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links for 2008-11-13

  • The good news for supporters of marriage equity is that — and there's no polite way to put this — the older voters aren't going to be around for all that much longer, and they'll gradually be cycled out and replaced by younger voters who grew up in a more tolerant era. Everyone knew going in that Prop 8 was going to be a photo finish — California might be just progressive enough and 2008 might be just soon enough for the voters to affirm marriage equity. Or, it might fall just short, which is what happened. But two or four or six or eight years from now, it will get across the finish line.
    ++++++++
    Don't count on passage anytime soon, Nate.
    (tags: gaymarriage)
  • With Employers
    (tags: gaymarriage)
  • He was an early supporter of John McCain and won some initial veep buzz before falling off the radar to run his own breeze of a re-election campaign.

    But to chat with him here at the RGA and then see him address a room full of reporters, it seems that Utah Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr may very well be in the presidential mix in 2012.

    Huntsman, 48, cuts an impressive figure and has a fascinating personal and political story to tell, including the sort of foreign policy background most governors lack. The scion of a prominent Mormon family, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Singapore for Bush 41 when he was in his early 30s, did trade stints in the Commerce Department and was a Deputy U.S. Trade Representative under the current Bush, overseeing trade with Africa and Asia.

    Fluent in Mandarin Chinese — a few words of which he put on display to an unexpectant press corps — Huntsman is the father of seven, including two adopted girls from China and India.

  • — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday said she would consider serving in the Senate if God gave her the opportunity and Alaskans wanted her to take the job. Republican Sen. Ted Stevens holds a narrow lead in a race for his seat that is still undecided. About 90,000 votes were outstanding and a little more than half are being counted Wednesday, according to election officials.

    Even if he is re-elected, Stevens could be ousted by the Senate for his conviction on seven felony counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts, mostly renovations on his home. If Stevens loses his seat, Palin could run for it in a special election.
    +++++++
    Coulda shoulda Woulda for the 'Cuda. Stevens is now trailing by 3 votes in the Alaska Senate race. We will know more next week.

  • Have a look at the largest donors who support gay marriage in California. Should traditional marriage supporters boycott them?
    (tags: gaymarriage)
  • A listing of donors of Yes on Propositon
    (tags: gaymarriage)
  • Scott Eckern, the Sacramento theater director whose political donation in support of California's Prop. 8 ban on same-sex marriage has become a lightning rod in the debate over gay rights, resigned today. He said he wanted to protect the California Musical Theatre, his artistic home since 1984, from further controversy.

    Word of Eckern's $1,000 donation — publicly reported under state elections law — spread rapidly on the Internet late last week, and Eckern drew criticism from some prominent stage artists, including Tony Award-winning composer Marc Shaiman ("Hairspray") and Jeff Whitty, the "Avenue Q" librettist, who wrote on his whitless.com website about his thoughts on how to deal with the fact that "Avenue Q" would be opening at California Musical Theatre in March.
    +++++++
    When will there be a backlash against the homosexual community? It is coming, mark Flap's word.

    (tags: gaymarriage)
  • As of Tuesday 11/11/2008 at 4:49 PM
    TS: 15,356
    HBJ: 11,322
  • As of today at 1:46 PM
    TS: 115,753
    HBJ: 104,920
  • As of 4:32 PM today:
    HBJ: 69,829
    TS: 56,522
  • While they are behind by more than 3,000 votes, Democrats remain (cautiously) optimistic due to the large number of votes still uncounted and Begich's strength among those early votes that have been tabulated. (The incomparable Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com breaks down the numbers behind this argument.)

    We should know by late today — or maybe tomorrow morning — whether that optimism is well founded or not. If Begich can't get ahead by the end of counting today, he's not likely to pull off the come-from-behind victory some Democrats see for him.
    ++++++
    Flap bets on Stevens…..

  • A federal appeals court has upheld bribery charges against U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, clearing the way for a trial.

    The Louisiana Democrat sought to dismiss the indictment, claiming that his constitutional rights were violated when the grand jury received evidence that violated legislative immunity.

    The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected Jefferson's claims, ruling that prosecutors can pursue the case without making reference to constitutionally protected material.

    A lower court judge previously refused to dismiss the indictment, saying Jefferson was trying to apply immunity so broadly that it would make it virtually impossible to ever charge a congressman with a crime.
    +++++++
    Damn finally!

  • As of late afternoon there have been no changes in the reported count – we are still ahead by 1,092 votes, or 0.34 percent out of 313,384 votes counted.

    We expect the bulk of Nevada County’s votes to be reported tomorrow, where we could lose as many as 1,500 votes. Nevertheless, we are seeing better performance with the late absentees than we saw on election night in every county – including Nevada – and if that keeps up, our numbers should bounce back fairly rapidly. Based on the precincts yet to be counted, chances are very good that our lead should start widening from our low point when Nevada comes in. If we stay out of negative territory with that vote, victory should be within sight.
    ++++++++
    Stay tuned for an update this afternoon

  • FOOT IN MOUTH — Politico exclusive, thanks to a tip from one of the Playbook Playahs: A roomful of academics erupted in angry boos yesterday after political analyst Michael Barone said "the liberal media" trashed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republicans' vice presidential nominee, because "she did not abort her Down syndrome baby." Barone said in an e-mail that he "was attempting to be humorous and … went over the line." Barone was speaking in Chicago to the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. "The liberal media attacked Sarah Palin because she did not abort her Down syndrome baby," Barone said. "They wanted her to kill that child. … I'm talking about my media colleagues with whom I've worked for 35 years.”
    ++++++
    What do you expect from a group of academics where the LEFT is the incubator. Still, Barone should have been more tempered in his comments.
  • ncumbent Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) retains a narrow lead over Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) as Stevens tries to retain his seat in the wake of a felon conviction. But what would happen should his lead hold?

    Time to put to bed the rumors of Gov. Sarah Palin appointing herself to should Stevens win and then resign, news stories to the contrary.

    Citizen reaction to former Governor Murkowski appointing his daughter, Lisa, to a vacant Senate seat in 2002 was a 2004 ballot initiative stripping the Governor of this power (56% to 44%). According to the Alaska Elections website (pdf), the 2002 initiative "repeal[s] state law by which theGovernor makes a temporary appointment of a person tofill a U.S. Senate vacancy until a special or regularelection can be held."
    +++++++
    But, Palin would have a free ride to run for the Senate seat and she should.

  • Even today, two years after Mark Foley's very public fall from grace, the former congressman can't explain why he sent lurid, sexually explicit computer messages to male teens who had worked as Capitol Hill pages.

    Sitting in his room at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York this week, the Florida Republican, wearing a yellow tie with blue elephants, finally broke his silence.

    "I'm trying to find my way back," Foley said in an interview with The Associated Press, his first public comments on the scandal since resigning from Congress on Sept. 29, 2006.

    Foley insists he did nothing illegal and never had sexual contact with teens, just inappropriate Internet conversations. Investigations by the FBI and Florida authorities ended without criminal charges.
    +++++++
    Sorry but Mark Foley is a homosexual prevert. Show him the door and he should be thankful he was not prosecuted for sex crimes.

    (tags: mark_foley)
  • Barely a week after Barack Obama's decisive victory, Republican governors across the country gather in Miami today for two days of exploring how to find their way out of the wilderness.
    The host of the Republican Governors' Association event is Florida's Charlie Crist, a big believer in the "big tent" theory who calls his way of governing "a model for the country."

    But Crist will have to share the stage with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who was wildly popular with the conservative base of the GOP that remains a little wary of Crist.
    Crist is one of several Republican governors who will address the convention. Others include Rick Perry of Texas, Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.

    But it is likely to be Palin who eclipses them all. Since last week's election defeat, the former vice presidential nominee has kept a very high profile with interviews and appearances in which she has said she'll "plow through that door" of a presidential run if it's God's will….

  • Said McCain last night on Leno: "I really believe that Sarah Palin is amongst some, like Tim Pawlenty and Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, there's a group of young Republican governors and — mainly governors, but also some in the Senate — that I think are the next generation of leadership of our party."
    ++++++
    Palin,Jindal and Pawlenty in this order.