Another Obama pick:
Brad Kiley has been named as the director of the Office of Management and Administration by President-elect Barack Obama. Kiley, who is openly gay, is currently the director of operations for the Obama-Biden Transition Project and was a former vice president at the Center for American Progress.
Though Director of the Office of Management and Administration is clearly not as important as a couple minute speaking role at the inauguration, maybe this is a sign that Obama does not hate gays after all. Who would have thunk it?
In all seriousness, I wish Democrats, progressives, and gay rights activists would do what every every kid is taught at their first soccer practice- don’t watch their feet, follow the ball.
Steve
I believe this is actually a different job than OMB.
fromer
Liberal identity politics sucks. and unfortunately it seems to be running rampant right now (e.g Ill-Sen, NY-Sen, anybody Obama names for anything…)
John S.
If Mr. Kiley were any kind of self-respecting homosexual, he would have turned down the appointment until Obama removed Warren from his inauguration!
And John, you know most Americans don’t give a shit about
footballsoccer, so there is no way they are going to come away with a lesson from it.Church Lady
Obama just slapped Rick Warren in the face and then threw him under the bus.
Michael D.
I don’t think anyone of any importance has suggested that Obama hates gays. And if they did, they are outliers.
On the contrary, I think people were simply baffled that he would choose someone to speak at his inauguration who is openly hostile to gay rights and “make up for it” by allowing us to be in the parade.
I’m not sure why you would suggest people were saying that? ! ? !
aimai
Oh, give it a rest. Why is it terribly, terribly important when one person thinks it is but absurdly merely symbolic when your ox isn’t gored? Up until the appointments we’ve all been guessing about what kind of president Obama was going to be. It was totally legitimate to be concerned that, in fact, he wasn’t willing to "waste political capital" on "the base"–women, gays, etc… and that the warren pick (which was touted as about something, you know, not about nothing) was a sign of that. Now the rubber is hitting the road–Obama is making picks and he’s making great ones. But it remains to be seen how he defends them if they are attacked. With the choiceo f panetta and the fight he seems to have picked with feinstein and rockefeller I think its pretty clear he’s really doing a stellar job of putting job/nominee above political capital and, frankly, I don’t think he’s going to have any energy left if the right wing fights against gays (as they did over Hormel’s appointment to the ambassador post years ago).
Get over the notion that gays and their supporters (of whom I am one) were overreacting to the warren pick. Warren was chosen to send a message. Now Obama is taking the time to send a few other messages that make up for it. Both things need to be appreciated, and dealt with, within their own time frame. If we’ve learned anything from eight years of republican rule and this interregnum its that Obama, like everyone else, responds to agressive tactics from his enemies. He’s already negotiating away his FDR like policies in order to please republicans. Why should gays and libberals and leftists think he will respond any differently to their demands. They’d better learn to make some or he is going to end up swinging very far right because there’s no counterweight.
aimai
demkat620
Perhaps during the invocation Rick Warren can pray the gay away.
Dreggas
@John S.:
Yes he must be one of those self-hating gays.
Michael D.
FYI, this:
From here.
Punchy
I cannot support this appointment until I find out how Feinstein and RockinFellah think about it.
passerby
Kiley has experience at the OMaA position and Obama needs him there for the sake of seamless transition.
Lord knows with the amount of global political and economic unrest, day to day WH operations is not where additional distraction is needed. Smart pick.
Bill
Your last line reminds me all too keenly of:
"Don’t listen to what we say, watch what we do."
– John Mitchell
John Cole
@Bill: I was going to point out that I was always taught in lacrosse to play their hips (I was crease D and a long stick middie), but I thought someone would accuse me of gay-baiting.
John S.
@Dreggas:
I can sympathize. I’m a self-hating Jew because I don’t reflexively support everything Israel does.
gwangung
Actually, this is VERY FDR-like in his politics. Easier for Obama to be more progressive when he can point to a vocal progressive presence.
Laura W
Good Lord.
Floodgates now open.
Michael D.
@John S.:
Dude, try being gay AND Jewish!
Paul
What cracks me up are the number of democrats shaking their head and saying "I didn’t vote for THAT kind of change! Rather than Rick Warren, why didn’t he choose Gene Robinson!"
Obama is pretty much like Hello Kitty – you project your emotions onto him and then throw him in the trash because he doesn’t look *exactly* like you thought he would.
MikeJ
The republicans were able to claim they were against Hormel’s appointment a few years back by saying that he was anti-Catholic and Luxembourg was a majority Catholic country. This will be a tougher position to make bullshit arguments about. If they want to fight it they’ll have to come right out and say why. I think that there will be fewer people willing to fight it without something to hide their bigotry.
Of course they didn’t really care that Hormel was gay either, they just wanted to cripple Clinton. That was the cudgel they had handy, and it’s one I don’t think they will find as effective now.
I’d also argue with the characterization that this "makes up" for the Warren invite. I’d guess if anything inviting Warren in was a pre-emptive strike. Obama can now say, "I listen to your point of view, and I respect your opinion. Here’s who I’m hiring. You’ve been heard but I don’t agree."
Terri
I’ll see your Jewish gay, and raise you lesbian, single mom.
And, I really don’t give a shit about Rick Warren.
MikeJ
And speaking of Hormel, he’s a Dem and he’s from Chicago. Seems like we should be hearing from him, no?
JL
When Warren hosted the Religious Forum he lied about McCain’s location. How can we be sure that he’s not lying about everything else?
Brick Oven Bill
Heeeeeeeer’s Brad. Imagine that, he was responsible for “all aspects of White House operations” under Bill Clinton. Barack had better watch his back.
I am a sexual libertarian, but cannot comprehend the attraction that draws men together, other than physical release. If sexuality is biologic, and I am not convinced it is, there would be degrees of gayness. This would explain the two-inch diameter holes in bathroom stalls.
AhabTRuler
@Terri: Yes, but do you have all of your finger, toes, limbs, &c.?
BombIranForChrist
"Don’t watch their feet, follow the ball"
Wow, I really like that. Good advice for anyone following politics.
gwangung
Duh. (Sorry for the snark, but I thought this was so obvious that I failed to see the furor over the Warren invitation).
lovethebomb
You bet Obama is responding to the outcry over Warren. I agree with the poster’s comment about the squeaky wheel getting the grease. Obama plays political chess w/ every move he makes. It made a certain kind of sense to invite evangelicals into the tent, but he did not consider the fallout and how truly offensive it was. I am sure he deeply regrets the invocation invite, esp as it was all many had to chew on over the long holiday break. Now, I expect there will be several other gays promoted to high positions so the protests will not have been in vain. Heck, we might even get to serve openly in the military. Also, get someone on Michelle’s wardrobe. Perhaps a cabinet post for interior decoration? Ya know the white house is gonna need a do-over from all the horsey paintings and other fake cowboy themes.
Terri
Why yes, Ahab, but I live in Florida. Does that count?
John Cole
@Brick Oven Bill: I thought I banned you, but you keep coming back.
At any rate, I am cool with you posting, just so long as that FOR THE LOVE OF GOD YOU STOP TALKING ABOUT ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH YOUR SEXUAL PROCLIVITIES, GAY OR STRAIGHT.
One small request. I think I have earned it.
jrg
People need to grow up and realize that making a stink over Warren does him a favor, by generating more publicity over the invocation than he otherwise would have had.
If he pisses you off that much, chances are you were not going to read "A Purpose Driven Life", anyway. He might be a bigot, but he’s still a step above Dobson, et. al. Besides, even if Warren dropped off the face of the earth tomorrow, prop 8 still would have passed… So stop giving the guy free publicity.
When gays do get marriage equality, it will be because of efforts to humanize their condition, not because of efforts to demonize a (regrettably mainstream) religious character like Warren.
Whenever I get into a discussion about gay marriage, I always tell the story of Alan Turing. He helped create modern computer science, and saved many lives in WWII. He was gay. He committed suicide after being convicted of being a homosexual. He was a hero, and should have been treated as one.
Two of the most powerful means of persuasion are telling stories and asking questions. Some people cannot be reasoned with, but almost no one responds to attacks, especially when religion is involved.
Halteclere
@John Cole: Same advice is taught in (American) football. The head and shoulders may fake direction, but where the hips go the body goes.
bootlegger
@John Cole: What about the goats? Can he tell us about the goats?
Brachiator
@Michael D.:
A lot of Americans oppose gay rights. A lot of Americans oppose gay rights on the basis of their interpretation of religion their religion.
Obama has decided to try to bring these people into the light. This has been his announced stance since day one. This is how he has said that he sees the world time and time again. One America, which includes a lot of conflict and messiness. The politics of inclusion.
The phony moral high horse in which people are banned or excluded from the American conversation does not appear to be an option.
Pretend that it is. Stamp your feet. Get upset. It will accomplish nothing.
No, a self-hating gay might be one who works as a staffer for a Republican (or Democratic) politician who spouts off about family values or who actively works against the interests of gays. A self-hating gay might be someone who knowingly protects or keeps the secret of a hypocrite like Mark Foley, while claiming that gay rights are important to him or her. A self-hating gay might be a gay who is a Log Cabin Republican, especially if he or she is silent when Republicans get all nutty about defending the "traditional" family.
Warren catches even more heat from conservative nutcases for agreeing to appear at the Inauguration as Obama does for inviting him. On the other hand, Warren’s presence may cause more people to re-examine their assumptions, a process that has been accelerating for years. Note, for example, how many people who oppose gay marriage accept the idea of civil unions. This may not be enough for some, but it is clearly not the same thing as being simplistically anti-gay.
And conservatives are waiting to pounce on Obama for being too gay-friendly, especially when it comes to the military.
I understand the sense of outrage, but it lacks any sense of strategy.
Brick Oven Bill
Fair enough John. Thank you for the privilege.
aimai
I think the "don’t watch their feet, follow the ball" line is highly overrated as a way of understanding anything, certainly as a metaphor for understanding and analyzing politics. Because what we are talking about isn’t where the ball (legislation? the country) is going in a particular game. We’re actually arguing about who is a good player, or who is a good coach, for the next round of the game or the next game. In that sense I think a better way of thinking about the game would be looking at the players and the coach–their skill, how they handle the ball, etc…etc…etc… So, I don’t know whether the warren choice for the invocation was good or bad strategy when it happened because I wasn’t sure how it would play out over the long haul. Was it an opening move by Obama to placate the right wing or an opening move to defang them? You can’t know that (in the game analogy) until the ball has moved, time has passed, or unless you have faith in the player having seen him play a lot before. So, with a novice player if they start to kick the ball the wrong way towards their own goal its legitimate to say "yikes! this guy may end up scoring an own goal" while with a long term player we might give them more credit and figure they have some strategy going on.
At any rate, I really find the analogy kind of insulting. You know what?We are keeping our eye on the ball. obama’s got a lot going on and he has a lot of institutional players playing against him. The netroots and angry active citizens aren’t, in fact, a problem for him and they could and should be a real resource for him *because we actually care about getting shit done* unlike, for example, difi and rockefeller, burris and reid. If Obama were turning to the netroots and his base of supporters to force the senators and congressmen to do what he is now begging them to do he’d be in a lot better shape. And to the extent that that people in the netroots and in the base really care about shit and are already organized its actually better for Obama because he can horsetrade something that they want, that they’ve said they want, in exchage for their active support. The warren thing pissed people off because it was *utterly useless politically* at helping obama advance the ball downfield.
aimai
AhabTRuler
@Terri: Only if you like to pet the alligators or the politicians.
Punchy
Or gay porno.
demimondian
@aimai: I disagree.
I was (and am) offended about the Warren choice; in fact, I think I may have the dubious distinction of having drawn John’s ban on the phrase "sl?p in the f?ce". (By the way, JC — you could add that to the moderation filter, if you want it to really go away. Just sayin’.) That said, if, in fact, BHO is arming himself to say "I heard you, and I listened to you. I disagree with you, and I will go forward with my agenda, thanks." then…I want his agenda to cohere with mine.
Genine
How come no one mentions Nancy Sutley? The first openly gay person Obama appointed to a cabinet position? She was picked to be chairperson of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He did that before the Warren pick for a three minute prayer!
So, I don’t think this pick is in anyway to "make up" for Warren.
That’s utterly ridiculous!
Brachiator
@Genine:
Great point. The people in a snit over Warren are more interested in political posturing than in getting things done.
gwangung
I don’t think I agree. I can see scenarios where this will help.
Whether or not these scenarios come to pass in reality is another question, and can be debated, but I don’t regard that as politically useless.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
Maybe we should send Malkin around to check his "countertops".
KRK
@aimai:
Seriously? Your argument is that Obama is the "novice player" and so he should let the netroots make the calls on the most politically effective way to achieve his policy agenda?
TheAssInTheHatOnMyCat(Formerly Comrade Tax Analyst)
You mean that hasn’t been done yet?
Yikes! No wonder we’re in such a mess. Good thing the GOP is waiting in the wings to come in and responsibly clean things up.
Just what would we do without Mitch McConnell & Company?
aimai
No, my argument isnt’ that Obama is a novice player and that he should let the netroots make decisions for him. My argument is that Obama is not, in fact, an utterly known quantity as a player–and considering how confused media accounts of *extremely well known political figures* from Cheney, to Reid, to Pelosi have been that isn’t saying much. I voted for O, supported O, I respect his political acumen tremendously. However, I think he made a mistake (and is making a mistake) pissing off his activist base while seeking to cozy up to warren and his activist base. Other posters have rightly remarked that "time will tell" on this one. Sure, but some stuff happens right away. I think Warren and the invocation is a tempest in a teapot because other real world disasters have taken the spotlight away from it and it was largely symbolic. However I think Obama would do better to utilize the agressive and fundraising force that he has amassed, and to work with the newly agitated post-election liberal base, to undercut house and senate dems *and republicans* in their homebases rather than trying to sweeten the pot rhetorically or symbolically for republican and democratic insiders.
As a poster alluded to up above there is a well known story, retold by digby during this campaign cycle, of FDR supposedly saying to some lobbyist/activists "I agree with what you propose, now go out and make me do it." I personally think Obama would do better as a matter of politics and strategy to adopt a more conciliatory approach to gay activists *among others* and tell them "I need your help on everything from national health care to the stimulus. Can I count on you to use your organizational clout and your anger about this other stuff to help me beat the shit out of the republicans and various blue dog dems?" rather than trying to bribe or outsmart the republicans and the senior dems.
The warren thing was at once too big, and too small, to have had a similar effect on Warren’s imaginary troops and friends. More importantly, it was botched as a matter of symbolism by Obama’s team allowing rightful gay anger to spill out and create a typical right wing victim mentality for warren and his crew. If Obama had either *also* chosen Gene robinson or gone privately to gay activists and explained his strategy he could have had his cake and eaten it too. Sometimes really clever people are too damned clever for their own good.
aimai
demimondian
@aimai: Um..he did. What do you think sending Biden out to the Sunday shows to talk about the PE’s "dedication to the cause of [gay rights]" was?
Now, I didn’t believe him, and still say "OK, prove it, dude." But that doesn’t mean he was not telling the truth, merely that I’m very skeptical.
MNPundit
Ah, but dollars to donuts (heh) that Obama would not have chosen him if gays had no raised a stink about that walking pestilence, Rick Warren.
bootlegger
@MNPundit: You’ll lose your donuts chief.
Genine
Obama already picked an openly gay person for his cabinet BEFORE the Warren pick! What? You think that was just an "pre-emptive" strike?
***sigh***
Phoenician in a time of Romans
It’s a sad sad world when you know the fundie Christian nutjobs are not going to whine and moan about this as much as the Internet pro-gay nutjobs did about Warren.
Well, maybe Fred Phelps…
Tsulagi
Yes, preemptive strikes like that are in the new Obama Doctrine. Just ask Palin. You can’t fool her again after being caught with her pants down in her Bush Doctrine embarrassment.
gex
@aimai:
Obama saw the No on 8 effort. Why he’d want to invite in our "organizational clout" is beyond me.
Duke of Earl
@Brachiator:
The non-religious are about 15% of the American population, I’m willing to wager there will be no openly non-religious speakers at the inauguration.
So yes, there are people banned or excluded from the conversation, or at least certain not-all-that-uncommon viewpoints will be.
Duke of Earl
@Brick Oven Bill:
Kinsey showed that indeed there is a smooth gradation of sexual attraction all the way between exclusively heterosexual and exclusively homosexual.
Napoleon
Speaking of another Obama pick, it is being reported that the surgeon general will be CNN’s Sanjay Gupta (seriously).
Laura W
@Napoleon: I’m pretty sure that will be a slap in the face to Oprah’s Dr. Oz*.
*"America’s Doctor"
Napoleon
@Laura W:
LOL
At least it wasn’t Dr. Phil.
jake 4 that 1
Wow. People are a) Moaning because Obama is letting Warren speak for 2 minutes and b) Moaning because Obama wants to appoint not one, but two openly gay people to his cabinet (so far).
Um. Yeah. I’m just going to head out to Target for some pacifiers.
B.O.B is more of a goatosexual.
Laura W
@Napoleon: I am not making this up, nor am I drinking.
Here in EST, CNN is yakking about the Gupta nom. right this moment, while Oprah and Oz are guessing audience members’ ages.
OUCH.
Napoleon
Too funny!
Oz is actually an honest to God Ivy League educated Dr. who was born here in Cleveland and whose co-author is a Dr. at the Cleveland Clinic (he was on a local morning show the other day).
Laura W
@Napoleon:
I noze!
Do you think I post here without first doing my research?
He sort of looks like Dick Sargent, the second Darrin.
John S.
Ah, shit. You got me there, Michael.
bago
I don’t know what bathrooms you visit, but the ones at Neighbors, R Place, and The Cuff don’t have those. None of those in Castro that I’ve been to either. (Man, that was a grammatically bent sentence.) At any rate, enjoy your riverdance, wherever you pee.
Mnemosyne
Utterly useless at getting additional support from the left, yes. Given that his approval ratings are something like 80 percent right now — even a majority of people who didn’t vote for him approve of him — I think you’re waving away the possible effect the pick had on the people who normally lean right.
Also, it’s not like the Rev. Joseph Lowery is chopped liver. Longtime civil rights leader (leader of the Montgomery bus boycott) who supports gay rights and who verbally attacked the war in Iraq during his speech at Coretta Scott King’s funeral while he had Bush as a captive audience? Sorry, but Gene Robinson can’t touch that record, and I think Robinson would agree.
Sean
In all seriousness, its hard to keep your eye on the ball when they’ve just shit all over your feet.
-S
Phoenician in a time of Romans
In all seriousness, its hard to keep your eye on the ball when they’ve just shit all over your feet.
No, shitting all over your feet is appointing Warren to, say, run the Office of Management and Administration. Having Warren speak for two minutes because of reasons that don’t involve his views on gays, positive or negative, is merely breaking wind.
alicia-logic
Lucy to Charlie Brown, as she sets the ball for him one more time…