Bolton Addresses Log Cabin Convention

Is there a place for gays in John McCain's Republican party?

John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and all-around tough guy conservative, thinks the answer is yes. He's among the featured speakers at this weekend's Log Cabin Republican convention in San Diego, CA.

To be reductive for a bit, gay Republicans and national security Republicans -- a species that re-emerged after 9/11 -- have a common enemy in Islamofacism; it should not surprise folks that a party hawk like Bolton could also favor expanded civil rights for gay people. But then again, it also wouldn't have surprised me if he had turned out to be a fundamentalist conservative on gay rights, either.

Comments

All Americans have a common enemy in Islamic extremists (I'm sorry, I refuse to endorse the Orwellian term "Islamofascism"), the question is how best to defeat it. The fact that Bolton is a party hawk has no relevance to his position on civil rights for gays.

Posted by Ready for change | April 9, 2008 1:12 PM

Is this what Bolton has to resort to in order to get a date?

Posted by D | April 9, 2008 1:21 PM

Isn't Lindsey Graham McCain's best friend in the Senate and constant companion? I'd say that there sure is room in MCCAIN's republican party for gay men.

Posted by T | April 9, 2008 1:45 PM

Bolton's mustache was the obvious choice for this outreach.

Posted by Josh E. | April 9, 2008 1:54 PM

Wow, I hope the above posts aren't the beginning of a long set of "ha ha, gay people" comments.

Ready for change, I think Ambinder's right here--this is precisely the kind of issue where the primarily foreign policy neo-conservatives are going to have different tendencies from the primarily domestic paleos. For the former, gay rights are part of America's freedoms; for the latter, part of America's immorality.

Posted by AL | April 9, 2008 2:11 PM

LGBT people voting for McCain are like chickens voting for Col. Sanders. He voted to continue allowing businesses to fire people simply for being gay; he voted against sexual orientation as a category for hate crimes; he opposes equal benefits for same-sex partners; he supported a state constitutional amendment to discriminate against same-sex partners; and he opposes allowing gays to serve openly and without discrimination in the military. Of course John Bolton is going to welcome the votes of any gays dumb enough to vote for their own oppression.

Posted by TKD | April 9, 2008 3:13 PM

In answer to the post's question, I guess it depends on what "a place" means. Does it mean that people are welcomed regardless of orientation and that none are denied civil rights and that we have a robust debate about marriage, somewhat favoring keeping things as they are now but perhaps leaving it up to the states?

Or, does it mean the "compassionate conservative" variety such as that practiced by Bush and Arnie where "conservatives" not only collaborate with Gramscians but fully accept their premises?

For a better understanding, Ambinder et al might want to consider the fact that, as with GlobalWarming, some of those to whom McCain is outreaching - in the LCR or not - might have a broader agenda. For some background, scan this: tinyurl.com/39sve6

Posted by TLB | April 9, 2008 3:40 PM

Islamofascism? In all seriousness? No quotes or anything?

Posted by lowellfield | April 9, 2008 3:47 PM

"...a common enemy in Islamofacism..."

Really? Is this what we have to look forward to Marc? Islamofacism, indeed.

Posted by truly disappointed | April 9, 2008 4:19 PM

I'm sorry, but every time I hear or read that word ("Islamofascist") used in a non-ironic context I am immediately forced to conclude that the person who uttered it is, well, an utter moron. You seem like an otherwise smart guy, but you are expecting people to fall for one of the oldest tricks in the conservative book. Obviously there are a few gay Republicans, just like there are a few neo-Nazi and skinhead leaders who have Jewish backgrounds (Dan Burros, Patricia Richardson), and a few Asian-Americans (Michelle Malkin) who defend and salivate over the US's WWII policy of concentration camps for Japanese-Americans. The American right loves nothing more than to trot out the pathological and deeply messed-up trophy minorities who have been sufficiently brainwashed to spout hate against their own people, parading them before the American public in a desperate and overwrought campaign to convince us that they are not the bigots we know they are. Matt Sanchez, Michelle Malkin, Alan Keyes, Dan Burros...look them up. These are not people who should be taken seriously, and just because you've managed to find a few gay people who have far-right foreign policy views doesn't mean that the rest of the gay community is going to suddenly see the light about this phony "War on Terror" and start embracing the Orwellian terminology of the neoconservative movement. The real "common enemy" of all people is the paranoid, reactive, militaristic, tribal, extremist worldview that leads Americans to start using terms like "Islamofascism" and waging and supporting senseless wars that kill hundreds of thousands of people whose deaths go unnoticed because they worshipped God in the wrong language. This is the same worldview that led nineteen pampered Saudi (one of the most repressed and conservative societies on the planet) youths to fly planes into the World Trade Center and it is the same view that let PFC Stephen Green rape a 14-year old girl in Mahmoudiya and then shoot her in the head and set her body on fire. You are encouraging its spread and this is contemptible and irresponsible.

Posted by Anon | April 9, 2008 5:44 PM

it also wouldn't have surprised me if he had turned out to be a fundamentalist conservative on gay rights, either.

I guess Marc was also surprised when John Kerry "outed" professional lesbian Mary Cheney.

Dick Cheney and John Bolton are from the wing of the party that that doesn't give a damn about social issues so long as the war profits keep flowing.

Besides, John "Plato's Retreat" Bolton is well acquainted with the log cabin closet. Although Republican deviants aren't necessarily tolerant of others' deviance -- see Larry Craig and Roy Cohn -- I imagine they're somewhat more likely to be tolerant.

Posted by agum | April 9, 2008 7:29 PM

LOL

Marc, come-on dude, get with the program.

If there was a place for gays in John McCain's Republican Party, John McCain would be the featured speaker at the Log Cabin convention,
not John Bolton. Jeez!

Posted by mike | April 9, 2008 7:45 PM

LOL

Marc, come-on dude, get with the program.

If there was a place for gays in John McCain's Republican Party, John McCain would be the featured speaker at the Log Cabin convention,
not John Bolton. Jeez!

Posted by mike | April 9, 2008 7:45 PM

LOL

Marc, come-on dude, get with the program.

If there was a place for gays in John McCain's Republican Party, John McCain would be the featured speaker at the Log Cabin convention,
not John Bolton. Jeez!

Posted by mike | April 9, 2008 7:45 PM

Aren't there rumors about Bolton attending Plato's Retreat, the infamous NYC swing club, in the 70s?

That would certainly suggest that he's no prude, probably a bit kinky, and while probably not gay himself, probably knows plenty of people whose sexuality doesn't fit the GOP (public) profile.

Posted by Jon H | April 9, 2008 11:11 PM

Anon,

What is your actual objection to the term "Islamofascism"? In what way is it inaccurate? Are Osama Bin Laden and his followers not Muslims, or is their philosophy non-fascistic?

Posted by Poshua | April 10, 2008 1:38 AM