As I worked on my post faulting Log Cabin for bending over backwards not to offend the gay groups, most of which have left-of-center leanings, I kept coming across information, mostly on Log Cabin’s own web-site, which confirmed many of my suspicions about the organization. More often than not, I came across statements where the organization took issue with the President or conditioned its praise of his statements or initiatives. They seemed almost as reluctant as HRC to confront Democrats.

Given the length of my post, I wanted to highlight (in a briefer post) the most troubling of LCR President Patrick Guerriero‘s statements and juxtapose it with a Log Cabin statement (also cited in the post) released fewer than three weeks before last fall’s election.

Patrick considers it a firing offense for an employee to “speak ill of another LGBT group” even as his organization took gratuitous swipes at his own party’s presidential nominee (and his closest political advisor) in that statement ostensibly faulting the opposing party’s nominee for politicizing the sexuality of the Vice-President’s daughter. We can argue on the merits of Log Cabin’s non-endorsement of the president last fall. Indeed, North Dallas Thirty, who usually agrees with me, thinks Log Cabin did the right thing.

But, Log Cabin went beyond professing neutrality in the presidential race and actively criticized President Bush and Karl Rove, his top political aide and campaign strategist. On CNN, Patrick “lashe[d] out” at the president. Of the 115 words in the text of LCR’s statement on Senator Kerry’s Comments Regarding Mary Cheney, 45 took issue with that Democratic nominee’s comments (and those of his running mate) while 54 faulted the Republican team. The remainder were devoted to delivering a message to “both campaigns.” (Shouldn’t that be the job of the officially “bipartisan” Human Rights Campaign?)
(more…)

In The Washington Blade, columnist Constantino Diaz-Duran wonders at the number of gay men in Washington, D.C. sporting “Che” Guevara T-shirts. Not only was Che, a supposedly idealistic revolutionary, a “a cold-blooded killing machine,” but he also helped bring to power one of the most anti-gay leaders of the Western Hemisphere — Fidel Castro.

Indeed, many gay people wax eloquent over this tyrant just as they revere his bloodthirsty comrade-in-arms. When Castro took over in Cuba, he set up forced labor camps where he imprisoned what these Communists “considered the scum of society,” including, among others, gay people.

It seems that when it comes to supporting foreign tyrants, many gay activists, like others on the left, are more interested in that leader’s animus to the U.S. than his attitude toward gay people. Check out Diaz-Duran’s column and wonder with him at the eagerness of many gay leftists to adopt anti-American icons, even those who persecute their fellows.

**UPDATE at 2:10PM**
Outgoing Log Cabin Political Director Chris Barron has responded to this posting with the following statement: “”DJ Register turned the LCR NC list-serve over to me, not LCR Nationals. I never asked to become the owner of this list-serve. Mr. Register said he was “quitting” and turning it over to me. As the new owner of the list-serve I changed the settings to reflect that I was the owner of the list-serve, not Mr. Register. These changes had nothing to do with any criticism from DJ Register. The changes certainly weren’t ordered or asked for by anyone at Log Cabin.

The LCR NC list-serve is in no way related to Log Cabin. It’s just a yahoo group. If Mr. Register had experienced any problems posting any materials on this list-serve he certainly never brought them to my attention. Mr. Register continued to post regularly on the LCR NC list-serve, and did so without any interference from me, regardless of what he posted. This, quite honestly, seems more than a bit dramatic, considering we are talking about a yahoo group list-serve.”

*****************

Apparently free speech still isn’t being tolerated by the mullahs of the Log Cabin Republican organization. First, the Palm Beach LCR group was “excommunicated” due to the chapter’s endorsement of President Bush last year.

And now this….

To: LCRNorthCarolina@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, 09 Nov 2005 17:04:14 -0000
Subject: [LCRNorthCarolina] Leaving

Re: Free Speech Fear Not Acceptable.

Dear LCRNorthCarolina Members:

I am saying good-by to you. The reason is limitation of free speech. Today, I’ve learned that following the post below my privileges as a moderator were greatly diminished–LCRNorthCarolina is a group that I begun and voluntarily ceded ownership of to the national office in
2004.

I have enjoyed knowing all of you through your messages but I feel that no one should live in fear of what they say here. I will continue to work for Log Cabin Republicans and to pray for its future success. Thank you all.

So long,
D. J. Register
Founder, LCRNorthCarolina

I guess LCR Board Chairman Bill Brownson does rule with an iron fist…..

I don’t know about you, but I find more than a hint of irony when a Republican organization that spent most of its money last year in efforts to defeat Republican candidates (the infamous $1M anti-Bush TV ad campaign), has a problem with critical comments and opposition from within its own organization.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Joe Lieberman, the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2000 and a respected Senator from the great state of Connecticut, has just returned from his fourth trip to Iraq and reports “real progress there.” While he acknowledges that more needs to be done, this loyal Democrat has found that:

the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood–unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.

That’s right, this Democrat opposes the premature withdrawal of our armed forces.

Among the process he noted was economic prosperity in the Kurdish North and increased electric power in the Shi’ite South, and saw elsewhere “more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell phones in Iraqi hands than before.” People were actively campaigning for next month’s legislative elections. “None of these remarkable changes would have happened,” this Democrat finds, “without the coalition forces led by the U.S.”

Iraq’s Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari claims “that his country now has the most open, democratic political system in the Arab world.” His people are far more optimistic about their future of their land than Americans are. “Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today.”

Lieberman has much more to say about progress in Iraq so instead of relying on me to paraphrase it, I suggest you go on over to OpinionJournal.com and read the whole thing!

This coming Friday, December 2, 2005, please join me at the Claremont Institute’s Churchill Dinner and help support a top conservative think thank, the Claremont Institute, while we mix and mingle with thoughtful conservatives from the Southland (i.e., Southern California) and honor one of my favorite columnists Mark Steyn.

Perhaps the most quoted columnist in the conservative blogosophere, Steyn is both witty and wise. His satirical style often conceals (or perhaps reveals) unique insights into world affairs. Many conservative bloggers appreciate how he cleverly skewers left-wing policies and their advocates.

His articles and columns have appeared in such periodicals as the Wall Street Journal, Atlantic Monthly, Daily Telegraph, Jerusalem Post, National Review, The Spectator, Chicago Sun-Times, Toronto Globe & Mail, Irish Times, and The New Criterion. His next book America Alone: Our Country’s Future as a Lone Warrior is slated to be released next year. His previous books include The Face of the Tiger and Mark Steyn From Head To Toe: An Anatomical Anthology.

For more information on the dinner, click here. You can also register online.