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"Scam" ads the norm Trail Mix: Hillary haters spam cyberspace Gunning for the center Democrats make Hillary legit The blundering pundit Don Giuliani Campaign video: |
Stalking Gary Bauer | page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 My plan was a little malicious -- even a little mean-spirited -- but those same words describe the tactics used by Bauer and the rest of the religious right against gays and lesbians. The amount of gay bashing that goes on during Republican campaigns is staggering, so pervasive that the mainstream media tunes it out like so much white noise. On the Saturday before the caucuses, there was a Presidential Rally for Family, Faith and Freedom at a church in Des Moines. Half the program was devoted to gay bashing, but none of the TV shows mentioned it, focusing instead on the Roe vs. Wade bashing. The one reporter (outside Salon) who did cover the gay bashing, Melinda Henneberger in the New York Times, wrote what was essentially a humor piece. But while straight reporters can roll their eyes and write off the gay bashing as so many Republican candidates tossing a little red meat to the hard right, it's a little harder to ignore when it's carved out of your own ass.
When Bauer tells people that gays and lesbians are a threat to families, I take that personally. I feel I have a right to be angry. And one day I'd like to pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV and see someone point out that if anyone's threatening a family, it's Bauer -- he's threatening mine. Or at least ask a Republican who asserts that gays and lesbians are a threat to families this obvious, though never asked, follow up question: "Oh, really? How?" I had expected to be one of many energized, new-to-politics, true-believers working the phones on Gary's behalf, but I appeared to be the only volunteer in the building. Once I was in my cubicle, I took a picture of my son out of my bag and set it on the computer in front of me. While I made calls, I overheard Bauer's press secretary calling reporters and letting them know Gary would be holding a press conference at a cemetery at 3:30 p.m., at the grave of a fetus found in a ditch. Gary would give his usual complaint about the coarsening of our culture -- standing on the grave for emphasis. While I dialed, my eyes drifted over the pieces of paper pinned to the wall of my cubicle. A photocopied "thought for the day" caught my eye. "Remember, when someone annoys you," the thought went, "it takes 42 muscles in your face to frown. But it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and SMACK THE ASSHOLE UPSIDE THE HEAD." Hmm, that's a little coarse, I thought to myself, chewing my pen. The list I'd been given was of voters who'd indicated that Gary was their second choice. Of the 50 or so people I managed to get on the phone, most were voting for Forbes, a few for Keyes and only one for Bush. Despite ample opportunity, I'm not engaging in dirty tricks. I'm doing as told, reading from my script. Andy gives me a list of caucus sites, so that I can tell people where to go on Monday night. The list has both the Republican and Democratic caucus sites in each precinct. I'm tempted to send the Bauer supporters to Democratic caucuses in their neighborhoods, delivering them to the living rooms of Bradley and Gore supporters. I could cost Bauer a few hundred votes -- and every vote counts, Andy tells me, every vote counts. But I don't do it. I can't. My work ethic won't allow it. The folks on the phone are so pleasant, and Andy is so nice to me, that I don't have it in my heart to do a bad job. What if one of the nice church ladies I get on the phone -- and that's just what they sound like, Dana Carvey's mid-'80s "SNL" Church Lady -- walks into a room of pot-smoking Bradley supporters and dies of a heart attack? I couldn't sleep at night if that happened, so I tell everyone the truth about their caucus locations. Well, almost everyone.
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