DOMA - The WingNut Freak Out Continues...

In the wake of  the Obama Administration's announcement that  it would no longer defend  in court section three of  the  Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the collective hysteria by  the 'Social Conservative' residents of  Teabagistan continues.



Over on the PoliFi Network er.. I mean  FOX News,  they  managed a  hit a double.  Not only did they get the facts wrong, (the Obama Administration will still enforce DOMA,  they just won't defend it in court). But they also managed  to tie the DOMA decision to their whole "Obama is a secret Muslim" narrative. Wow...



Then there is  the sad, pathetic spectacle of  former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee.    Sigh... where to even begin with this.   I actually had a bit of a soft spot for Rev. Mike.    During the 2008 Republican primaries  he was one of the few candidates who would speak in complete coherant sentences.  Granted,  the stuff he said  was bat-sh*t crazy, but  he said it with charm.  Even when he said stuff like, he  "wasn't sure" about  the earth being older than  6000 years.



Mike Huckabee,  like former Republican Senator Rick Santorum,  and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, desperately wants to be  President.   To win the  GOP Nomination  you have to basically out-crazy everybody else who is running.   So  this past week,  Huckabee along with  his fellow 2012 hopefuls  went berserk  over  President Obama's decision  not to defend DOMA.   Huckabee went on FOX News  saying he opposes gay marriage on the grounds that, according to him, it destroys traditional families.

"There is a quantified impact of broken families," Huckabee said. "[There is a] $300 billion dad deficit in America every year...that's the amount of money that we spend as taxpayers to pick up the pieces because dads are derelict in their duties."  

Of course Mike didn't give any evidence, of exactly how traditional families are destroyed, nor did the talking bobble heads on FOX ask him how America's crisis of deadbeat heterosexual dads, is the result of same sex marriage.  Because why would you want to ruin a talking point by bringing facts or, gee.. I dunno, reality into the discussion.

Rev. Mike wasn't the only member of the WingNuttia   who was desperately  trying to show  how much he "hates the homos" this week.    Tony Perkins over at the  certified hate-group the "Family Research Council"  has all but  lost his mind over the past two days.  Ranting hysterically how this is an all out  "assault" on marriage and the family, that  President Obama was in cahoots with  Ted Olsen and David Boies.  The lawyers in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the pending lawsuit to overturn Proposition 8 in California.   

One interesting side bar to Perkins' reaction is his claim that GOP leaders have assured him that; "DOMA is safe on their watch". Which raises in interesting question. What if the hysteria on the Right is exactly what President Obama wanted?

 

The fact is,   the American Conservative Movement  is obsessed with  Homosexuality.   From same sex marriage, to Gays serving in the military, to same sex parents raising children. The Right Wing in American just can't help themselves. Any thing 'Gay', drives them into a bible thumping, scripture misquoting,  frenzy.

Congressional Republicans, many of them with one eye on the 2012 GOP Presidential primaries, won't be able to resist. Wave the rainbow flag in front of these people, and they'll charge like a bull in Pamplona. Completely ignoring all the other issues they claim they were sent to Washington to address, and it's starting too look like President Obama knows it.

Linda Hirshman over at Salon.com has a very interesting op-ed this week on exactly this topic.  In a piece entititled;  Obama sets a marriage trap -- for Republicans,  Hirshman examines  the risks  to the GOP should they not be able to control themselves and  rush into the DOMA issue, by mounting a Congressional  defense of DOMA in court. 

"Republicans and their lawyers will have to step into federal court and prove -- subject to cross-examination -- how the republic would be damaged if same sex spouses can get, say, federal railroad retirement benefits. As Boies said after dismantling that disqualified expert in the Proposition 8 trial, "the witness stand is a very lonely place."

Tony Perkins got a small taste of this, when he tried to use his usual talking points against David Boies when discussing the Perry case.

Hirshman  also points out in her Salon piece,  that having to defending DOMA  in court, would be very different from just braying about it on talk radio, or on FOX News where nobody cross examines you, and you never have to provide any evidence or proof.

It's very easy to go on Sean Hanity's TV show and say same sex couples are "attacking families". It's quite another thing to have to prove that  ridiculous claim in a court of law, where lying under oath has real consequences.

Given that  in 2010, when voters were polled to list  the issues they cared most about,  Same Sex Marriage came in dead last,  you have to wonder if Hirshman might be on to something.   The GOP led House of Representatives  already has shown their "laser focus on  economy",  is easily abandoned in favor of hot button social issues like abortion. 

So pop some popcorn kids!  It should be interesting to see if  the GOP can resist the  siren call of Gay bashing long enough to keep  all their  2010 promises of  "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs".     If the past 48 hours are any indication,  I'm guessing probably not.