Whatever you think about the president’s tax proposals (I think they’re too expensive right now, without more spending cuts), you have to hand it to him. He keeps on message; he plays hard; he keeps it simple; and, generally speaking, he wins. If he gets a tax bill anything like the one the Senate just passed, he will have shown a mastery in Washington unknown for a very long time. For economic good or bad.
WHEN IT RAINES, IT BORES: The boyfriend has ordered that I cease and desist all further mention of the Raines-Blair scandal, so I’ll just give you the link. The scandal could be widening. And Seth Mnookin clearly wants to make this story his own.
GAYS AND REPUBLICANS: The conventional wisdom on the far right is that the Republicans shouldn’t be afraid to be the anti-gay party, because that’s where the votes are. The assumption is that support for gay equality is a huge political loser. That might have been true in the past, but it’s changing swiftly. Check out yesterday’s latest Gallup poll on attitudes toward homosexuality. To the question: “Do you think homosexual couples should or should not have the same legal rights as married heterosexual couples regarding healthcare benefits and Social Security survivor benefits?” 62 percent answered yes. The country is split 50-50 on whether gay couples should have civil union rights equivalent to marriage, erasing a 12-point advantage to the anti-gay forces only three years ago. On the generic question of whether homosexuality should be considered “an acceptable lifestyle,” the percentage approving has gone from 34 percent to 54 percent in twenty years, while those opposing have dropped from 51 percent to 43 percent. 88 percent believe gays should have protection from being fired for their sexual orientation (a federal protection the religious right has withheld from gays). And on what you might call the Santorum question on whether gay sex should be legal, the split is 60 to 35 percent in favor of legal gay sex. There is no question which way the middle of this country is moving. None whatsoever. Santorum, Delay, Robertson, Bauer, Connor, and the rest, represent an increasingly isolated, bitter and angry constituency that is fast losing the argument. The question for the GOP is whether it wants to reach out to a growing and increasingly accepted community, or whether it wants to tie its fate to a group that is out of step with basic standards of American tolerance, equality and compassion.
A SUGGESTION: The president may not want to endorse gay marriage; but there are concrete measures he could take to strike a centrist position. The most obvious would be to endorse the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would give gays the same workplace protections as other minorities. 88 percent of the country endorses this. It’s a simple case of workplace fairness. It doesn’t involve any approval of homosexual sex, since this is about public workplaces. It could and should exempt religious groups. And it would be a huge sign to the center of the country that Bush is actually an inclusive and compassionate president. I’ve had my libertarian doubts about such laws in the past; but I cannot see any reason why they should apply to every other group – including religious denominations – but not to gays. Memo to Rove: get on the right side of history and the right side of fairness. If a Republican president signed a measure no Democrat managed to, you will destroy in one swoop the Democratic grip on a key and influential constituency. Gays represent 5 percent of the vote or more. You’ve got a quarter of them already. Do this, and you’ll make huge gains. You’ll soon need to show the country you’re capable of reaching out beyond the far right. This is one way you can do it.
DA MAN: “Your quote of the day from Neil Cavuto shows why, no matter how hard I try, I just can’t take any commentator on Fox seriously. Cavuto is the typical Fox anchor – he puts on this macho-look-how-big-a-populist-I-am he-man image; but as soon as someone criticizes them they act like a bitchy sorority girl who has just found out that one of their sisters has been spreading rumors that she is not a real blonde.” – more feedback on the Letters Page.
The Dish 