…in favor of marriage equality:
Good for her.
Andrew Stiles at NRO implies that Secretary Clinton is dancing for donations from gay puppet-masters:
Big Money Backs Clinton on Gay Marriage
Former secretary of state and potential 2016 presidential contender Hillary Clinton announced her support for gay marriage on Monday in a video posted online by the Human Rights Campaign, one of the Democratic party’s most prolific campaign donors over the years.
The Human Rights Campaign has contributed more than $10 million to Democrats since 1990, and has spent more than $21 million on lobbying since 1998, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which describes the group as a “heavy hitter” in federal elections.
On what planet does $10 million in campaign contributions over 23 years qualify as “big money?” Hell, Sheldon Adelson shook $20 mill out of his sofa cushions for Gingrich’s Quixotic primary run before going on to spend serious cash on the actual nominee. And he’s just one dude in one election cycle.
The consensus for marriage equality is accelerating, thanks to the Democrats, notably President Obama. Conservatives like the nitwits at NRO still can’t quite believe this is happening, so they’re casting about for alternate explanations.
Republicans who have the most well-developed sense of political self-preservation will climb off the bigot bus toot sweet, leaving sad busybodies like NOM’s Brian Brown holding a pile of white sheets and “God Hates Fags” signs.
It’s a joy to behold.
Linda Featheringill
Good for Hillary!
[Since I’m in the process of making a Chanel-esque jacket, I must say that she has a nice suit. Probably the real thing, in her case.]
White Trash Liberal
Good for her.
What I hope is the end result from all this is pressure on judges Roberts and Kennedy to place their decisions on the right side of history.
We shall see if equal protection outweighs the fear that the sanctity of marriage defends our children from Weaponized Gay.
Cassidy
Not soone enough! slap in the face! Cheney isn’t in jail! All Obama’s fault!
arguingwithsignposts
@Cassidy: Damn, too late. Can I throw in a “Just Words ™” for extra measure?
Zam
Pretty doubtful it’s for the money, but it will definitely help her with the younger more socially liberal kids that were really big into Obama, not being openly for gay marriage is kinda a deal breaker for a lot of people my age.
dmsilev
@Zam: Someone made the point a couple of days ago that after Obama and Clinton both came out in support of gay marriage, it’ll be basically impossible for any serious contender for the Democratic Presidential nomination not to do so. Maybe not impossible, but that hypothetical candidate would be pissing off an increasingly large fraction of the Democratic voting base.
Alex S.
Does that prove that she’s going to run in 2016? I think so. Cuomo already said that he’s waiting for her decision. This progressive move (that wasn’t really necessary anymore) is probably meant to prevent a challenge from the left (O’Malley).
eric
This is so fabulous!
Not only do i think it is a heartfely expression of justice, but I think this is a part of a public play for the Supremes and the notion that a vote against equality is a vote for Plessy.
walt
If the GOP climbs off the bigot bus they’ll be trudging along on foot. They won elections by appealing to the very worst in human beings and now it seems the magic in that formula is waning. Too bad old white bigots are the GOP’s main demographic, and it’s not growing like it used to. One more generation and that despicable party is history.
Scott S.
I’m amazed that anyone, even the room-temperature roadkill at NRO, is surprised by this.
Chyron HR
I bet she actually supported gay marriage all along! Which is apparently a bad thing, because of… reasons. And… stuff.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alex S.:
Not necessarily. It could simply be a retired politician making a statement. Sometimes, people just do the decent thing.
jon
I look forward to Michelle Shocked’s performance at the 2016 TOP Convention. They always get the hip new acts.
NotMax
So she didn’t fully and openly countenance the administration on this until after she left its employ?
Profiles in
CourageExpedience.RP
Is Dr. Evil now writing for the NR?
SRW1
“…will climb off the bigot bus toot sweet, …”
Ahem, would it be correct to assume that ‘toot sweet’ is the Floridian version of ‘tout de suite’?
Cause I don’t quite thing that climbing off will be that immediate. There are still a few miles in that vehicle. Now, occupying window seats may become a bit problematic. But likely not more so than traveling on some other loaded vehicles.
The GOP has perfected the method to let Whitey know that the ni-clangs still ought to be traveling at the back of the bus. There’s no reason to believe they won’t be able to do the same with the fa-clunks.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Her statement said that she spoke of gay rights as human rights at international fora in her public capacity as SoS. Outside of that, same sex marriage isn’t really on the State Department’s menu, and it really wouldn’t have been appropriate for her to run around making pronouncements outside her area.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
This.
(In before I say something about GG.)
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Bullpuckey.
A simple statement of “I support the president and endorse his stance” would have sufficed.
handsmile
@dmsilev:
And we should celebrate that political fact. In the second decade of the 21st century, why would any “serious contender for the Democratic Presidential nomination” not support gay marriage?
While some of the party’s candidates or office-holders may be disappointing, infuriating, even cowardly on certain issues, as a whole Democrats do bend “the arc of the moral universe…towards justice.”
Face
Not convinced they can. They’ll be primaried for doing so. Whether that leads to unemployment, I dont know, but most politicians would rather not invite the primary challenger to begin with.
It’s tough to convince the Bible-banging populace to change on this one because then they must question other things in the Bible. Questioning the Bible is not something they’re capable of doing. Politicians who rep these peeps know this.
Bulworth
Yeah. This.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Why would it be necessary? Should John Kerry give statements about his personal opinions on administration policy outside of foreign affairs?
Cassidy
@arguingwithsignposts: Heck yeah.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
As the job includes promoting rights and the administration’s policies as a part of the foreign policy portfolio, yes.
keestadoll
Never too late to come out swinging for the rights of the citizenry. A good part deux running up to ’16 would be if she expressed at least a bit of nausea regarding things like the continuation and ramping up of the Patriot Act, that pesky indefinite detention, you know, just a few things that need a wee bit of discussion.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
One more thing. We already know Kerry’s personal views on this, from 2011.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Dude, she promoted administration policies – including making making statements supporting gay rights – in her role as SoS. Her personal opinions, and John Kerry’s, are not really germane in the role. One must assume that there is a general agreement on issues and policy between a president and cabinet members or else the cabinet member would not have been chosen or agreed to serve. Beyond that, it is immaterial. Hillary Clinton offering her personal opinion about something makes the story about Hillary Clinton not about administration policy; that wasn’t her job as SoS. Obviously you don’t see it that way, but you are wrong.
kay
@NotMax:
Kerry had a real front row seat to it in 2004. They knew the state constitutional amendment blocking same sex marriage that the national and state GOP colluded on was going to hurt Kerry in Ohio.
Republicans were bragging about it. They couldn’t have been happier.
They lie about it now, but luckily the state Party chair couldn’t resist crowing to the NYTimes about his tactical brilliance the day after the election so it’s on record.
It was one of the nastiest, most cruelly cynical political tactics I’ve ever witnessed. You could FEEL the hate directed to gay people.
Kerry was right in the middle of that.
Suffern ACE
Yep. My guess is yes, she may not run, but two if her big challengers may be governors who signed marriage equality bills.
Higgs Boson's Mate
No, they won’t. The Republicans have carefully gerrymandered blood red districts wherever they could and those districts won’t take kindly to any candidate who accepts same sex marriage. As long as the R’s can raise hell in the states and paralyze the House winning the White house will remain a sideshow.
NotMax
@Omes Omnibus
Bolstering administration policy wasn’t a part of the job? Do tell.
Offering an official statement as to how her department would be implementing the policies would most certainly not have been out of line.
Neener-neenering is most unbecoming.
I still call Slick Hilly on this one, but shall refrain from continued comment about it, as my opinion should be evident by now.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax:
My first sentence in the comment to which you were replying:
.
Any statement that Hillary Clinton made as Hillary Clinton rather than a SoS would have bigfooted any official policy statements. I say that while she was SoS, she properly promoted administration policy without bring her own opinions into it; once she was no longer SoS, she made a strong statement of her own opinion. Good for her in both instances.
I will also let it drop now.
MattF
It’s just like those you-know-whats to give money to politicians who support their rights. How dare they!
Maude
@NotMax:
The Keystone Pipeline that HRC seemed to approve during a speech before all the studies were done, created a bit of a storm. Obama took over the issue and delayed the decision until after HRC was out of the State Department.
This is the start of her non campaign campaign.
Frankensteinbeck
Hillary Clinton is in the pocket of Big Gay. If we can find a major supporter named Al, this will achieve perfection.
aimai
@NotMax:
You would really have to understand almost nothing about government or administration or honorably serving in an appointed position to take this tack. And I say this having grown up with the Saturday Night Massacre and Archie Cox as one of my heroes. If you had wasted five seconds listening to what she was saying in the actual video you would perhaps have grasped that she simultaneously offered up the Obama Administration and the ideals of a hypothetical, future, America as the reasons she had expressed herself as SOS forcefully on the subject of GLBT rights the world over and now chose to come out personally in favor of them in the US. So she both did what she should have qua SOS and now that she is free to speak in propria persona she does that too. There is nothing “slick” about it and using that old right wing smear on her is just disgusting.
ruemara
Are we seriously arguing about whether a person who has not personally hampered gay rights, has insisted that gay rights is an international issue in her job, is deserving of credit for coming out personally for SSM? Some people need help.
As far as the GOP, based on CPAC, I think we’ll be seeing an even stronger bigot brigade in the next two elections. Small, loud and strong.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Colonel Potter was from Missouri, if memory serves.
@ruemara: I could see Santorum going rogue in a general over “traditional marriage”.
? Martin
Man, Obama is always a day late and a dollar short on progressive issues…
nellcote
I think it’s interesting that she waited until a week after Bill DOMA Clinton came out in support of gay marriage.
Ted & Hellen
Please.
Cynical beyond belief, and way too late.
Baud
Does this mean Chelsea’s gay?
pk
I would really like the Democrats to have an all female ticket in 2016. Hillary for President and Elizabeth Warren for vice President. Best thing that can happen for the country.
Pap Finn
@Face:
This.
Trust me, y’all: the biggest bang for your entertainment buck over the next several years will be watching Republican Party elites, who recognize at last that the Party is in a demographic and cultural death spiral, try to convince the grunting, nit-studded, filth-encrusted, Neo-Confederate early hominids who make up so much of their base that the nigras, messicans, and queers really aren’t so bad after all (after 40 years of conditioning them to believe that Those People do nothing all day but spend Whitey’s tax dollars on drugs and T-bone steaks).
David Koch
Goldwater Girl Hillary still refuses to apologize for cheerleading the rape of Iraq.