GOTP Hate Speech

The Grand Old Tea Party candidate for Governor of New York State, Carl Paladino, met with Orthodox Jewish supporters in Brooklyn today and gave a gay-bashing speech:

“I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option — it isn’t,” he said, reading from a prepared address, according to a video of the event.

And then, to applause at Congregation Shaarei Chaim, he said: “I didn’t march in the gay parade this year — the gay pride parade this year. My opponent did, and that’s not the example we should be showing our children.” Newsday.com reported that Mr. Paladino’s prepared text had included the sentence: “There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual.” But Mr. Paladino omitted the sentence in his speech.

Awesome timing, Carl, given the recent suicide of a gay Princeton freshman when his roommate broadcast his intimate moments on the Web. While the audience he met with may have approved (and I'd bet any closeted homosexuals in the audience were clapping the loudest), this isn't a message likely to resonate well with NYS voters, and I'm looking forward to seeing the next poll numbers.

The American Prospect has a very interesting interview with Simon Rosenberg of the progressive NDN think tank where he states:

You've got trend lines where one party is dropping and one party is gaining -- it's indisputable at this point. If you're a Republican right now, and you look at this environment, the party that's dropping a month out usually loses. If you're a candidate or a political party in a close election and you're dropping a month out, and the other guy's rising, you usually lose, because those dynamics are very hard to adjust.

Rosenberg's reasoning is that the GOP have shown themselves unready to lead, with their "Pledge" DOA and too many fringe candidates -- like Paladino. But he also speaks directly to the Democratic failure of message and moment:

Part of what went wrong with the Democrats in the last two years is that too many Democrats have political Stockholm syndrome. Many Democrats grew up in an era with a conservative politics that was ascendant and center-left politics was in decline. What happened in 2008 was the conservative jailers left, and were defeated, the door to the ideological jail opened up, the sun was shining, the Democrats could leave, and they didn't leave.

Amen, brother. Which is why we need to elect Dems like Alexi Giannoulias, running for President Obama's old Senate seat in Illinois. He shut down opponent Republican Mark Kirk in 55 seconds -- Kirk still hasn't answered Giannoulias' question face-to-face on Meet the Press Sunday morning:

So Congressman, saying you're a fiscal hawk doesn't necessarily make it true, and your voting record proves that it's not true.

The question is – for the congressman – the $700 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans – we don't have $700 billion – so my question for the congressman is which country do you plan on borrowing $700 billion from? The Saudis? China?

Because there is no answer.