From the Repubble Presidential Candidates' Quiz Show on CNN Tuesday, June 5, 2007:
Scott Spradling, WMUR-TV:
Ron Paul:
Wolf Blitzer, CNN:
Blitzer (crosstalk): We're gonna come back to that.
Huckabee:
Blitzer:
Huckabee:
Blitzer:
Huckabee:
I don't think that I would. I think it's already covered by the existing policy that we do have.
Blitzer:
Blitzer:
Mitt Romney:
John McCain:
Blitzer:
~ ~ ~ ~
"I believe to try to legitimize that which is inherently illegitimate would be a disgraceful act of government. I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."
Cartoon from March, 2007: Sen. Hillary R. Clinton (D-NY) strives to please.
"This court has yet to hear any convincing argument as to how excluding same-sex couples from getting married promotes responsible reproduction in general or by different-sex couples in particular. So far as this court can tell (the law) operates only to harm same-sex couples and their children."
"The ruling in Iowa today is another example of an activist court and unelected judges trying to redefine marriage and disregard the will of the people as expressed through Iowa's Defense of Marriage Act. This once again highlights the need for a Federal Marriage Amendment to protect the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman."
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--Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), campaigning at a Rightwing Christians’ rally in Iowa, March 26, 2006, hoping that we’ll soon see our country go from Huckleberry Hound to Mike Huckabee.
John McCain's anti-inflation policy.
Congressman Paul, a question for you. Most of our closest allies, including Great Britain and Israel, allow gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military. Is it time to end the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military?
I think the current policy is a decent policy and the problem we have with dealing with this subject is we see people as groups-- that they belong to certain groups, and that they derive their rights by belonging to a group. We don't get our rights because we're gays or women or minorities, we get our rights from our Creator as individuals, so every individual should be treated the same way. So if there's homosexual behavior in the military that is disruptive, it should be dealt with. But if there's heterosexual sexual behavior that is disruptive, it should be dealt with. It isn't the issue of homosexuality, it is the concept of individuality and individual rights. If we understood that, we would not be dealing with this very important problem.
Governor Huckabee, I want you to weigh in as well. Do you believe it's time to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the United States military? 
Mike Huckabee:
Wolf, I think it's already covered by the Uniform Code of Military Conduct. I think that's what Congressman Paul was saying. It's about conduct, it's not about attitude. But I'd like to ask you, you said a moment ago that you were all going to give us a chance to deal with the issue of immigration.
Huckabee (crosstalk): I hope you'll do that.
Blitzer (crosstalk): We will. We'll, we're gonna come back to that.
Huckabee (crosstalk): You hold us to it, we'll hold you to that.
Blitzer (crosstalk): We're gonna come back, we're gonna come back to immigration. But right now we're talking about allowing gays to serve openly in the military. But you're opposed to that.
I just said, I think it's a matter, it's not, you don't punish people for their attitudes. You punish them if their behavior creates a problem, and it's already covered by the Uniform Code of Military Conduct.
So you wouldn't change existing policy.
I, uh what?
You wouldn't change existing policy.
Mayor Giuliani, recently we've learned that several talented, trained linguists -- Arabic speakers, Farsi speakers, Urdu speakers -- trained by the U.S. government, who learned those languages to help us in the war on terrorism, were dismissed from the U.S. military because they announced they were gays or lesbians. Is that, in your mind, appropriate?
Rudy Giuliani:
This is not the time to deal with disruptive issues like this. In 1994 we went through this and created a tremendous amount of disruption. Colin Powell, I think, was still the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before he left at the beginning of the Clinton Administration. He came to the view that this was a good policy, and I think in a time of war, a time when we're trying to deal with this kind of transition to a new kind of warfare that we have to be fighting (and I don't think we've gotten all the way there yet) that we need a hybrid army, we need to look at nation-building as part of what we have to teach our Army, I don't think this would be the right time to raise these issues. I think we should rely on the judgment of our commanders in a situation like this. They know what's disruptive and what's not. At a time of war, you don't make fundamental changes like this.
Thank you, Mayor. Governor Romney, the Mayor referred to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy which was implimented during the Clinton administration after Bill Clinton became President. In 1994, you were quoted as saying that you advocated gays being able to serve openly and honestly in our nation's military. The question to you is, do you still feel that way?
No, actually, when I first heard of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," I thought it sounded awfully silly; I didn't think it would be very effective. And I turned out to be wrong. It's been the policy of the military for what, 10, 15 years, and it seems to be working, and I agree with what Mayor Giuliani says when he says that this is not the time to put in place a major change, a social experiment in the middle of a war going on. I wouldn't change it at this point. We can look at it down the road. But it does seem to me that we have much bigger issues that we as a nation have to be talking about than that policy right now.
Blitzer:
Senator McCain, you've been involved in military matters virtually your whole life. What do you say?
We have the best trained, most professional, best equipped, most efficient, most wonderful military in the history of this country. And I'm proud of every one of them. [Applause] There just aren't enough of 'em. So, I have to rely on our military leadership in whom we place the responsibility to lead these brave young Americans in combat as we speak. So I think it would be a terrific mistake to even open the issue. It is working, my friends, the policy is working. And I am convinced that that is the way we can maintain this greatest military. As much as I revere the greatest generation, as much as I love my own generation, this is the very best. Let's not tamper with it.
Is there anyone here who believes gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the United States military?
If you do, speak up now. [Silence] .
Bill Richardson (D-NM) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).
"What an outrage that, for the first time in our nation's history, the organized forces of perversion were feted in the White House.
"When he signed the 'hate crimes' legislation -- itself a terrible act -- President [George H.W.] Bush invited the heads of homosexual lobbying groups to the White House for the ceremony. As Congressman Bill Dannemeyer (R-CA) said, 'It's a tragic message that is being sent,' that normality and deviance are equal.
"I miss the closet. Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities. They could not be as promiscuous. Is it any coincidence that the AIDS epidemic developed after they 'came out of the closet,' and started hyper-promiscuous sodomy? I don't believe so, medically or morally."
Ron Paul (R/L-TX), or whoever was writing his newsletter for him that day, in Political Report,, June, 1990. Reported in The New Republic, January 8, 2008.
--Huckabee's response in a 1992 questionnaire when asked about allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the U.S. military. (AP)
"I really respect the advocacy that the [LGBT] community is waging on behalf of marriage. I think you're doing exactly what you need to do and should do, and I really am very much impressed by the intensity and the persistence of that advocacy. But this has not been a long-term struggle yet."
--Hillary R. Clinton, at the HRC-Logo Presidential Forum, August 9, 2007, explaining that she's been running for president longer than the LGBT community has been fighting for marriage rights.
"By drawing upon the language of states rights, Hillary embraces the tradition of John Calhoun and the defenders of slavery along with Strom Thurmond and the segregationists. Throughout our nation's history, every time national public opinion turns against oppression, opponents of progress use states rights to present themselves as defenders of liberty in the face of federal power.
"States rights has always been the last refuge of the bigots. Now Hillary has given rhetorical cover to the homophobes. If she wins the Democratic nomination, opponents of gay marriage will cite her statement to justify their opposition to national marriage equality over the next decade."
--Feisty presidential candidate Mike Gravel (D-AK/VA) in The Huffington Post, August 14, 2007.
--Judge Robert B. Hanson, Iowa Supreme Court, striking down Iowa's ban on same-sex marriages, August 30, 2007.
--Mitt Romney, R-Massatwoface, rushing to condemn the Iowa Supreme Court ruling.
"The commitment of a husband and wife to love one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society. Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of everyone in Iowa. The State Legislature and the people of Iowa need to take their power back from this activist judge by passing a Constitutional amendment which protects traditional marriage."
--Tom Tancredo, R-Xenophobia, taking his time with a response, as if anyone were wondering where he stood, on October 5, 2007.
© 2008 Paul Berge
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