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What You’ve Been Waiting For: Obama’s Gay Rights Revolution

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The Administration Discusses Its “Plan.” Hint: There Is None

“Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” might accurately describe the turn of events for the gay community and their supporters since late Thursday, thanks to the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice, which filed a brief in Smelt v. United States, a federal gay marriage case. (If you’re not up-to-speed, read, “DEVELOPING: Obama Defends Defense Of Marriage Act?“)

Akin to any Republican who criticizes Rush Limbaugh, the Obama Administration once again had to go back to the gay community to smooth things over. You remember, even before the election, there was Obama’s silence on Prop 8. We knew it was a hot-button issue and we wanted him elected, so we ignored it. Then, even before Obama took office, there was the Pastor Rick Warren debacle. We got angry, but sloughed it off. And then there was the conspicuous silence after every gay marriage win. We said, he doesn’t want to get involved in the smaller issues, he’ll make it a big issue. Besides, there was that whole the-country’s-about-to-go-down-the-tubes thing called The Recession. We accepted nothing because we figured that’s all it was. back in March there was the total ignoring of gay issues during Obama’s “Online Town Hall.” And then there was the very quiet in-the-dark-of-night removal of Obama’s promises to repeal DOMA and DADT that somehow disappeared from WhiteHouse.gov. Some thought maybe it was an over-zealous intern. But the White House came back with the spin, “we want WhiteHouse.gov to list successes, not plans” BS. And we thought, OK… Hmmm… But we let that go by as well.

(In case you feel like you’re reading that old poem, “First they came…,” well, feel free.)

After Thursday’s DOJ filing, the punditocracy was ablaze in speculation as to what the brief meant. Was it a mistake? Was Obama legally required to defend DOMA? Was the brief a left-over from Bush? But sure enough, the truth has seeped out, thanks in large part to the Obama Administration itself. Obama unleashed his highest-ranking openly gay official, John Berry, to chat with The Advocate over the weekend, another sign he gets that his gay-community blind-spot hindered an intelligent approach to the Smelt/DOMA brief.

Before I get any further, I have to ask, why is the director of the Office of Personnel Management the highest openly-gay member of the Obama administration? I get that it’s a huge position, but it’s not that high up the food chain. And why is he qualified to be Obama’s defacto representative to the gay community? It’s because he’s gay. That’s fine, but this issue is a legislative issue, and a DOJ issue, not a personnel management issue. So, while I respect Berry’s statements as representing the Administration, I reject the idea that he should be their voice to us on gay issues. We deserve a representative that can actually do something for us once they return to the White House. (I can imagine the conversation in the West Wing: “Oh crap, the gay issue just blew up. Who can we put on this? Oh yeah, Berry, he’s gay.” Sorry, not good enough.)

So, here’s what we’ve learned from John Berry’s talk with The Advocate:

• There is no “secret deal” with any or all of the gay rights groups. No secret HRC deal, Joe Solmonese did not offer to delay DADT to next year in favor of getting Hate Crimes passed this year. (Honestly, I’d be happier if there were a plan, call it what you want.) I find it interesting that the White House wanted “to be clear about” this at all.

• Berry said their first goal is, “we will get our federal house in order.” That’s great. Definitely want to set the example. “[T]he president is going to be announcing something in the very near future that is going to be a very significant announcement…” making “sure that we get the benefits for the LGBT community that are equal to all other benefits provided to other federal employees.” OK.

• In no specific order, Berry says: Hate Crimes, ENDA, DADT, DOMA. Well there you have it. The same ones I’ve been talking about for months. Good to know we’re on the same page. Berry says Hate Crimes should be this week. (Word just came that Hate Crimes is attached to a tourism bill. Not sure who to blame for that irony.)

• Before we start jumping up and down, here’s the sound of the other shoe dropping: “The pledge and the promise is that, this will be done before the sun sets on this administration…” Before the sun sets? To me, that sounds like “by the end of our second term.” So, “four more years” takes on a whole new meaning, now, doesn’t it? Did the president say, “You Don’t Poll Whether People Get Treated Equally Or Not, you do it because it’s the right thing to do” in your second term? You can say, all you want, “give the guy a break.” Problem is, we have given him a break. And every time we do, we get not only ignored, but the White House sets us back a few years. To be fair, Berry says,

“It’s clear that we want to accomplish these things on this administration’s watch. We hope we get eight years, but if we’re limited to four, we’re still going to try to pursue this agenda. I was there for the entire meeting, start to finish. Nobody said second term, nobody is crazy enough to presume that we get a second term – the American people decide whether we get a second term.”

But to be fair, that’s political posturing. Of course they hope for and are thinking about a second term. (I certainly hope they are. Too many reasons for us to not want them to. Do not even begin to think the Republicans will ever be on our side on this.) • On the Smelt/DOMA fiasco that was unleashed Thursday, Berry claims that the president had no choice, “This president took a solemn oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and he does not get to decide and choose which laws he enforces.” Well, that sounds reasonable. But wait, did the President have to invoke references to incest and marrying children to uphold the Constitution? I think not.

Let me take a moment here to say a few things. First, as I have been reminded, the Department of Justice is supposed to be free of presidential interference. It should act impartially, uphold the law, not act on the president’s personal law-enforcement agenda. I get that. But I find it terribly hard to believe that Eric Holder had no clue what was in the DOMA brief, that there was no conversation between Justice and the White House. And if there wasn’t, why wasn’t there? This is a terribly pragmatic administration. Surely, given the amount of coverage gay rights and gay marriage have, surely someone must have thought that this was a very sensitive issue that could blow up in their faces? Well, it did.

While we’re here, let me remind you of Andrew Sullivan’s take on all this:

“I suspect that this was a function not of malevolence but of negligence. The truth is: this administration is not hostile to gay equality; it just doesn’t give a damn about it.”

OK, back to Berry, who next says,

“We ought not waste energy and angst attacking him when we should be focusing the energy and effort on getting 218 votes in the house and 60 votes in the Senate, and that’s where we ought to target the energy and the strength of this community and this president is with us, this is our agenda and it’s his agenda.”

Now, just a moment. The gay community has done nothing but support this president. We’re a big group, we carry a lot of weight, and a lot of votes. Granted, the vast majority of them would have gone to any Democrat, but it’s still a lot of votes. And a lot of money. A lot of money. Money that some think we shouldn’t be so generous with.

It’s time someone asked, Why isn’t there a specific gay agenda advocate in the White House? So, here’s the kicker. Berry ends with,

“We don’t have the votes to do Hate Crimes right now, we don’t have the votes to do ENDA, how are we going [to get “don’t ask, don’t tell]?”

WHY THE HELL NOT? This is a Democratic President with a Democratic Congress. I get Obama’s busy. But there’s a difference. A big difference between letting things slide, which, I think many in the gay community would accept, to viciously supporting DOMA and comparing gay marriage to incest and invoking marrying children. Say what you want about who might have written the brief; it doesn’t matter. Lighting the fire and ignoring the person while they strike the match have the same effect here. And it’s going to take a lot more effort now to put the blaze of homophobia that is Smelt back in the bottle.

I’ll throw one on the side of Bill Maher at this point:

“I’m glad that Obama is president, but the “Audacity of Hope” part is over. Right now, I’m hoping for a little more audacity.”

Me too.

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‘What Fascism Looks Like’: Bondi’s War on Judiciary Is ‘Red Line’ for Democrats

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April 25, 2025

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House and Senate Democrats are drawing a red line after agents from President Donald Trump’s FBI arrested a sitting judge—whom Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested is “deranged” and implied believes she is “above the law.”

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan is “accused of escorting the man and his lawyer out of her courtroom through the jury door last week after learning that immigration authorities were seeking his arrest,” according to the Associated Press. “FBI Director Kash Patel said Dugan ‘increased danger to the public’ by letting Mexico native Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer leave her courtroom through a jury door April 18 to help avert his arrest, according to an FBI affidavit.”

Shaking her head, Attorney General Bondi, a frequent Fox News guest, hours after the arrest on Friday said (video below): “What’s happened to our judiciary is beyond me.”

Asked what motivates these “once upstanding people in their communities and their professions” to “put it all on the line for this,” Bondi responded, “They’re deranged.”

“I cannot believe—I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law, and they are not,” she continued. “And we’re sending a very strong message today, if you are harboring a fugitive, we don’t care who you are , if you are helping hide one, if you are giving a TdA member guns, anyone who is illegally in this country, we will come after you, and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”

READ MORE: ‘Pure, Unadulterated, Evil’: Trump Envoy’s Putin Meeting Triggers Outrage

“Crucially,” The New Republic noted, Judge Dugan “is not accused of supplying a member of Tren de Aragua with guns. She is charged with two federal counts of obstruction, one for concealing a person from discovery and arrest, and another for obstruction of federal government proceedings.”

“Bondi, who has been a fierce defender of the president’s immigration agenda—including its wrongful deportation of immigrants—has now taken up the mantle of antagonizing state and federal judges on behalf of the increasingly hostile executive branch,” TNR added.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser, commenting on Bondi’s remarks, wrote simply: “AG Declares War on ‘Deranged’ Judiciary. #2025”

“The fact that she’s connecting this to the broader judiciary is the most striking thing here,” observed Washington Post senior political reporter Aaron Blake, who called it “a significant escalation of the administration’s efforts.”

Democrats are calling it something else: fascism.

“This is not normal,” wrote U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). “The Administration’s arrest of a sitting judge in Wisconsin is a drastic move that threatens the rule of law. While we don’t have all the details, this is a grave step and undermines our system of checks and balances.”

“Pam Bondi is not the President’s personal lawyer and DOJ is not a cudgel to target whoever the President doesn’t like,” wrote U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). “This is a democracy and We The People will not let this President trample over our constitution. I’m not afraid of Donald Trump and you shouldn’t be either.”

“There are no kings in America,” Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared. “Trump and Bondi can’t just decide to arrest sitting judges at will and threaten judges into submission. This is a dangerous escalation, an attack on the separation of powers, and we will fight this with everything we have.”

“First, Trump ignored the Supreme Court,” said U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). “Now, his FBI arrested a judge. This administration is threatening our country’s judicial system. This rings serious alarm bells.”

“Understand what this is: If Kash Patel and Donald Trump don’t like a judge, they think they can arrest them,” wrote U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN). “This is stunning — we must stand up to this blatant power grab. Republicans: How is this not a red line for you?”

“They arrested a judge?! They can no longer claim to be a party of law and order,” wrote U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH). “This will have to be a red line for congressional Republicans. Unbelievable.”

“In the United States, we have a system of checks and balances and separations of power for damn good reasons,” U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, said in a statement. “The president’s administration arresting a sitting judge is a gravely serious and drastic move, and it threatens to breach those very separations of power. Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country, and we are a democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by. By relentlessly attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders, and arresting a sitting judge, this president is putting those basic Democratic values that Wisconsinites hold dear on the line.”

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“This is what fascism looks like,” wrote U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). “Attorney General Bondi threatening judges she claims are not cooperating with Trump immigration policies and saying ‘we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.’”

U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) wrote: “Kash Patel has long bragged about using acts of intimidation as FBI Director to appease Donald Trump. This extreme use of federal law enforcement is another example of this intimidation being used to stoke fear in immigrant communities and create chaos in our legal system.”

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a former constitutional law professor, issued this statement:

“Americans are watching with outrage the stunning news that Trump’s FBI has arrested a sitting judge in Milwaukee for alleged obstruction of an immigration arrest. While all the facts are not yet in, the implications of this arrest are chilling. This is a drastic escalation and dangerous new front in Trump’s authoritarian campaign of trying to bully, intimidate, and impeach judges who won’t follow his dictates. We must do whatever we can to defend the independent judiciary in America.

“As Judge Wilkinson, a conservative Reagan appointee to the Fourth Circuit reminded us last week, this Administration has shown brazen contempt for the judiciary. They are flouting court orders on a daily basis and trying to impeach judges who have entered injunctions against their lawlessness. This contempt for the judicial function is now being weaponized, with the Administration literally arresting a judge over alleged defiance.

“Every American should be deeply troubled by this massive escalation, and Judiciary Democrats are standing strong for judicial independence. This is an unmistakable descent further into authoritarian chaos.”

Watch the video of Attorney General Bondi below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution

 

Image via Reuters

 

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‘Pure, Unadulterated, Evil’: Trump Envoy’s Putin Meeting Triggers Outrage

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April 25, 2025

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Political, foreign policy, and national security experts are expressing shock and outrage after President Donald Trump’s special envoy, real estate billionaire Steve Witkoff, met with Vladimir Putin on Friday at the Kremlin for the fourth time—entirely unaccompanied by any senior State Department officials, administration representatives, or policy experts—reportedly to discuss ending Russia’s unlawful war against the sovereign nation of Ukraine.

The Financial Times on Friday reported that critics describe Witkoff “as an innocent abroad, unskilled and unlettered in diplomacy. His fans say experience is overrated.”

“Being relatively uninformed about the issues, [Witkoff] took on board everything that a very charming Vladimir Putin told him,” former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer told FT. Witkoff has “fallen into a trap,” Pifer also said, describing the Trump administration’s proposal to end Putin’s war against Ukraine as “blatantly pro-Russian.”

FT also notes that Ukraine has “long suspected Witkoff of pro-Russian sympathies.”

On Friday, FT’s Moscow bureau chief Max Seddon posted video of a smiling President Putin warmly greeting Witkoff, “in English, in the Kremlin.”

READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene Tops List of Ultra MAGA Hardliners Pursuing Promotions — and Power

“Putin,” Seddon noted, “is flanked by his top foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.”

Witkoff, as numerous experts pointed out, was accompanied by no one except an interpreter.

“Their side is helmed by a former KGB officer who’s negotiated with every U.S. President since Bill Clinton, along with his most trusted, experienced foreign policy and economic aides,” noted diplomat, political advisor, and former intelligence officer Ned Price. “Our side consists of a Manhattan real estate developer and his interpreter. What could go wrong?”

CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Alex Marquardt appeared to echo Price’s concerns.

“Yet again, Witkoff meets with Putin with no other senior US officials. While Putin has two of his closest aides. This is the 4th Witkoff-Putin meeting this year and Witkoff doesn’t appear to have taken a senior diplomat/intel/expert with him to any of them.”

Former Obama National Security Council official Tommy Vietor concurred, adding, “seems like quite a bad idea that someone as inexperienced as Witkoff takes these meetings with no staff present.”

But it was Fox News’ Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin who blasted the Trump administration:

“Where are the subject matter experts with Witkoff? Putin, the KGB officer, is laughing,” Griffin noted. “Meanwhile the instability at the Pentagon is not helping project strength during these delicate negotiations. There is still no confirmed NSA [National Security Agency] (Cyber Command) director after Defense Secretary Hegseth fired Gen Hauck and his deputy for no reason, not even a nominee yet for the person overseeing the crown jewel of US intelligence and SIGINT, which might come into handy when you are negotiating with Putin and Xi.”

Meanwhile, historian Mike Coté, responding to the video, lamented, “By the end of this, we’re going to have ceded Alaska back to Russia.”

Christopher Steele, the British former intelligence officer and Russia expert, on Thursday had warned: “It’s hard to imagine a more dangerous approach to Moscow than that being pursued by Trump/Witkoff. Putin’s a murderous thug with imperial ambitions and totally untrustworthy. By selling out Ukraine, Trump will simply encourage further Russian aggression rather than secure peace.”

Paula Chertok, who writes about Russia and Ukraine at East/West Blog, responded to video of Witkoff walking on the streets of Moscow with his Russian friends.

“Witkoff is shopping in Moscow with Putin’s pals… while Ukraine is observing a Day of Mourning for Ukrainians massacred in Kyiv by Russia,” Chertok noted.

READ MORE: ‘Reeks of Eugenics’: RFK Jr.’s Autism ‘Registry’ Draws Nazi Germany Comparisons

Foreign policy expert and journalist Laura Rozen, added: “Looks like Witkoff with his girlfriend, and Dmitriev with his wife, strolling around Moscow with bodyguards.”

Veteran journalist and author Craig Unger, who has alleged President Trump is a Russian asset, accused him on Thursday of “throwing Ukraine under the bus so he can build Trump Tower Moscow. Witkoff has no experience in diplomacy but plenty when it comes to real estate.”

John Hardie, the Deputy Director of the Russia Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a non-partisan institution focusing on national security and foreign policy, also posted those videos.

Republican former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger responded, writing: “I absolutely am ashamed of my government today. This is pure, unadulterated, evil.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution

 

Image via Reuters

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Tops List of Ultra MAGA Hardliners Pursuing Promotions — and Power

Published

22 hours ago

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April 25, 2025

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President Donald Trump’s top loyalists are angling to climb the political ladder to help secure the future for his ultra-MAGA movement—and position themselves for greater influence. House members like far-right U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) are looking at the U.S. Senate, and far-right U.S. senators like Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reportedly see hope in governors’ mansions.

Some critical U.S. senators on both sides of the aisle are retiring, like Republican former Majority and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and the second-highest-ranking Democrat senator, Dick Durbin of Illinois.

“Democrats anxious to deny Donald Trump and his Republican Party a governing trifecta as soon as possible are feeling pretty good about their prospects for flipping the House in 2026, given the GOP’s fragile margin of control and the historical pattern of sizable midterm losses for the president’s party,” New York magazine’s “Intelligencer” reported last month.

“But the Senate, which has the power to confirm Trump’s executive branch and judicial nominations, is really going to be a reach. Democrats would need to flip four Senate seats to win control of the chamber. And an already difficult landscape is being made even tougher by the retirements of Democratic incumbents Gary Peters of Michigan, Tina Smith of Minnesota, and now Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. All three of these open seats could potentially trigger competitive races in 2026.”

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Enter Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who went from a freshman stripped of all of her committee assignments over incendiary language, to becoming chair of the Delivering on Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) subcommittee. She also sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security.

Congresswoman Greene is now thinking about becoming Senator Greene. If successful, her controversial tactics could have a dramatic impact on what is supposed to be the “world’s greatest deliberative body.”

Rep. Greene is reportedly eyeing a run to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, and believes she would “crush” any GOP primary opponent—except Governor Brian Kemp, should he choose to enter the race—according to the right-wing website Daily Caller.

“Republicans are laser-focused on defeating Ossoff, whose narrow victory over former Republican Georgia Sen. David Perdue in a January 2021 runoff election was partly responsible for costing Senate Republicans their majority during the 2020 cycle,” Daily Caller notes, adding, “Ossoff is the only Senate Democrat running for reelection in a state that Trump won last November.”

Could Greene beat Ossoff?

READ MORE: Trump’s SignalGate Sit-Down Mocked as a ‘Him in a Nutshell’ Moment

“This would be a dream for Dems in Georgia,” should Greene run, observed veteran journalist Lydia Polgreen.

“Somewhere at the DSCC [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] some operative is frantically wondering if there is anything they can do to ensure this happens,” wrote University of Pennsylvania political and media historian Brian Rosenwald.

A Daily Caller source also suggested Ossoff would retain his Senate seat, especially should the election move into a runoff. And Ossoff “has been taunting Greene to jump into the race.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville is reportedly mapping out a run for the Alabama Governor’s mansion.

“Tuberville told a group of donors at a private event on Wednesday night that his mind is officially made up,” the conservative website Yellowhammer News reported. “Rather than seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate, he is ready to run his next race in Alabama, and serve the people of the state in Montgomery instead of Washington.
An official campaign announcement is imminent in the coming weeks, but latest reports offer insight into a finalized decision by Tuberville, who has been privately discussing jumping into the 2026 gubernatorial race for quite some time.”

Senator Tuberville reportedly is “furious” at the leak, according to an opinion column at Alabama Political Reporter.

“Tuberville melted down like a plastic lawn chair in July. By Thursday morning, the whispers had turned into headlines. Then Tuberville took to Facebook — and things got weird.”

“While I appreciate all the interest,” Tuberville wrote, “Suzanne and I are still praying about how to best serve the people of Alabama. When I have an official announcement about my future, you’ll hear it directly from me.”

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, a top “Trump loyalist,” is “strongly looking” at a run for the Tennessee governor’s mansion.

The Tennessean reports that “early polling suggests she would likely be the Republican frontrunner. Some politicos across the state consider her success a foregone conclusion: at a Tennessee Chamber of Commerce event in January, attendees called her ‘Gov. Blackburn.'”

And U.S. Rep. Jim Comer (R-KY), the chair of the powerful House Oversight Committee, has also said he would be interested in running for governor.

READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution

 

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