Gay Today: World

Gay Ambassador's Enemy
Widely Criticized

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Sen. Inhofe

Washington, D.C.— Elizabeth Birch, the Human Rights Campaign's Executive Director, has joined a host of newspaper editorialists condemning Sen. James M. Inhofe, (R-Okla) for threatening to block all future Clinton administration nominations because he is upset over the recess appointment of openly gay philanthropist James C. Hormel as Ambassador to Luxembourg.

Inhofe's churlish tirade and spectacular display of anti-gay discrimination underscores that raw prejudice was the sole reason Hormel wasn't confirmed, according to HRC.

"Inhofe's temper tantrum is an embarrassment and indicative of the thinly veiled anti-gay discrimination that kept James Hormel from getting confirmed," said HRC Executive Director Winnie Stachelberg.

"The Senate's role in the confirmation process is to advise and consent. The framers of the Constitution never saw the process as a means in which to derail qualified nominees based on prejudice. Furthermore, Senator Inhofe does not seem to understand that there isn't a Constitutional right to place a hold on nominations."

Inhofe attacked the June 4 recess appointment of Hormel with a blistering statement released Tuesday. According to Inhofe, "President Clinton has shown contempt for Congress and the Constitution. He has treated the Senate confirmation process as little more than a nuisance which he can circumvent whenever he wants to impose his will on the country."

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"There is great irony in Senator Inhofe's rhetoric considering he had no qualms about placing a hold on the nomination and denying more than 60 senators the opportunity to vote their consciences and confirm Hormel," said Birch.

Despite Inhofe's indignation and anger at Clinton over the recess appointment, the President has been far less likely than past presidents to exercise this executive power. To date, Clinton has made only 57 recess appointments, compared to 78 for President George Bush over four years and 239 for President Ronald Reagan over eight years.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss, who also opposed Hormel's nomination and used his leadership position to keep it from coming to a vote, indicated he would not allow Inhofe to unilaterally place a hold on all nominations. According to Lott, "as far as doing it indefinitely, that would not be my inclination."

Ambassador James Hormel

Clinton nominated Hormel in 1997 to serve as U. S. ambassador to Luxembourg. The nomination was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last fall but had been stalled by several senators who raised objections to his support for lesbian and gay equal rights.

The right-wing campaign to stop Hormel's nomination was led by Sens. James Inhofe, R-Okla., Bob Smith, R-N.H., and Tim Hutchison, R-Ark.

The battle for Hormel's confirmation sometimes took unfortunate turns as right-wing senators took extreme and erratic stances to justify their anti-gay discrimination. In the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, Inhofe went as far as to compare Hormel to former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.

Hormel is a prominent civic leader and former diplomat. He served as an alternate U.S. representative to the United Nations General Assembly and as a member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. His supporters include Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del.; Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; as well as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Reagan administration Secretary of State George Shultz.

Thursday's editorial in The Washington Post critiqued Sen. Inhofe's behavior also. "It's a clumsy move," said the Post, "made all the more so by the fact that the senator's principal objection to the nomination was that Mr. Hormel happens to be gay…If Sen. Inhofe persists in what is a doubly indefensible position, he ought to be voted down."

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen called Sen. Inhofe's stance "witless bigotry." He charged: "His cause is a rancid one: homophobia."

Even the New York Post, one of the nation's more conservative papers, editorialized: "Inhofe has picked a stupid and misguided battle."