Yesterday must have been a really tough day for the Log Cabin Republicans. Imagine the anguish of thinking to stay relevant — to have any pull whatsoever — in the GOP, you’re forced to endorse one of the worst candidates in modern Republican history. Then, imagine you pull a fast one, and get Romney, via his omnipotent staff, to agree to push for and sign into law one of the most volatile issues in the GOP: ENDA. Then imagine you make your two-faced, “qualified” endorsement — issuing two separate versions tailored for different audiences. And then imagine getting not only zero support from the man and party you’re endorsing, but slammed from the other side.
And then it happens: you lose it on a call to a reporter, blurt out what your plans were, have Bryan Fischer  — the chief mastermind of mindless babble, aka, Republican thought processes — slam you and your candidate and what you thought was your singular achievement, all the way to kingdom come.
And you’re forced to deny it all.
Pretty much.
“I did not say Romney would sign the current form of ENDA,†R. Clarke Cooper told Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed last night:
Cooper acknowledged that he “discussed legislative vehicles and executive actions with Romney regarding workplace non-discrimination, including ENDA.” But he insisted the endorsement did not come in response to a Romney campaign pledge to sign ENDA — noting, “I did not say Romney would sign the current form of ENDA.”
…
He added that Log Cabin is “confident we could work with a President Romney and his administration to achieve desirable tangible outcomes on workplace nondiscrimination.”
“I did not say Romney would sign the current form of ENDA.”
What form of ENDA did you say Romney would sign? What form of ENDA would Romney sign? Would Romney sign ENDA?
You do have to hand it to Cooper, however. He got ENDA into the national conversation, if only for a moment.
Pam Spaulding adds:
As if the LCR should trust anything Romney says or promises, no matter how feeble. My guess is that the LCR members decided being fully under the bigoted tent of the GOP as a professional “pro-gay†organization (as opposed to sitting out endorsing Romney, which it could have done) would have reduced support and any pitiful clout it perceives it has in that party. It’s really disappointing since the organization had been so explicitly critical of Mittens in the past; to see this turnaround backflip of support diminishes its credibility. But apparently that place in the tent is critical for its survival and the LCR is willing to take the public hit for looking like doormats in comparison to Bryan Fischer and his ilk.
And notes that Congressman Barney “Frank’s office noted that the recently released Human Rights Campaign Congressional Scorecard shows that 211 Republican House Members of the 112th Congress received 0% ratings. Those Republicans receiving 0% ratings constitute nearly 88% of all Republican House Members. Analysis of the data for both the House and Senate, along with additional data can be found here.”
Seriously, the bottom line is this: The Log Cabin Republicans can think they have relevance and ears inside the GOP, but they have zero power.
Mitt Romney is a liar.
ENDA is one of the most serious and important pieces of legislation in the nation and would, were it law, protect millions of LGBT Americans from getting fired, or not hired, just for being LGBT.
Romney is a joke. Log Cabin is irrelevant. And they’re both playing football with something desperately important.
Â