I always enjoy it when one of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers lets the gays have a few column inches, so there’s Richard Socarides, who’s always described as “former LGBT adviser to President Clinton” instead of “that charming fellow with the smiling eyes,” in today’s Wall Street Journal going after the sitting president who was mean and took the White House from his ex-boss’ wife.
“First and most obviously, Mr. Obama has not made good on his campaign promise to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, allowing the military to continue stalling.” Zing! “The Obama administration’s stance on gay marriage is especially troubling.” Pow! “When Mr. Olson’s case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court in a year or more from now, will Mr. Obama be one of the few left on the wrong side of history? What a bitter irony that would be.” Ka-plunk!
Now you might think all of Rich’s points are obvious. And they are! But just six months ago, in January, he was only “attacking” Obama in the shyest of ways, so much so that I had to surround “attacking” in air quotes just now. And he did so in the Journal.
The most brutal criticisms of Obama are not filled with vitriol and grand declarations. They are filled with simple, concise facts, which is what Rich is finally laying out.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
jason
The Democrats like to hold out this perpetual carrot to us, the one which says “we Democrats are better than the Republicans”. That may be the case but, realistically, they are not THAT much better. In fact, I see the Democrats’ tactic as being designed to get us to keep voting for them election after election.
Eventually, we in the GLBT community need to say “enough’s enough”. We need to let the Democrats know that we’re not happy. We need to punish them by not voting for them. It might help the Republicans but at least we will have made our point to the Democrats.
The point which says “deliver on your promises and stop taking us for granted”.
tjr101
The WSJ will gleefully hire anyone that attacks Obama even a gay, nothing special here.
Mr. Socarides is quite the hypocrite since his ex- boss and his wife the Sec of State have the same positions on same sex marriage as the president who is working to repeal the very law given to us by his beloved ex- boss.
Socarides is just another opportunist looking for a check.
Brutus
You need to grab a dictionary and look up “fact.”
Jere
@jason: You’re absolutely right about Democrats in the abstract. The problem is that all the Democrats I’ve ever voted for have, in fact, been terrific allies to or members of the community. So, while I’m fed up with the Blue Dog Democrats and Obama, I’m not about to stop supporting other politicians who do take some political risks on our behalf – and all of them are Democrats.
Jon (the cranky one)
Jeeeez. Please be advised to NOT read the comments on that article over at the WSJ. It’s freeperishious.
Queer Supremacist
@jason: I was the first to turn on Democrats, when no one outside of Hyde Park knew or cared who this “Obama” character was.
And we shouldn’t be mocking the Tea Parties. We should be LEADING them. I am sick and tired of paying taxes to prop up a mad with power government that plays games with us, writing checks with its mouth its butt could cash, but doesn’t, and continues to discriminate against us. And why are Republicans worse? Because they’re honest about their breeder supremacy? Well, fighting homophobia in the GOP by voting str8-ticket Democrat sure worked out for us pretty well, if the objective was to allow the breedergoyim to allow the Religious Wrong to dig in their heels and drive decent human beings out of it. Democrats do nothing because they don’t think they have to compete for our votes. They think they can use the Republicans as a boogey man into keeping us scared into voting for them and believing their lies. I don’t believe their lies, the lies being that they have our best interests at heart. Well, fuck them, on the local, state and national levels. No Democrat will ever get my vote again no matter what.
My vote is up for grabs, and my price to the GOP is: throw the Religious Wrong under the bus and crush them HARD. Until then, the Libertarian Party gets my support.
Put that in your pipes with the astroturf and smoke it, O-bots.
Empire
Richard Socarides is a very bitter man because, in 2008, his former boss Bill Clinton was defeated in his attempt to get a second 8 years in the White House by the younger, more inspiring candidate Barack Obama. (“Yes We Can” apparently caught on more than “I have 35 years of experience”)
Richard’s job was to advise Bill Clinton on gay issues…did he advise Mr. Clinton to sign the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act? Barack Obama was on record in opposition to DOMA since he ran for the state senate in 1996.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
@Empire:
Just put down the Kool Aid and step away from the Obamabot clown car.
I know it gave y’all whiplash when your Lord & Savior Obama Christ went from demonizing “Billary” to giving her the most important, most powerful job in his administration, but face it: you were played.
Before, you were fooled. Now that you know what you know, you ARE fools.
Mike in Asheville, nee "in Brooklyn"
And all this so-called brave Obama bashing coming from the guy whose boss fucking created Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell in the first place AND signed DOMA into law. Socarides is a sellout sack of shit to the gay/lesbian civil rights cause.
To Ryan Tedder, Queerty’s author of this post, it is disingenuous to lay claim that Socarides “… declarations … are filled with simple, concise facts” when you completely ignore the facts that Socarides’ boss, Bill Clinton was the crafter of both DADT and DOMA. Further, in the intervening years, Socarides has failed to point his commentary against those who brought us DADT and DOMA, nor taken after the GOP effort to go further with anti-same-sex marriage Constitutional Amendment and the GOP effort to roll-back DADT and simply return to the pre-DADT “kick the fags out” policy.
Clearly Obama has not fulfilled the campaign promises to end DADT and repeal DOMA; yet it is the Repugnitans who throw up the roadblocks. Presidential Candidate John McCain repeatedly stated that he would endorse the Pentagon determination regarding DADT; Senate Candidate McCain now caters to the wingnut cause of smearing the brave gay and lesbian members of the military.
Nonetheless, sucking Murdock off makes Socarides a whore not a hero.
M
I completely agree. Being a “former LGBT adviser to President Clinton” isn’t very impressive considering Bill Clinton helped pass DOMA and DADT. Why isn’t he critisizing Clinton? I’m expected to be impressed by his ‘activism’? Now he’s a has been who is making a desperate attempt to to become relevant again. Richard, honey, go back to 1993 which is the last time anyone cared about what you had to say.
M
*I was agreeing with Mike in Ashville
AndrewW
Richard Socarides is one of the brilliant minds behind the childish and counterproductive GetEQUAL activist-for-hire business.
Jonathan Lewis and Paul Yandura hired Kip Williams ($80,000) and Robin McGehee ($90,000) to “embarrass Democrats” with “crazy shenanigans.” They’ve only succeeded in embarrassing the LGBT Community.
Empire
@Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com:
I’m not an Obama worshipper. There are several things I don’t like about Obama, such as…
1. His decision to hire Hillary Clinton (John Kerry was much more qualified)
2. His course of action in regard to Afghanastan (see number 1 above)
3. His endorsement of senators like Arlen Specter, Kirsten Gillibrand and Blanche Lincoln (he even teamed up with Bill Clinton to engineer a Specter victory, to no avail)
4. His shabby communications staff that allows blogs like Queerty to get away with lying and distorting his record
Bill Perdue
The Obama administration is beginning to smell like a Gulf beach. His policies are nauseating regurgitations of the Clinton and Bush policies.
Obama promised health care and ended up giving trillions more to the insurance companies, HMOs and Big Pharma. FAIL More people who need real reform will die.
He promised to begin massive withdrawals from Iraq this month and next year from Afghanistan. But the US doesn’t seem any closer to stealing Iraqi oil and there are those new mineral deposits in Afghanistan. FAIL More GI’s and civilians burned, maimed, crushed and torn to pieces by artillery rifle and missile fire.
He promised to protect and preserve and he protected the rich with bailouts and preserved BPs property rights while allowing the Gulf to become a sewer and a graveyard of species. HUGE FAIL The ecosystem and the economy of the Guld will be devestated
His lies about being a ‘fierce defender’ were a cruel joke. FAIL
The only things he defends are BP, Haiburton, B. Clintons DADT and DOMA in court and predatory lenders like Goldman Sachs. He’e betrayed everyone else. FAIL
Here’s the price of failure: the country is turning decisively against Obama, and all incumbents, whether Democrat or Republican.
A new (June 24th, 2010) Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds Americans “are more pessimistic about the state of the country and less confident in President Obama’s leadership than at any point since Mr. Obama entered the White House.”
Key finding: “62% feel the country is on the wrong track, the highest level since before the 2008 election. Just one-third think the economy will get better over the next year, a 7-point drop from a month ago and the low point of Mr. Obama’s tenure.”
Americans give President Obama a 44% approval rating on his handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, up slightly from 40% in early June. Meanwhile, 16% of Americans approve of BP’s handling of the spill. (June 21st, 2010, Gallup.com)
The looter rich much prefer working with Democrats like Obama and the Clintons – they’re greedier, they fool more people and they’re able to get away with a lot more than Republicans. For a while, but then the chickens come home to roost.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
@ Mike in Asheville, nee “in Brooklyn”
If you read history books…and even some current newspapers… instead of Obama campaign propaganda, you’d know that for all his mistakes [despite several good things he did for the gay community], Clinton “crafted” neither DADT nor DOMA. He signed them both, but his vetos would have been overridden by Congress.
The historical FACTS [which I can document until you’re blue in the face] are that the main difference between Clinton and Obama regarding the military ban is that Clinton came into office genuinely intending to lift the ban as illustrated by his and then caved to the military while Obama came into office ALREADY having caved to the military,
CLINTON:
From Unfriendly Fire, the definite history of the conversion of the ban into “DADT” by Dr. Nathaniel Frank:
Versus what OBAMA has done:
Within two weeks of being sworn in:
And exactly one year and a day later, after hundreds more had been needlessly discharged, that’s exactly what SECDEF Gates unveiled to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“it is the Repugnitans who throw up the roadblocks”???? “the GOP effort to roll-back DADT and simply return to the pre-DADT ‘kick the fags out’ policy”????????????
WRONG! Of course, Gates is a Republican Bush holdover whom SLDN begged Obama not to reappoint him. But not only did he refuse but he’s letting Gates get away with a virtual political coup. It is OBAMA who created the “roll-back…to the pre-DADT…policy!!!!!!!!!!
But then, Gates’ pocket poodle Obama…despite facing nothing like the gigantic opposition Clinton did from the public, Congress, the Pentagon, and the Antigay Industry [“Congress was besieged with 434,000 phone calls in a single day, overwhelmingly against letting gays serve…more than five times the daily average of 80,000.” – Frank]…to the contrary, with huge support for lifting the ban by the public, an Antigay Industry with little of the power in had in 1993, and with a Congress who believed it had the votes with the President’s endorsement, turned the tables and forced repeal advocates to trash the five-year old Military Readiness Enhancement Act bill that would have guaranteed an end to discharges in six months…months after the phony “study” ends.
Socarides could be wrong about everything else in the world and STILL be right about Obama. As the old saying goes, you can shoot the messenger, but that doesn’t make the message untrue.
Since taking office, Obama has [and I dare you to PROVE differenty]:
1. GUTTED any GUARANTEE of an end to discharges from the amendment;
2. GUTTED the explicit ban on discrimination against gays in the military from the amendment;
3. GUTTED permission for those already discharged to reenlist from the amendment;
4. REFUSED to order his SECDEF and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to salute those three key mandates making the DOD a virtual fourth branch of government;
5. Instead EMPOWERED Gates to come up with and spend millions of taxpayer dollars on a phony “study” built entirely around the PREMISE that allowing out gays to serve would hurt the military and intended to stall ending discharges, and still with the potential of its “findings” being used to continue the ban permanently;
6. REFUSED to use the legal power Congress gave him to unilaterally stop discharges which he’s said himself “weaken national security”
7. Instead has DISCHARGED over 600 gays since being sworn, and is still discharging them, according to SLDN, under the “old rules” contrary to new ones released March 25th;
8. REFUSED to order Gates to follow the YEAR & A HALF OLD 9th Circuit Court Witt decision banning any discharges within its multi-state jurisdiction when the military has not proven that the INDIVIDUAL damages unit cohesion. Gates finally promised on Feb. 2nd to announce such policies by mid-March but still hasn’t.
9. DEFENDED DADT in court more than half a dozen times with the same homophobic language used to pass it in 1993;
10. CLAIMED DADT has been ruled constitutional by Supreme Court when it never has;
11. Done NOTHING to keep his promise to pass ENDA;
12. Done NOTHING to keep his promise to pass UAFA;
13. Done NOTHING to keep his promise to repeal DOMA;
14. Instead, DEFENDED DOMA in court repeatedly in terms even more homophobic than those used to pass it originally;
15. Did NOTHING to help pass the hate crimes bill other than posing for a photo with Judy Shepard;
16. Is being sued by Lambda Legal for refusing to let a lesbian federal court employee buy insurance for her partner despite a court order clearly indicating it would NOT be a violation of DOMA; nor would it cost the government a cent;
17. Thrown cheap crumbs at us like hospital visitation which even the Antigay Industry supports;
18. Reinforced religio-fascist homophobes, just like he did during the campaign by telling them he opposes marriage equality because “God is in the mix,” by telling reporters for the homohating Catholic Church that, “As a Christian, I’m constantly wrestling with my faith and my solicitude and regard and concern for gays and lesbians.” Civil rights, Sparky, CIVIL rights!
mike
@ No. 15 · Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
WTF is your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid? Cause you sure drink a lot of it. Must be blueberry turning your face, not mine, blue.
You can blah blah blah blather just like Socarides bullshit. So, you really think that just because Clinton wrote a letter about ending discrimination against gays in the military changes the FACT THAT IT WAS THE CLINTON WHITE HOUSE THAT WROTE THE DADT POLICY. That is the very essence of “crafted”.
When the Repugnantans saw an opportunity rack Clinton over the coals for causing the DADT issue in the first place through more restictive legislation, it was Clinton who personally asked the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Ron Dellums, the stalwart Democrat and long-time friend of gay causes from Berkeley, CA, to marshal the White House policy into law rather than allowing the GOP to make matters worse.
BUT, big fucking deal. Clinton caved-in a lacked the backbone to stick up for what he knew was morally wrong. And gays and lesbians in the military have suffered from over 17 years of DADT, THANKS TO BILL CLINTON.
And at the time, Clinton apologists, Socarides and David Mixner too, said that DADT was the best Clinton could do against the mounting opposition growing from the Pentagon and the fright-wing. They were wrong then and they are wrong now. The best that Clinton could have done is been a leader, ended the discrimination by executive order, and fired any asshole chiefs, like Truman did when ending racial discrimination.
Oh, Michael, all that blather you wrote and you failed to include that Candidate Obama stated unequivocally that ending DADT had to be through legislation not executive order since DADT was made into law. And IT IS THE REPUGNANTANS WHO ARE THWARTING EFFORTS TO END DADT. Sure the Democrats, including Obama, have allowed the fright-wing to intimidate, obstruct, rant anti-gay vile, BUT THAT DOES NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT IT IS THE GOP AND THE FRIGHT-WING WHO ARE INTIMIDATING, OBSTRUCTING, AND RANTING.
Queer Supremacist
@Empire: All of Buttcrack Obreeder’s statements come with an expiration date. Like his support of gay marriage around that time.
Remember “God is in the mix”? That one’s expiration date has yet to occur.
Keep blathering, and keep voting us down, O-bots. You can’t vote down the truth. And blaming “Repugnaticans” (jeez, what an original insult) for Massa Obama’s deliberate lack of action to keep his house faggots on the “Democratic” plantation does not wash.
Obama is a homophobic brownshirt, plain and simple.
Jason_Activist
Richard Socarides is just a LGBT-Rights whore. He’s in it for the money. He helped create the nightmare children from GetEqual. He actually got paid to help put that shit together.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
@mike:
I’m sorry, I don’t treat mental illness. All I can do is urge you to refill your Haloperidol prescription, and correct your fantasies for those with an open mind.
1. CLAIM: “at the time, Clinton apologists, Socarides and David Mixner too, said that DADT was the best Clinton could do”
FACT: I have no idea what Socarides said at the time, but David Mixner not only denounced Clinton for caving to the military, et al., but he went on “Nightline” to do it and was arrested at a protest of it in front of the White House leading Rahm Emanuel [now Obama’s Chief of Staff] to blackball him. Would photographic proof help?
[img]http://leonardmatlovich.com/images/196_1DAVID-MIXNER-ARRESTED.jpg[/img]
2. CLAIM: “just because Clinton wrote a letter about ending discrimination”
FACT: No, Mary, not a “letter” but an official Presidential memorandum to his SECDEF….the SAME device your Lord & Savior Obama Christ has used to extend minor benefits to federal employees and direct creation of a requirement about hospital visitation. [Contrary to Obambotic lore, he’s issued NO “Executive Orders” for LGBT’s.]
3. CLAIM: “THE CLINTON WHITE HOUSE THAT WROTE THE DADT POLICY”
FACT: Again, only in the world in which you have your head up your ass did that happen. Since I’ve obviously failed to convince you to ask your Mommy to read a BOOK to you like “Unfriendly Fire,” how about something simpler, like this from the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network [SLDN] guide:
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is the result of a failed effort by President Bill Clinton to end the regulatory ban on gays in
the military. Spurred in part by the brutal 1992 murder of Seaman Allen Schindler, then-candidate Clinton proposed
ending the ban by issuing an Executive Order overriding the
Department of Defense (DoD) regulations that barred gays from serving. CONGRESS, however, INTERVENED and the regulatory ban was made law.”
The bill was drafted by the staff of Sen. Sam Nunn, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee with the help of “military sociologist” Charles Moskos who took credit for being its architect. [Have someone Google that for you.] It was also Nunn who came up with the idea of attaching it to the almost unvetoable Defense Authorization Act.
4. CLAIM: “Clinton who personally asked the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Ron Dellums…to marshal the White House policy into law”
FACT: You have shat this simplistic bullshit here before, which, ironically, is a lie created by Repugs. Dellums SUPPORTED lifting the ban, but even as Chair was outnumbered and outmaneuvered by others on the House Armed Services Committee and the whole body, particularly Ike Skelton, chair of the powerful Military Personnel subcommittee, who introduced a virtual mirror image of the Senate bill to the House.
“[By the time the HASC hearings started] Dellums, Schroeder, Studds, and their allies face a groundswell of resentment from their House colleagues about having to deal with the issue at all. …[Even after Clinton announced his capitulation on July 19th] on July 27th, Ron Dellums proposed an amendment lifting the ban altogether but lost 12 to 43.” – “Gay Rights, Military Wrongs,” by Rimmerman, et al. SORRY, that’s another b-o-o-k, but that’s what ADULTS use.
5. CLAIM: “The best that Clinton could have done is been a leader, ended the discrimination by executive order, and fired any asshole chiefs”
FACT: Why is Clinton “bad” for not doing that while you give Obama a pass for having thrown his legs into the air for the military even before he moved into the White House?
6. CLAIM: “Candidate Obama stated unequivocally that ending DADT had to be through legislation not executive order since DADT was made into law.”
FACT: In typical fashion, you confuse ending “DADT” with ending DISCHARGES.
Despite his disingenous pretense to the contrary, Obama has had since the second he was sworn in the power to unilaterally stop discharges that he himself has declared BOTH unjust and weakening of national security. Such an act would NOT be “ignoring” the law, as Obama Mafia propaganda insists, but ENFORCING a law, specifically 10 U.S.C. § 12305, “Authority of the President to Suspend Certain Laws Relating to Promotion, Retirement, and Separation.”
It was passed by Congress in 1983, and reads:
“Notwithstanding ANY other provision of law, during any period members of a reserve component are serving on active duty pursuant to an order to active duty under authority of section 12301, 12302, or 12304 of this title, the President may suspend ANY provision of law relating to promotion, retirement, or separation applicable to ANY member of the armed forces who the President determines is essential to the national security of the United States.”
Obambotic spin has always been that he shouldn’t do it because it wouldn’t be “permanent”…a future President could reverse it….so he must wait for “repeal.”
A. Nonsense, any act of one Congress can be reversed by a future Congress.
B. It’s like saying to someone bleeding to death: “Yes, I could stop you’re bleeding but instead I’m going to wait for Dr. Congress to arrive and patch you up.”
Well, the “bleeding” of over 600 gay service members would have been stopped had he not refused to use his powers. FIND ME ONE OF THOSE WHO WOULD SAY, “Yes, I’m glad I was shitcanned into the unemployment lines rather than be saved by my Commander-in-Chief’s courage.”
7. CLAIM: “IT IS THE GOP AND THE FRIGHT-WING WHO ARE INTIMIDATING, OBSTRUCTING”????
FACT: I’m sorry, dear, didn’t you read far enough to get to the part where Nancy Pelosi said it was the White House who insisted upon weakening legislation? Or are you calling the Speaker of the House a liar?
BOTTOMLINE: Both Clinton and Socarides could be Evil Incarnate and that would not erase the FACT that Obama TOOK OFFICE already having CHOSEN to BETRAY gay service members…and HIS OWN PROMISE:
http://leonardmatlovich.com/barackobamaspromise.html
[img]http://02b4964.netsolhost.com/images/509_1OBAMA-WHOM-DID-WE-ELECT.jpg[/img]
Baxter
@jason: Gays need to stop voting like Blacks and start voting like Jews. As long as the Democratic party can always count on our vote, they’ll never actually do anything for us. If we can demonstrate that we’re not locked into one party, you’ll see both parties start actually working to get our support. At the moment the Democrats don’t feel like they have to work for us, because we’ll vote for them anyway. And Republicans don’t want to take the political risk and help us out, because we’re going to vote against them anyway.
jeffree
“Jason” and his pretend friends are having a party tonight!
Hi AndrewW!
We’ve missed you!
Plus of course, Jason_Activist and Jason_Activist have never been far from our thoughts after their modified “fasts.”
So heroic!
Bill Perdue
@Jason_Activist: is just an AndrewW.
And for those who missed it the Obama administration is beginning to smell like a Gulf beach. His policies are nauseating regurgitations of Clinton and Bush policies.
Obama promised health care and ended up giving trillions more to the insurance companies, HMOs and Big Pharma. FAIL More people who need real reform will die.
He promised to begin massive withdrawals from Iraq this month and next year from Afghanistan. But the US doesn’t seem any closer to stealing Iraqi oil and there are those new mineral deposits in Afghanistan. FAIL More GI’s and civilians burned, maimed, crushed and torn to pieces by artillery rifle and missile fire.
He promised to protect and preserve and he protected the rich with bailouts and preserved BPs property rights while allowing the Gulf to become a sewer and a graveyard of species. HUGE FAIL The ecosystem and the economy of the Guld will be devestated
His lies about being a ‘fierce defender’ were a cruel joke. FAIL
The only things he defends are BP, Haiburton, B. Clintons DADT and DOMA in court and predatory lenders like Goldman Sachs. He’e betrayed everyone else. FAIL
Here’s the price of failure: the country is turning decisively against Obama, and all incumbents, whether Democrat or Republican.
A new (June 24th, 2010) Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds Americans “are more pessimistic about the state of the country and less confident in President Obama’s leadership than at any point since Mr. Obama entered the White House.”
Key finding: “62% feel the country is on the wrong track, the highest level since before the 2008 election. Just one-third think the economy will get better over the next year, a 7-point drop from a month ago and the low point of Mr. Obama’s tenure.”
Americans give President Obama a 44% approval rating on his handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, up slightly from 40% in early June. Meanwhile, 16% of Americans approve of BP’s handling of the spill. (June 21st, 2010, Gallup.com)
The looter rich much prefer working with Democrats like Obama and the Clintons – they’re greedier, they fool more people and they’re able to get away with a lot more than Republicans. For a while, but then the chickens come home to roost.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
Ah, I see the Obamabots are using Queerty’s flag system to block the truth.
Typical. They can’t dispute the facts so they try to obscure them.
MickW
Yeah like I’m going to listen to the man that advised Clinton to do all the things he wants Obama to change…..some people really have nerve.
DX
What I find ironic is that Obama can win re-election and stall on every promise he made to the gay community and he still won’t be able to do one percent of the damage Richard Socarides’ father did to the gay cause and to suicidal gay teenagers, particularly in the 1960s and ’70s. The son’s deference towards that lunatic up until the day he died was the height of cowardice.