Oh, Ohio, You crazy, crazy place:
Here’s a bizarre postscript to the story we brought you last week about the Republican operative who was fired by the Ohio GOP for sending out an email questioning Ted Strickland’s churchgoing record and floating speculation that Strickland and wife are gay.
Ted Strickland is the Democratic nominee for Ohio governor; Ken Blackwell (who’s also the secretary of state and therefore, as he was in 2004, in charge of overseeing the election) is the Republican nominee. Blackwell has been running on the “values” thing.
Now we’re hearing from one Reverend Russell Johnson, a prominent Republican pastor who happens to be the e-mail author’s old boss at the conservative Ohio Restoration Project. Rev. Johnson still isn’t satisfied.
Rev. Johnson is insinuating that if the Stricklands really weren’t gay, why, they’d file a lawsuit and go to court so they could prove it and clear their good name. Until that happens, Johnson says, he’s “withholding judgment” on the Stricklands’ sexuality.
Pam Spaulding has a whole archive on the homophobia in the Ohio GOP’s campaign, which is focused on God, Guns and Gays.” Johnson and Talibangelist Rod Paisley are part of the Patriot Pastors Movement and have been backing Blackwell for years. I had just finished an article in the recent New Yorker about this Unholy Trinity and the way they’re stirring up so-called “values voters” who care more about who’s fucking whom than about social justice — or, for that matter, making sure that black voters are not disenfranchised like they were in 2004, with predominantly black and Democratic districts given far too few voting machines and voter registration forms rejected because they were not printed on a certain kind of card stock that even Blackwell’s office didn’t have.
Check out the smears and allegations and the involvement of good Christian folk in spreading them:
The Ohio Republican Party’s newly hired “social conservative coordinator” e-mailed an undisclosed group of “pro-family friends” this week, offering a 10-point introduction to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland.
His message attacked the church attendance, work ethic, and voting record of Mr. Strickland, a southeast Ohio congressman and ordained Methodist minister. It alleged Mr. Strickland and his wife of nearly 20 years live in different states – and linked to an Internet posting that questions whether Mr. Strickland is gay.
The e-mail’s author, a Christian home school headmaster named Gary Lankford, signed the note with his Ohio Republican Party title below his name. “Pass this information along,” he concluded.
Don’t you love it? This impugning of the commitment to church of a METHODIST MINISTER comes from some nitwit who is too stupid to hide his name and affiliation and who cites Internet rumor that Strickland is gay. Someone was not studying his Karl Rove playbook — Turdblossom knows the secret of a whisper campaign is to be sure that nobody knows for sure the information is coming from you.
Of course, the idea that an ordained minister could be attacked on his churchgoing shows a few things: number one, the contempt that the Christian Right has for liberal denominations; number two, that the Republicans have pretty much locked up the language of values and defined them in the most narrow, hateful way possible; and number three, that maybe someone *is* studying the Karl Rove playbook, at least the sections that deal with taking one of your opponent’s strength and turning it into a weakness.
And it also shows that rumors that candidates are gay still gain a lot of purchase with voters, though how much remains to be seen.
Or maybe they don’t consider calling someone gay to be a smear that requires name-clearing. But I suppose the good Reverend wouldn’t get that.
So how exactly does one prove themselves “not gay” in a court of law? Have sex right there in front of everyone? Beat up a gay guy in front of the jury?
Actually I bet they would rather fancy that second option…
At least we aren’t that bad in Indiana… I think.
Well, there has been muttering for a while that the fact that the Stricklands got married in their mid-forties proves conclusively that they must be gay.
Frankly, I’m surprised that someone hasn’t broken an ankle making these leaps of logic.
Mind-boggling. These people are operating at a level that I haven’t seen since about sixth grade: “Psst, so-and-so’s gay. Pass it on.”
Has anyone actually found an effective way to respond when the Republicans just flat out lie about Democratic candidates (or anything else). It seems to be their primary campaign strategy, so finding an effective defense is pretty essential.
Both major parties lie to the American people and themselves. Agreed, this is an excellent example of Republican chicanery, but let’s not pretend the Democrats don’t pull games like these all the time. I wouldn’t vote for a major party candidate under any circumstance. They’ve all sold their souls.
It’s even trickier than it sounds.
They’re implying he’d have to win a libel suit to “clear his name.” But because he’s a public figure, he has a MUCH harder time winning a libel suit. it’s a double-whammy of a smear.
Nasty folks.
But that means…but naw, it can’t be true…can it? But seeing logic that compelling, I guess it must be. My step-mom is gay. She waited til she was almost 50 to get married, so obviously she spent the first 30ish years of her adulthood engaging in anonymous lesbian orgies. I’ll bet she even did one with Ted Strickland’s wife, while Ted watched.
Someone had better tell my dad…
New tactic?
From Hunter S. Thompson in “Better than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie”, courtesy this site.
The story isn’t true. But it’s funny and it’s relevant.
I got married at 18.* Do I have to stop having sex with women now?
*Divorced at 21, but that’s not the point.
But then if he did go to court, it would be a frivolous lawsuit, and he’d be giving money to those damn trial lawyers!
What’s an alleged-homosexual to do?