The Dish

Another brutal smear job – against Republican Tom Kean Jr.

Jon Chait analyzes Fred Barnes’ political gloom.

A reader writes:

David Kuo’s comparison of White House power to Sauron’s Ring of Power is something that has been on my mind recently too. Neither he nor I are alone in making that comparison – a couple of weeks ago I saw a bumper sticker on the streets of Portland, Oregon which said "Frodo Has Failed, Bush Has the Ring."

Here it is:

Merchandise available here.

The NYT has an appreciative review of the Pet Shop Boys’ American tour today. I went Sunday night with my other half in DC. I’m a fan, which is to say, I’m not a very good critic of the work of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. From the sound of the crowd, there were a lot of fans in the audience, and the PSBs seemed genuinely taken aback by the fervor. In DC? The diversity of the audience was as striking as its passion: not many rock concerts can claim a plurality of middle-aged gay men, a vast throng of hip twenty and thirtysomething straights, elderly couples, young families with children, and the odd Republican-looking matron, swaying gleefully to and fro, with pearls bobbing up and down.

The PSBs are unpretentious and they gave us what we came for: the classics ("West End Girls", "Suburbia," "Always on My Mind") and new variations on new songs ("Home and Dry", "Minimal"). I wept during "Dreaming of the Queen," played over a simple video of the funeral procession for Diana. It resonated with many of us gay men in our forties:

"There are no more lovers left alive.
No one has survived.
So there are no more lovers left alive
And that’s why love has died.
Yes, it’s true.
Look, it’s happened to me and you."

Suddenly, all those faces returned to me: the men I once knew who couldn’t be there. Then there was the political anthem, "Integral," which speaks to the ineluctable logic of the national security state, permanently at war, with civil liberties suspended, and guilt always assumed before innocence:

"If you’ve done nothing wrong
You’ve got nothing to fear.
If you’ve something to hide
You shouldn’t even be here.
You’ve had your chance,
Now we’ve got the mandate.
If you’ve changed your mind
I’m afraid it’s too late."

Here’s their latest video, a typically Russian-themed visual epic to the tune of their latest release, "Numb."

They give me hope. Even when I feel none.

A reader writes:

I read your post quoting Steve Rose‚Äôs editorial from The Johnson County Sun, which you refer to as ‘a small paper in Kansas.’ Technically, your description may be true (I don‚Äôt know The Sun‚Äôs circulation, but it‚Äôs published once a week in an area where The Kansas City Star is the dominant daily), but that paper isn‚Äôt at all typical of the state.  Johnson County is an affluent county that is part of the Kansas City metro, and Rose has long been a sophisticated player in local publishing and politics.  JoCo‚Äôs demographics and attitudes are far different from rural and western Kansas.  They have a Democratic congressman (Dennis Moore) and popular District Attorney who has actually switched parties to take a run at the state‚Äôs luddite arch-conservative Attorney General.  The big news would come if a paper in Hays or Hoxie ran a similar piece.  Don‚Äôt hold your breath.

Ponnuru is also on the case.

"The old motto should still hold for religious righties: annoy the libertine media. Show the impact of "values voters" again on issues like abortion and "gay marriage," that their sexually omnivorous agenda is a political minus," – Tim Graham, NRO.

"Sexually omniverous"? Liberals want to screw celery? Or just, as Oscar Wilde had it, a very ripe cantaloupe?

"I have no anger towards my former colleagues or towards anyone else. Part of what made this so difficult to write is the amount of respect I have for my former colleagues. I like and respect them.

It was also a real challenge to try and tell the entire story, my own intimate story about what happens when you struggle with God and politics – and politics wins. I think one of the things that drove me was feeling the urgent need to tell people, particularly Christians, I suppose, that politicians look at any constituency with very cold eyes. They form constituencies to form a governing coalition. That isn’t a bad thing; that’s just what they do. And I think Christians have come to this notion that this White House is somehow their fellow parishioners with them, and that is simply not the case. I am shocked, frankly, by the White House response that it [the faith-based agenda] hasn’t been political. That is the other side of absurd, and fundamentally misleading …

In some ways White House power is like [J.R.R.] Tolkien’s ring of power. When you put it on, it feels good and it’s dazzling. But after a while it begins to consume you in ways you don’t realize. That’s the nature of White House power. I have no doubt that Christian political leaders have gotten involved for all the right reasons. I just think over time it becomes harder and harder to stand up against that ring of power and the White House, to say no and walk away," – David Kuo, saying from the inside what I’ve been tring to express from the outside about the Faustian bargain some Christians have made with partisan power politics.

Whenever you hear Christianist speakers on television citing statistics on the alleged depravity of homosexuals, they are almost always relying on the "research" of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, a front group for psychiatric theories about the "mental illness" of gays that was debunked three deacdes ago by mainstream psychiatry. But the pathological hatred behind this group has largely been kept under wraps. (My book, "Love Undetectable" devotes a chapter to the serious scholarly claims of the ex-gay movement, if you’re interested in more background). But now some of that bigotry has been exposed – by blogs, of course:

At issue are comments by Canadian psychiatrist Joseph Berger and New York psychotherapist Gerald Schoenewolf.

In a blog on NARTH’s website, Berger expressed disgust with a Northern California school that accommodated a cross-dressing kindergartner and other children with "gender-variant" behaviors. Berger said that instead of teaching tolerance, schools should "let the other children ridicule" boys and girls who don’t conform.

"It is a mistake for various interfering, ignorant and biased busybodies to try to ‘counsel’ the other children into accepting the abnormal," Berger wrote. "It is very healthy to be able to draw the line between what is healthy and what is sick."

Schoenewolf’s essay on political correctness not only seemed to justify slavery, it also denounced the gay-rights movement as "mob rule." Using explicit language, Schoenewolf asserted that "the entire planet has now been forced to agree that [homosexuality] is normal."

It’s odd for a governor to blast his own state. But it’s a sure sign that Mitt Romney is the Christianist candidate for the GOP, Mormon though he is. And the inevitable backlash may well help defeat the anti-marriage amendment in Massachusetts.

The feds are trying to influence Colorado’s marijuana initiative as well.