their rights, and seek to change that party's policy positions, than do that. With the Democrats, after all, in a party that respects difference and diversity, they can make a difference and actually secure equal rights. With the Republicans, ruled by a far-right fringe that has become the party's new mainstream, all they'll find is fear and loathing, welcomed by a few but detested by the rest. Is the choice not clear?

This is why Europe thinks we're pikers

By J. Thomas Duffy

We meant to post this yesterday, but got sidetracked by things on the homefront (and, the possible start of an infection to the sinuses, which have been doing a non-stop tango for the past few days).

Once again, you would think cleavage was the single, largest, most dastardly problem facing this country.

Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny McCain's little girl, Meghan, that prolific children's book author, posted a photo of herself on Twitter, and heads exploded.

Meghan McCain's Racy TwitPic Reaches 160,000 Views In 17 Hours (NWS)

Internet All A-Twitter Over Meghan McCain Photo

Apparently, Ms. Little Bloggette threw a hissy fit, in 140 characters or less, vowing to blow up her computer and never twit (or was it be a twit) again.

Ahh, but the Little Arizona Princess wasn't quite finished.

After showing the sexually-repressed PartyofNoicans her cleavage, she apparently threw on some clothes and banged out an "I Am Not A Slut" tirade over on her perch at The Daily Beast.

It must be beastly to be Meghan McCain and have everyone thinking you are a slut.

Worse, perhaps, to bring up the "s" word yourself if it wasn't specifically put out there.

This was about near a perfect "yang" to the Garage Attic Boy's "ying."

Paging Sanjaya Malakar




Bonus Meghan McCain Is Not A Slut Riffs

Ryan Tate: Meghan McCain Swears She'll Quit Twitter If You Can't Deal With Her Boobs

watertiger: Late Night: “Wait, My Fifteen Minutes of Fame Aren’t Up Yet!”

Wonkette: Jake Tapper Employs Secret War Code To Save Meghan McCain


(Cross-posted at The Garlic.)

Quote of the Day: Meghan McCain on Joe the Plumber

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Ms. McCain nails it:

Joe the Plumber -- you can quote me -- is a dumbass. He should stick to plumbing.

There you go. I quoted her.

You really gotta love Meghan McCain. Seriously, I think I'm developing a major crush on her, if I don't have one already. She's still a Republican, I know, and she's still her father's daughter, but there's something to be said for such honesty coming from within the GOP's own ranks, even if many Republicans don't consider her one of their own.

If you're looking for a maverick, Meghan's the McCain with the mojo.

(I just wish she'd comment on Palin. If anyone deserves the no-holds-barred Meghan McCain treatment, after all, it's John's running mate, the soon-to-be ex-governor of Alaska.)

See Spot Vote

By J. Thomas Duffy

What is it with these Republicans and children's books?

What did kids ever do to them?

Is this some diabolical Rovian plan?

Is there deeply guarded secret data that says you can garner millions of votes by writing a children's book?

There is, of course, the penultimate, most iconic moment - My Pet Goat.

Then, keeping it in the family, we had last year, the First Lady, Laura, and Jenna Bush, the recently married daughter of The Commander Guy pump one out, not, as one's mind might go to, a first-person account on the singles scene when traveling in South America, but, rather, on "a boy who doesn't like to read."

And, two-years ago, Darth Vader's Misses, switched genres, leaving behind steamy lesbians stories, for a children's book on a family that traveled the 50 states.

Now, Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain's daughter is getting into the act.
















McCain Camp Targets Five to Ten-Year-Olds With Picture Book

The McCain campaign is making a play for the all-important K-5 demographic with a new picture book biography of the presumed GOP nominee, written by none other than Meghan McCain, Sen. John McCain's daughter and the head of the "Blogettes," who produce a blog about life on the campaign trail. Go ahead, take a look at the blog. Trust me.

And, from CNN;

The Simon & Schuster hardback, set to hit stores on September 2, is a brief, sentimental look at the familiar elements of McCain’s legendary biography, including his time in a Vietnamese prison and his run for the White House in 2000.

Several pages are devoted to McCain’s military background and his imprisonment in Vietnam, with relatively little attention paid to his youth (he “broke a lot of rules” in high school, the book says) and to his time in Congress.

Cindy McCain, along with Meghan's siblings Jack, Jimmy and Bridget, are described fondly in the book — but the children from McCain’s first marriage are left unmentioned.

Hmmm ... I wonder, how does she deal with Daddy's Keating Five Scandal?

Daddy, by mistake, accidentally broke some peoples' piggy banks, but he said he was really sorry about it

His first wife? ... The divorce?

Daddy wasn't, as some people say, a "flat-leaver" ... Daddy just found a better girlfriend who liked to do all the neat things Daddy likes to do ...

I'm sure the Right Wing Freak Show, the Dittoheads, the people that watch Hannity and O'Reilly, will be beating a path to the bookstores when this comes out, and there will, undoubtedly, be the inevitable book tour, with, perhaps, Meghan getting her own cruiser bus - "The Pandering Child Express".

Help Me Mr. Wizard!


Bonus Links

Wonkette: Details Leak About Presumed Worst Book Ever

The Guardian U.K.: How John McCain became a children's book hero - John McCain needs a new PR strategy for his presidential campaign. Luckily, his daughter Meghan has made him the star of an inspiring children's picture book

USA Today: Presidential race one for the books

Top Ten Cloves: Things About First Lady and Daughter Writing A Children's Book

Top Ten Cloves: Things Lynne Cheney Didn’t Get To Tell Wolf Blitzer About Her New Book














(Cross-posted at The Garlic.)

MEET MEGHAN MCCAIN - DADDY'S GIRL ?

SHE IS A POTENTIAL F D I L F !!!

Meghan McCain is a 23-year-old, socially liberal John Kerry voter who loves Superbad, Dita von Teese, Bud Light (see right hand), and campaign blogging. Trouble is, this self-described “Daddy’s girl” will do—and say—almost anything to help her 71-year-old father win the White House

By Greg Veis; Photograph by Jeff Riedel

Meghan McCain arrives at the door to her apartment out of breath and wobbly in calf-high boots. It’s a seventy-five-degree February afternoon in Phoenix, and the 23-year-old daughter of the presumptive Republican nominee for president is wearing a black leather jacket over a scarf and gray scoop-neck T-shirt. I extend my hand to introduce myself, but she knocks it down and wraps me up in a bear hug.

“I’ve never had anybody fly across the country for me who I wasn’t dating,” she says. “I’m so flattered!”

Meghan’s parents, Senator John and Cindy McCain, bought her this loft around the time she graduated from Columbia
University last spring, and the interior looks like a spaceship furnished by West Elm. There’s a giant silver chimney that extends out of her fireplace into the ceiling about twenty feet above. Across the living room is a very stylish and very uncomfortable-looking pod chair. And then there’s Meghan’s prized tchotchke of the moment: a skull that, when you open its mouth, reveals a clock.

“You like it, right?” she asks, opening it for me. “Because I told my friends I’d throw it away if the GQ guy didn’t like it. I totally love it, though! It’s ironic!”

She leads me into the kitchen. On a perch above the cabinets, wooden block letters are arranged to spell indulge. Meghan then invites me to inspect her refrigerator, like the celebrities do on MTV Cribs. Inside are some Bud Light cans, a six-pack of Stella Artois, and twelve cups of Jell-O pudding.

Alas, the tour stops here. Meghan won’t show me her bedroom—it’s too messy, she says. Besides, she’s starving, and she really wants to take me to lunch at one of her favorite restaurants ever, Garduño’s Margarita Factory.

On the drive there, I handle the wheel and Meghan fills the silence. I learn the basics of her past few years: how she graduated from Columbia (“I loved it so much”); how she wanted to be a music journalist but doesn’t anymore; how she got prize internships at Newsweek and Saturday Night Live.

Meghan’s cultural tastes are pretty straight down the middle for a recent college grad. She went crazy for Superbad, Knocked Up, and The Big Lebowski (“I fucking love that movie”). On TV she’s currently riveted by MTV’s A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. “It’s a bisexual-dating show!” she cries. “It’s hilarious!”

When she ticks off a list of celebrities she’s into, she offers a surprising pick: the burlesque stripper Dita Von Teese. “I know she’s not someone you would expect the daughter of a Republican candidate to like, but I love her,” she says. “I love the way she dresses. If I could look like that all day, I would…in her day clothes, I mean.

“And, yes, I know she’s a fetish star, but”—she lowers her head for this—“I think that’s rock ’n’ roll.”

*****
Meghan has been given a prominent place in her father’s presidential campaign, most notably with her blog, McCainBlogette.com. Loosely inspired, she says—loosely!—by Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72, McCain Blogette is a sometimes irreverent, sometimes overly rah-rah account of life on the Straight Talk Express (“Lindsey Graham is hilarious!”), with tons of photographs and even iPod playlists (favorites have included Wolfmother and Hot Hot Heat). Charming and self-deprecating, McCain Blogette often makes Meghan’s 71-year-old father seem less old, which is surely one of the reasons it exists, even if Meghan occasionally does something like refer to Barack Obama as “sexy,” which she did right before the New Hampshire primary.