I Am NOT Making This Up!
Far-Right Group Wants to ARREST Gay Arizona Congressman at GOP Convention!
by Tamara Baker
Monday, July 31, 2000 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA (AmpolNS) -- I swear to you, ladies and gentlemen, I am not making this up.
A wacko religious-right group wants gay Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) arrested for committing sodomy. Check it out!
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In an email action alert dated July 28, 2000, and entitled "Arrest Mr. Kolbe," the AFA includes a letter to Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Jim Nicholson from Phil Burress, Chairman of "Equal Rights not Special Rights" based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The letter states that Mr. Kolbe, who is gay, is slated to be a speaker at the upcoming Republican Convention. It goes on to say: "Mr. Kolbe as a self described homosexual means nothing except to say he engages in sodomy. Did you know that in Arizona, sodomy is against the law? Mr. Kolbe should be arrested when he returns to his home state for violating state law."
AFA appeared receptive to the letter's message, calling the letter "excellent," and referring to Mr. Burress as a "good friend and ally." In addition, the alert includes contact information for RNC chair Nicholson, and more information on Arizona's sodomy statute.
The incredible demand to arrest gay people simply based on their sexual orientation comes only two days before the start of the Republican Convention, and amidst a number of recent indications that Mr. Bush is distancing himself from the religious right wing of his party.
In other words, the religious right, which has been none too happy about Bush's attempts to distance himself from the McVeigh-and-DeLay crowd, not to mention the entire Republican House and Senate, is REALLY yanking his leash now. They're pissed as hell that he's met, albeit unofficially, with Rich Tafel's Log Cabin Republicans without so much as genuflecting to them for their aid in delivering the bacon on Super Tuesday -- until they compelled him to respect their authori-TAH by dumping pro-choicer Ridge for paleocon draftdodger Cheney.
Question: Shall we arrest Dick Cheney's gay daughter, too? (Oh, of course not: She's the daughter of paleocons, and besides, she's like gay Republican attack-ad coordinator Arthur Finkelstein over in Connecticut: very willing and able to do the far-right's dirty work and to do it with a smile.)
Some spinners are already attempting to spin the American Family Association's bizarre (not to say stupid) demand as something that is GOOD for the Shrublet. The official spin is that the harder the religious right attacks Bush for not being hard-right enough, the better Bush looks to the electorate.
The only problem with this spin is that every time it has counted, such as when Shrub's minders tried to slip Tom Ridge past the far-right, or when Shrub's minders have tried to moderate the Republican Party's official planks on abortion, gun control, and gay rights, the religious right stamps its feet and both the Bush campaign and the GOP leadership meekly fall into line again behind the Robertsons and Falwells and Dobsons.
And the American people recognize this, especially as both the media and the Democratic Party have been quick to point out this very fact.
