Wrapping up her DNC speech last night, Michelle Obama reminded gay voters of her husband Barack's driving philosophy - people can change the world, we can shape it, make it and mold it as it should be: inclusive.

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Ha!

One of the best parts of last night's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council dinner, where Michelle Obama pledged her support to the lavender set, was a press packet containing pride salutations from Barack Obama, the Democratic National Committee and The Republican National Committee.

As you can see, the RNC doesn't have a pride message, of course, and the DNC made that perfectly clear with a blank sheet of paper.

Very clever, Demmies.

The Democratic National Committee knows how to use it's political dough. With about $4.4 million in the bank - compared to the rival Republicans' $40 million - the DNC has focussed its campaign energies on short, savvy video shots at John McCain. The party previously took on McCain's wild claim that we Americans are better off than we were four years ago. They also created a commercial criticizing the infamous "100 more years in Iraq" remarks. That very comment makes its way into the DNC's latest advertorial endeavor: an attack on McCain's flippant Iraq-related comment on yesterday's Today Show:

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They may not know who will be their nominee, but the Democratic National Committee has already started compiling their press for this summer's convention.

As part of their effort to include homo-journos, the DNC accredited two explicitly gay blogs: Pam's House Blend, which is penned by a black lesbian from North Carolina, and a New York-based blog: Towleroad, which is run by a white man.

And the latter has Bil Browning over at fellow applicant Bilerico not only a bit bitter, but downright confused:

Towleroad is not known for racial diversity, trans inclusion, or its lesbian audience. It is a site for wealthy gay white men - the HRC demographic.
…
When was the last time you saw serious in-depth political coverage on Towleroad or committed coverage of an issue from multiple angles or guest posts from members of Congress and Presidential candidates?
…
Towleroad has a niche - upperclass white gay men; it's not that diverse. Maybe there are too many letters for the DNC to spell LGBT. When we first launched, Alex would often use the line, "Not everything queer is marriage, martinis and Madonna." Maybe we should have stuck with the big 3 Ms after all.

Ouch!

The Democratic party's gay delegate drama has spread to the Sunshine State:

…Florida Democrats have internal problems which must be solved. The final meeting to choose Florida delegates left bruised feelings when leaders of the Gay/Lesbian alliance — representatives of a huge voting bloc in South Florida — complained that they were only given half of the promised slots despite "affirmative action standards."

We're sure Floridian gays won't be the only ones upset over the so-called "standards."

The Democratic National Committee got some bad news yesterday.

A DC judge ruled that the organization cannot block press, such as ourselves, from accessing internal documents related to the ongoing lawsuit filed by Donald Hitchcock, who alleges the DNC canned him in retaliation for his boyfriend's public denouncement of the party organ. DNC officials hoped to keep the media's hands off the documents, which they argued could damage the organization's reputation.

Judge Jeanette Clark disagreed: "…The Court is constrained to deny the Motion because the DNC has not met its burden of articulating sufficient facts in support of its Motion to limit the dissemination of discovery [documents]. Therefore, good cause was not shown to grant the motion."

Here's a PDF of the ruling.

Has the Democratic National Committee gone too far? Republicans say yes.

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The Democratic National Committee's been picking up the slack for its presidential candidates.

Since Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are busy battling one another, the DNC booked this national ad highlighting Republican opponent John McCain's utter confusion about our current national climate.

For example, he claims the Bush administration helped generate new jobs, while the commercial clearly points out that 1.8 million have been lost.

Though definitely informative, the advert serves an alternate purpose.

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Donald Hitchcock's lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee continues. Formerly the executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council, Hitchcock alleges the DNC terminated him in retaliation for his boyfriend's public criticism of the party. DNC Chairman Howard Dean denies this, but sort of lent credence when he said Hitchcock failed to rally "the community," as if we're some giant homo bloc.

Past testimony aside, there's a new twist as a federal judge has ordered GLLC Chair Claire Lucas to take the stand - and she will on Friday.

Lucas has been quite the contentious figure in this mess, but not necessarily because of her role in the Hitchcock affair. Lucas refused to testify in the hearings - and sparked all sorts of rumors.

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Martin Luther King died 40 years ago today. That means that when John McCain oppoaws the leader's eponymous national holiday in 1983, Dr. King had been dead for fifteen years. Above you'll see McCain explaining that he simply hadn't yet learned about King and his civil rights work. Now, we understand McCain had been a P.O.W. during that period, but someone must have tipped him off to King's existence.

Those of you who want a detailed account of McCain's King education can thank the Democratic National Committee for this run-down, which includes this informative tidbit about a 1994 Senatorial vote:

McCain Voted To Strip Federal Funding From the MLK Federal Holiday Commission. In 1994, McCain voted to prohibit federal funds for the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission. The Commission was established in 1984 "to encourage the observance of King's birthday." According to Al King, head of the California chapter of the commission, the organization "helped keep 'senators' and representatives' feet to the fire to recognize the holiday.

For the record, King had been dead twenty-six years in 1994.

Howard Dean's memory continues to fail him. The Democratic National Committee Chairman claims his organization fired Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council director Donald Hitchcock for "poor job performance," not as retaliation for his boyfriend, Paul Yandura's open letter criticizing the party's lackluster gay politics.

Taking a look at Dean's sworn deposition, however, one has to wonder whether his shady recollection says more his parsed replies. And gay Democrats should be wondering how they can stand up and save their party.

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