Gay GOP group criticizes Hagel nomination

[No Elephants]

Democratic advocates of the GLBT community have been doing that since the WH first floated his name.

So did James Hormel, whom the Hagel turd slimed.

Maybe Obama will listen to the Republican ones.

Or maybe we can just have Rick Warren convert our gay government officials.


{div class=excerpt] Published: Dec. 27, 2012 at 1:34 PM

NEW YORK, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Log Cabin Republicans took out an ad in Thursday's New York Times saying former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., should not be nominated as secretary of defense.

The group, which represents gay Republicans, cited anti-gay comments Hagel made 14 years ago regarding James Hormel, who was under consideration for a diplomatic post at the time.

Hormel, who is openly gay, was nominated by then-President Bill Clinton to be U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg.

The ad cites part of a quote from a 1998 Omaha World Herald interview in which Hagel said: "Ambassadorial posts are sensitive. They are representing America. They are representing our lifestyles, our values, our standards. And I think it is an inhibiting factor to be -- openly aggressively gay like Mr. Hormel -- to do a better job."

[Divine Discontent]

1. my bro still says, despite all his good, our Bubba really did the USA in with NAFTA

have to agree. even though it was supposedly something that "had" to be done according to many.

and as for Hagel, well, he's certainly not the worst the GOP has to offer, but, uh, can't we give the GOP some token roles in the cabinet.... NOT the SOD!

[Enthusiast]

2. NAFTA should be considered an act of treason.

Then there was the Telecommunications Act and Gramm-Leach-Bliley. Real nice, Bubba! You ruined the world economy and the nation forever. Monica was a well coordinated smoke screen.

[No Elephants]

3. It's hard to say whether he did more damage with NAFTA or with repeal of Glass Steagall, but

the combination was lethal to our economy and to that of the Western world, for that matter.

You are so much a better person than I, DD. I cannot tolerate Hagel for what he did to Hormel--and I am not even gay. I do not know how you overlook the likes of him.

But yes, I would like to see the best that Democrats have to offer in that position. Gates? Panetta? Obama, please!

Meanwhile, looking up Hormel (of the family that invented Spam!), I learned that Luxemborg is pretty cool.

Ambassadorship

In 1994, President Bill Clinton considered Hormel for the ambassadorship to Fiji, but did not put the nomination forward due to protests from Fiji officials.<1> Gay male sexual acts were punishable with prison sentences in Fiji and Hormel's being open about his sexuality would stand in conflict with the culture. Instead Hormel was named as part of the United Nations delegation from the US to the Human Rights Commission in 1995, and in 1996 became an alternate for the United Nations General Assembly.<1> In October 1997 Clinton nominated Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg, which had removed laws prohibiting consensual same-sex acts between adults in the 1800s.<1><2> This appointment was the first nomination or appointment of an openly LGBT person from the US.<1>

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved his nomination with only Republican and conservative Senators Jesse Helms and John Ashcroft opposed. Three other Republicans, James Inhofe, Tim Hutchinson, and Robert C. Smith, with the urging of religious and social conservatives campaigned vigorously against Hormel's nomination. Trent Lott, the Republican Majority Leader, worked to block the vote and publicly called homosexuality a sin and compared it to alcoholism and kleptomania.<1> Christian-based conservative groups like the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) and the Family Research Council (FRC) publicly accused Hormel of being pro-pornography and anti-Catholic and the Senators presented those charges to derail the nomination.<3> They asserted that Hormel would be rejected in the largely Catholic Luxembourg. To support the pornography allegation, a list of materials in the Hormel collection at the San Francisco Public Library was compiled by the TVC; it was later pointed out that the same works were also in the Library of Congress.<3> The anti-Catholic allegation stemmed from a 1996 San Francisco Pride parade television interview where he was seen laughing at the same time the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group that pokes fun at religious conventions, walked by.<4> The Catholic League opposed his nomination because of his "embrace" of the Sisters which the League considers an anti-Catholic group.<5> Although it was unclear why he was laughing, Christian right conservative group FRC distributed video tapes to the entire Senate of the brief event.<6>

Concerns about Hormel's reception in Luxembourg were "blunted when officials of the country, which has laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation, indicated that he would be welcome."<7><8> Senator Alfonse D'Amato of New York found the obstruction of the nomination an embarrassment and urged that Trent Lott bring the issue up for a vote.<9><10> When Lott continued to stall, Clinton employed a recess appointment in May 1999. Hormel was sworn in as ambassador in June 1999. His partner at the time, Timothy Wu, held the Bible during the ceremony.<11><12><13><14> Also in attendance were Hormel's former wife, his five children, and several of his grandchildren.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hormel

The 1800s! Cool!

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. Hagel's anti-war in the Middle East... that's all that matters to me.

[No Elephants]

5. I am sure people exist who

1. Do not try to keep gay people out of government positions.

2. Do not gash gays.

2. Are far more anti-war in the Middle East than Hage.

3. Are not Cons.

And all those things matter very much to me.


Besides, the head of the D of D is not the one who sets foreign policy. The CIC does that and Congress declares war.


Pinning Middle East policy hopes on the head of the D of D is not going to do anything.

P.S. Makes me very sad that what he did to gays doesn't matter to you.

[Enthusiast]

6. The Neo-Cons want war in the MIddle East and war we shall have.

That's why we must cut social security and medicare. Too many useless mouths to feed you know.

[No Elephants]

7. Cutting payments to Medicare providers by 30% should kill off a lot, too.

As it is, many medical providers say they cannot afford to take Medicare patients because the payments are too low and too slow.

If payments to providers get 30% lower, it won't even pay to hire a clerk to send the claim to the feds.

I have a lot of negative reactions to the huge amounts my hospital bills my insurer. However, I have seen things like Medicare paying something like $3 when the bill was several hundred dollars.

There has to be a happy medium, but who trusts our legislators to find it and enact it into a law the average Ph.d. graduate can read?