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Meet the Press, with Melissa Etheridge
August 10, 2007 9:53 AM
Rock star Melissa Etheridge offered the Democratic some tough questions at the so-called "gay debate" last night, sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign and broadcast on LOGO.
To John Edwards:
Referring to an account from Edwards' former political adviser Bob Shrum, Etheridge said to Edwards, "I have heard that you have said in the past that you feel uncomfortable around gay people. Are you okay right now?"
Edwards disputed the account. "It's not true, it's not true," he insisted. "Elizabeth and I were both there, and both of us have said he's wrong."
To Bill Richardson:
Etheridge asked Richardson, "do you think homosexuality is a choice, or is it biological?
"It's a choice," Richardson said.
"I don't know if you understand the question," Etheridge said to laughter. "Do you think a homosexual is born that way, or do you think that around seventh grade we go, 'Ooh, I want to be gay?'?"
"Well, I -- I'm not a scientist," Richardson said. His campaign later issued a statement declaring that he didn't think homosexuality was a choice -- the correct answer for that crowd.
To Hillary Clinton:
"Senator, I have a personal issue here. I remember when your husband was elected president. I actually came out public -- publicly during his inaugural week. It was a very hopeful time for the gay community. For the first time, we were being recognized as American citizens. It was wonderful. We were very, very hopeful, and in the years that followed, our hearts were broken. We were thrown under the bus. We were pushed aside. All those great promises that were made to us were broken. And I understand politics. I understand how hard things are, to bring about change. But it is many years later now, and what are you going to do to be different than that? I know you're sitting here now; it's a year out -- more than a year. A year from now, are we going to be left behind like we were before?"
"Well, you know, obviously, Melissa, I don't see it quite the way that you describe, but I respect your feeling about it," Clinton said. "I think that we certainly didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but I believe that there was a lot of honest effort going on by the president, the vice president and the rest of us who were trying to keep the momentum going"
Someone sign this woman up and give her a cable show!
"Come to My Window," live on CNN!
-- jpt
August 10, 2007 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (3)
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I agree with everything you've said, DKNY, but isn't it fun, in a rather perverse way, to watch the candidates try to reconcile their positions when presented with such apparent illogic? (It would probably be funnier if others' well-being weren't at stake.) I haven't seen such great tapdancing around the issues since Ann Miller in the movie "Small-Town Girl"!
Posted by: chuck | Aug 10, 2007 3:33:11 PM
Back to the reality-based world, the best thing about the debate was the way the questioners called out the Democrats for their hypocrisy on the question of gay marriage. As I've said before, the next rational argument I hear against allowing gay people to marry in the same manner in which non-gay people marry will be the first. It is a disgrace that these candidates can't bring themselves to acknowledge and redress the obvious incongruity in their positions.
Posted by: DKNY | Aug 10, 2007 2:24:25 PM
Cable show, nothing! Give her a network show where she can interview politicians and ask the kinds of difficult questions which should be asked of the candidates! Bouquets to Melissa, and brickbats to Gov. Richardson who should know better than to give such an answer the way he did!
Posted by: chuck | Aug 10, 2007 10:28:30 AM
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