Because of the way this conversation developed, this is going to be a hard discussional thread to follow for some.
James Joyner makes note this morning [1], of what he calls a “rather startling” claim from Kevin Jennings, the “founder and Executive Director of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, an organization working to make schools safe for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.” Says Jennings;
“As I watched New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey’s resignation speech, I felt sick. I nearly had to turn away from the agony and pain that radiated from his face, all caused, I thought, by his decision to live a lie in order to attain political power. And I had a startling realization: but for one decision, I might have been Jim McGreevey.
Like Jim, I grew up in a working class family in the Seventies. I too was a political junkie, the kind of kid who thought watching conventions on TV was fun. When asked in first grade what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said “President.” I believed the promise of America, where any little boy could grow up to be President.
Any little boy who is not gay, that is.”
Yep. there it is, gang… The claim that “we’re only after this criminal because he’s homosexual.” I called this one. I knew it was going to devolve into this kind of nonsense, and called it before the echo had died from the announcement that McGreevey was resinging. I said at the time that’s why McGreevey ‘came out’ in hte first place.
Jon Henke over at Q&O stated [2], rightly, that
“The homosexuality is an unimportant data point, irrelevant to politics or the story.”
To which, I responded..(A little snippier than I’d intended)
“Then why does he make it a point to bring it up, Jon? It’s almost as if he expects waving the pink flag to help his problems to go away.”
I have to tell you, that as I sit here this morning going over the headlines, I feel vindicated… this is exactly what this is… a cold, calulated political ploy to sheild McGreevey from his crimes.
I expanded on this point a few hours later, saying in part;
“And I can’t help but thank that part of the issue here has to be the Democrat party as a whole, particualrly in light of Joyner’s points about the three month delay. I can’t help but think all this was planned… he Govenor and the party looked at the situation, and wondered how they could save their butts… and this is what they came up with. resign, but delay it so as to thart a special election which the Democrats wuld almost certainly lose… and start waving the pink flag now, so that any criminal charges can be responded to with a charge of “You BIGOT, you’re only after me because I’m a homosexual”
There’s precident.. the Democrats have done this before. Consider Bill Clinton. “All this is, is sex” was the claim… thus avoiding the more serious issues which he was also guilty on.
It seems clear the party leadership sat down and worked out what they felt was the best way to retain the Govenor’s spot in New Jersey, for their party…. dirvet attention from the crimes of McGreevey and the Democrats, by releasing the info that McGreevey is a homosexual, and had an affair. Muddy the water. Arrange for McGreevey to resign AFTER the election, thus keeping the Govenor’s job in Democrat party hands until the three years from now… by which time, the electorate won’t remember how dirty all the Democrats surrounding McGreevey were.
I have my doubts about McGreevey’s homosexual claim on a number of levels, as should anyone looking at this in a dispassionate manner. It’s as I said… McGreevey’s waving the pink flag, trying to make his criminal problems disapear.
If Jennings could get his head out of his party-loyalist ass for two seconds, he may notice he and his ‘movement’ are being manipulated by someone desperate to avoid jailtime and Democrat political losses… at both the state and the national level.
OTOH, given his own history of truth twisting for his own agenda [3], perhaps he already knows, and is a part of this cynical political ploy.
As it is, McGreevey’s getting a polling bounce out of all of this [4]… name recognition, mostly.
Does anyone think that a serious, non-sexual exploitation examiniation of McGreevey at this stage of the game, along with his resigning prior to the election instead of delaying it until afterward, wouldn’t hurt the Democrats in the state house and in the Presidential contest there, as well?
Anyone think Bush wouldn’t carry New Jersey under those conditions?