Pam Spaulding of Pam’s House Blend writes today, “A New Year’s wish for the community: Joe Solmonese’s resignation.” Saying, “Joe Solmonese should do the honorable thing and step down. It is shameful to cash all those checks without the follow through on the job. The White House was never put under serious pressure; the late calls now in the e-blasts for the President to do something ring hollow after the toadying that has gone on for two years.” Pam adds, “it’s simply too easy to point the finger at just Harry Reid, the GOP, or the President for the public bumblef*ck of DADT repeal.”
“By any sane performance metrics, he has failed to successfully lead. Promises like those made in the “This year we are going to bring down DADT” video at the HRC Carolinas dinner on Feb. 27 were used to extract money from low-info, fat wallet attendees. It’s rinse and repeat at events like that around the country and there is precious little to show for it in terms of the major promises made by Solmonese — and this President.”
I first caught wind of this when I read a tweet from Mike Signorile, who asked, “An informal poll, in light of lots of twitter chatter: Who should replace Joe Solmonese as the new head of @HRC?”
So I did a quick Twitter search for “Solmonese.” Ouch.
(Of course, most of the answers to Mike’s question were, “You,” Mike!)
But Pam is certainly not the first to say Joe must go. Andrew Sullivan, back in September, said, “if we do not get a successful vote in this Congress, Joe Solmonese must resign.â€
Not the first time Sullivan has called for Solmonese’s resignation.
So sure enough, there’s a bit of a firestorm brewing…
Will Kohl at Back2Stonewall writes, “According to Solmonsleaze:
“I think everybody involved in this process let the community down. Every one of the players in this process let the community down because the fact of the matter was there was a path forward, whether it was the White House, the Democratic leadership, the Republicans who supported this bill. I have to believe we could have found that way forward and we could have gotten it done.”
“Of course Joe did not include the HRC in his critique.of the problem which HRC and himself are a major reason for the failing because of their spineless ass kissing ways.”
Fair enough.
So, let’s look at it this way.
What, under Joe Solmonese, has HRC accomplished? And while we’re at it, I have to ask, why does Joe’s bio at HRC have to start with this:
“Under Joe Solmonese’s leadership, the Human Rights Campaign has been an effective, strategic and creative force in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights advocacy. Solmonese knows that to promote a better life for all of America’s LGBT people and their families, HRC must make inroads not only in legislatures, but in workplaces, communities, religious congregations, schools, universities and media outlets.”
So, what has he accomplished?
Do you feel there’s someone else who could do a better job?
Do you think we could make greater inroads with someone new at the helm?
Would you give Joe a pink slip?
Here’s a video of Joe from Pam:
Would you give Joe a pink slip?
My two cents (as a former retail executive who’s managed thousands of people and businesses worth up to tens of millions of dollars): with this much dissent, with this many people who consistently call for someone’s resignation, with so little accomplished, the question isn’t what’s fair, the question is always, are we better off with someone or without them?
The New Civil Rights Movement
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