Newt Gingrich uses "The Americano" to blame DREAM Act loss on teh gayz

A side-note on yesterday's Senate "Don't Ask Don't Tell" / DREAM Act vote fiasco....

Possible 2012 conservative presidential Republican candidate Newt Gingrich might have winked at the Tea Party recently when he gave his unqualified support to a crazy-ass cover-page Forbes Magazine article on President Barack Obama, but he's also setting himself up to be as the John McCain candidate of old (you know, the John McCain who used to be a lead semi-conservative voice for immigration rights before he turned into a cranky asshole).

If he runs, it's a safe bet that most of his rivals on the right will hem the xenophobic Tea Party mantra on immigration - and that he will position himself as the kinder, gentler conservative on the issue of immigration.

That, in fact, was probably the reason Gingrich launched The Americano in September of 2009, or, as the site's byline reads "your top source of Hispanic news and commentary".  Try not to think of FOX News when they describe themselves as "a more balanced view on all the issues that concern American Hispanics today".

Which brings us to today's leading headline: "Attempt to repeal 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' kills DREAM Act".

If you actually saw the proceedings, you'll realize The Americano is playing it both ways: The Republican Senate leadership actually argued they didn't vote in favor of the DREAM Act because they wanted a straight up and down vote on a Senate defense bill. In other words, they alleged they would have passed the bill if only the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" repeal AND the DREAM Act bill hadn't been included.  In fact, the rank and file of the Republican senate leadership used the DREAM Act to argue that the Obama presidency was "seeking amnesty for illegal immigrants".

Cue in a photo of angry Dan Choi on The Americano's entry page and an article with no byline saying that Republicans would have passed the DREAM Act if it wasn't for teh gayz pushing an end to "Don't Ask Don't Tell"

Pluhezzz The Americano, have more respect for the intellect of Latinos.

Of note: Quiroz vs. Dromm? PLUS: Doug's question for the Republican presidential candidates

Been a while since I wrote about local politics but a post today by The Politicker's Azi Paybarah certainly caught my attention:

Are two openly gay candidates about to duke it out in my district in the next city council elections?

Danny Dromm who I met more than a decade ago when we both were on the founding board of the Queens Pride House - and is currently a Democratic District Leader - certainly has spent some time trying to build some support from the Queens Democratic establishment (including Queens Congressman Joseph Crowley) as well as some of the LGBT political leaders outside the borough (most recently Christopher Murray, Dan Tietz, Alan Fleishman and Gary Parker from Brooklyn's Lambda Independent Democrats tried to organize a fundraiser for Dromm though it was canceled due to a scheduling conflict).

It could also be said that Dromm has been nurtured by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (who I actually have loved in a platonic, politicky kind of way as far back as when she used to be Senator Tom Duane's Chief of Staff).

She certainly hasn't endorsed anyone at this early date but her name often pops up in invites supporting Dromm as Distric Leader (Danny and I actually were invited to have breakfast with Mayor Michael Bloomberg - along with other political leaders - to discuss civil marriage rights for same-sex couples at the City Council Speaker's suggestion back in March of 2006).

With the current term limits law Helen Sears, my current representative to the City Council, will be vacating her seat and leaving it wide open in the next elections which explains Dromm's intention to run for the seat.

But Azi's post today raises the intriguing possibility that another openly gay candidate might enter the race for the same seat and it happens to be - gulp! - none other than Helen Sears' former Chief of Staff - and Queens man-about-town - Alfonso Quiroz (pictured), who also has deep-rooted connections to the city-wide politirati and might draw some interesting endorsements and supporters should he decide to go for it (mind you, this is all tawdry rumor-mongering at this point in time but I certainly know who I'd back between the two of them).

Officially the Quiroz man has expressed interest in a District Leader post, NOT a city council seat. But the Politicker's analysis is - at the very least - intriguing.

Not that if he decides to run he'll be doing so in a vacuum along with Dromm. Other rumored potential candidates for the seat include Stuart Sears (son! of! Helen!), Eddie Giraldo (the former president of the Queens Hispanic Chamber of Commerce), Vasantrai M. Ghandi (Chair of the Queens Community Board 3) and perhaps Luis Rosero who has unsuccessfully sought political office in Queens before (UPDATE: A reader says that Eddie Giraldo might not be interested in running while Bryan Pu-Folkes, who has previously ran for the same seat might be back this time around as well).

Doug Robinson's YouTube question for the Republican presidential candidates: In the meantime, my friend Doug Robinson has submitted a YouTube video for tomorrow's Republican CNN/YouTube debate. I'm not sure it has been chosen for airplay but it IS worth airing - which is why I have posted it below as well.

The kind of thing that makes a cynical, jaded heart turn a little happier

Politics can leave you cynical and jaded sometimes. Thanks to Rex, then, for passing the news along. Kudos to San Diego Republican Mayor Jerry Sanders! Raw video of the press conference here.

Mitt Romney stumbles in Miami with those Cubans

Ah! The fun of watching a supposedly conservative presidential candidate stumble as he tries to make inroads with those extreme right-wing Cubans in Miami (not necessarily representative of all Cubans or all Cuban-Americans in the United States but still a 'go to' voting block for politicians seeking Hispanic support).

Even better when the nouveau-conservative is Willard "Mitt" Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor, who fought against the state's same-sex marriage law with no luck.

What went wrong??

The Miami Herald has full details here.

Do Republicans get a pass?

So a minor political dust storm was kicked earlier this week when both leading Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama seemed to hesitate for a moment on whether homosexuality was "immoral" in the wake of General Peter Pace's comments to the Chicago Tribune.

Both Clinton and Obama quickly released statements (here and here, respectively) seeking to quell the rising sentiment that they were perhaps more concerned about losing potential votes from centrist Democrats or moderate Republicans.

But what about those leading Republican presidential candidates?

The Politico has asked the question to representatives from the top three Republican presidential candidates (McCain, Giuliani and Romney) and - guess what - they all dodge the question as well.

In the meantime, John McCain seems to have stumbled on a question he didn't like either. No, not just on the issue of "immorality" of homosexuality but on the use of condoms to stem the transmission of HIV/AIDS.

From the Washington Post's On the Campaign Trail blog:

And then someone asked about public funding for contraception in Africa to prevent the spread of AIDS.

"I'm sure I've taken a position on it in the past," he stammered as he looked to his communications director. "I'm sure I'm opposed to government funding."

Sensing a vulnerable moment, reporters kept the questions coming. What about sex education in the schools? Should it mention contraceptives? Or only abstinence, like President Bush wants?

"I think I support the president's present policy," he said, tentatively.

More questions: Do condoms stop sexually transmitted disease?

A long pause.

A stern look.

"I've never gotten into these issues or thought much about them," he said, almost crying uncle. "Obviously, we all want to stop the spread of AIDS. Everybody wants to do that. What's the most viable way of doing that?"

Well? The reporters asked?

In a last ditch attempt to rescue himself, McCain told an aide to go get a briefing paper prepared by Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, a doctor, who he said has been advising him on "these issues." But the aide couldn't find the briefing paper. "We've lost it," McCain mumbled.

"Whether I support government funding for them or not, I don't know," McCain said about contraceptives. He then said he'd look into it for the reporters, who finally let him off the hook and moved onto other subjects again.

Yikes! This sure will be one looong presidential race...

Meanwhile, accross the Hudson River...another Hispanic homophobe!

Ok, so we'd been a tad political as of late. But for this installment, we are leaving New York City - well, actually New York State for that matter - to focus on a tidbit related to New Jersey's gubernatorial race.

Today, the New Jersey Star-Ledger takes a look at how both the Republican candidate, Doug Forrester, and the Democratic contender, Jon Corzine, are making efforts to appeal for the Latino vote in New Jersey.

The article says that while Corzine has appointed Latino leaders to some high-ranking campaign positions (US Representative Robert Mendez is the co-chair of Corzine's campaign), Forrester aknowledges that he has no high-ranking Latinos on his campaign staff and has had to import high-profile out-of state Republican Hispanic politicians to help him campaign.

So, accoding to the article, on Monday there was Florida Senator Mel Martinez, walking down "Bergenline Avenue in Union City with Forrester, acting as his unofficial translator [while] Forrester's staff handed out fliers in Spanish that, translated, read Strong family values, and pictured him with his wife and three children."

Hm, let's look back at some excerpts from a Miami Herald article published back on April 8th on Mel Martinez and his strong family values ("Schiavo memo trips rookie senator" by Lesley Clark):

The [Folorida Senate] campaign ads were bitterly divisive, even by the standards of a bare-knuckle primary, accusing the opponent of then Republican senatorial hopeful Mel Martinez of playing to the radical homosexual lobby.

Martinez blamed the ads on young Turks in his campaign and apologized to his GOP rival. Weeks later Martinez found himself again blaming a staff member after a press release from his campaign likened U.S. immigration agents to armed thugs for seizing Elián González from his Miami home in 2000.

Now, for the third time, Martinez finds himself under fire -- and blaming an aide for the conflagration. This time, Martinez said he has accepted the resignation of a staff member in his Senate office for penning the now-infamous political memo that suggested Republicans in Washington could use the plight of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo to bash Democrats, singling out Martinez's fellow Florida senator, Democrat Bill Nelson.

Trying to use the Schiavo family plight for political advantage, attacking a rival Republican as playing to the 'radical homosexual lobby,' and keeping a son from his Cuban father to get the conservative Cuban vote in Florida. Ah! Those kind of family values! I guess we now know what kind of help Forrester is bringing in to his NJ campaign.

And more on Mel Martinez anti-gay Senate campaing from a another Miami Herald article published on July 12, 2004 ("Senate candidate fights gay marriage" by Marc Caputo):

Mel Martinez stood near the altar Sunday evening and promised to fight the ''homosexual agenda,'' thereby positioning his U.S. Senate campaign on the right wing of what the faithful are calling the culture wars.

It is here, in places like the First Baptist Church of Orlando, that the religious right is drawing inspiration from preachers and politicians like Martinez, who promises to support the president's call for an unprecedented constitutional amendment seeking to define marriage only as the union of a man and a woman.

Though Martinez's position largely reflects the sentiment of the other Republican Senate candidates who are also campaigning under the steeple, his in-person campaign stop made the most of a captive audience of about 200 assembled to watch a political-religious sermon simulcast from a Tennessee church to houses of worship and radio stations across the nation.

Headlining the show were two of the biggest Christian crusaders for the amendment: James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, and Charles Colson, who established Prison Fellowship Ministries after serving time for his role in Watergate. They warned the thousands who presumably tuned in that, if left unchecked, activist judges and politicians would continue the culture war against Christianity. They predicted preachers would eventually be banned from even criticizing gays and that gay role playing would be taught in schools.

Enough said.

CONLAMIC Watch: Pimping for Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist & John Roberts

I recently wrote about a statement released by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in which Howard Dean lamented an address by Republican National Committee (RCN) Chair Ken Mehlman at a gathering organized in DC by the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC).

Dean, criticizing Mehlman and the Bush government for trumpeting false pro-immigration policies at the CONLAMIC gathering, nevertheless praised the Coalition and said that he wished to set "the record straight" by telling CONLAMIC "the truth" about the Bush administration's record on immigration.

The DNC statement went out on September 22, 2005.

Hm... Maybe the DNC should have been at the press conference organized on that same date by CONLAMIC with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in support of Judge John Roberts' bid to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States?

Unless the Democrats lose their fear of confronting fundamentalist religious pimping, be it Latino or not, they look just as cynical as they say Ken Mehlman's statements are.

As for Roberts, minutes ago he was confirmed as the 17th Supreme Court Chief Justice, to CONLAMIC's delight, and the DNC's dismay (they had opposed the nomination as well).

In some ways, while CONLAMIC stuck to their principles and won, the DNC and the Democratic party continue to split strategies and lose even when the current government has the lowest approval numbers of any administration in recent memory.

A bone to pick...

Ok, so I admit I have voted on the Republican line at least once in my life (something local, fear not) but I am just about nuts with the assertion that, unlike the Katrina response, Bush handled 9/11 with determination and force of character. Whaaa...? For those of us who smelled the acrid cloud of smoke drifting from lower Manhattan to other parts of the city - and saw the city pull together in the aftermath without government intervention - we still remember how long it took for Bush to come out of hiding after reading a story to some school children that fateful morning. How to fix that faux pas? Grab onto the nearest NYFD firefighter once you get to the WTC site! No wonder most people in New York City voted for someone else than Bush during the last election! Come to think about it, what did Bush do after days of failing New Orleans residents? Hmmm...