Friends Like These

The New York Times has a report on exactly how difficult a time the Democrats are having with their increasingly unrealistic - and increasingly unpleasant - activist left wing. After all, when Barney Frank isn't gay enough to suit them, even conservative Republicans are floored by the message being sent.

Sometimes, though, the in-fighting can seem unreal, as with the recent fury directed by gay groups at Mr. Frank.

“Barney Frank is not gay enough?” asked Representative Thaddeus McCotter, Republican of Michigan, one of the most conservative members of the House .

Even Mr. Frank acknowledged the weirdness. “The likelihood that somebody is going to run against me in my district on the grounds that I have been insufficiently pro-gay is not very high on my list of concerns,” he said.

He has put gender identity protections in a separate bill that is not expected to be acted upon this year.

But many gay rights groups said they were truly angry and bewildered, especially because the compromise involves a bill unlikely to be signed by Mr. Bush. A coalition of some 280 groups sent Mr. Frank a letter urging him to include gender identity in the bill to be voted on soon. “What we are talking about is stripping out a part of our community for a symbolic vote, which in our opinion does not advance the struggle for civil rights for our people,” said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

“If the goal here is for the new majority to demonstrate that it is responding to a core constituency,” Mr. Foreman said, “passing a non-inclusive bill is not going to accomplish that.”

Some Republicans in the House have said they wished Mr. Frank had included the language on transgender and transsexual people because it would have made it easier for them to vote against the bill.

Democrats like Nancy Pelosi are being picketed in their homes (actually, the neighbors of the politicians bear the brunt of those protests). Any drift from what the left believes is the one true path of righteousness (as they define it) is punished swiftly and stridently by a battalion of frothing extremists. With friends like these…….

Other Links to this Post

1. Blue Crab Boulevard » Leading A Counter-Offensive? — Thursday, 18 October , 2007 @ 6:46 am