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Rejection of Gay Republicans gets Log Cabin Response Candidate's Comments Raise Many Serious Questions |
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Compiled By GayToday
"I don't believe in group thought," Bush told Tim Russert on NBC-TV's Meet the Press, "pitting one group of people against another. And all that does is create a huge political nightmare for people." At the same time in separate interviews Sunday, Bush's two main rivals differed with him on meeting with Log Cabin Republicans. Senator John McCain (R.-AZ) met with LCR on November 8, and defended it on CBS-TV's Face the Nation, saying he believes "strongly in the party of Abraham Lincoln, and the Log Cabin Republicans are part of our party." Steve Forbes said on CNN's Late Edition that he, too, would be open to meeting with LCR. Bush's comments further muddled his image on inclusion within the GOP, and his specific positions on the role of gays in society. In April, Bush told the New York Times that he would have no problem appointing openly gay people to his administration, even as ambassadors, saying: "As a general statement, if someone can do a job, and a job that he's qualified for, that person, that person ought to be allowed to do his job." In September, Scripps-Howard News Service reported that Bush had pledged to a group of religious conservatives not to "knowingly" hire a gay person, but wouldn't fire someone who was later "discovered" to be gay.
"He was all over the place in his responses. He meets with scores of groups, including the Christian Coalition, and lectures the Republican Party on the importance of reaching out to minority groups like Latinos and African Americans, and now says he won't meet with gays because we are a "group." His position on adoption was confusing, almost advocating a "don't ask, don't tell" child care policy." "This raises serious questions about Governor Bush that go beyond the gay issue," Tafel said. "He's run a Rorschach campaign, reflecting back what donors and supporters want to hear even if the messages completely contradict each other. It has raised a lot of money, and brought in a lot of endorsements, but without core principles it falls apart." "He said that meeting with gay Republicans would create a political nightmare for people, and the only people he could be referring to are those on the far right that his campaign is busy claiming Bush is not captive to," Tafel said. "This raises the most difficult questions for moderate Republican elected officials who have endorsed Bush." Earlier in the year during the more intensive fundraising period, the Bush campaign had agreed to a meeting with Log Cabin Republicans, but one was never formally scheduled. |
