Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), Log Cabin’s strongest ally in the Senate, has introduced a bill with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) that would provide domestic partner benefits to federal employees.  This common sense legislation addresses the inequity between married couples and same-sex partners by allowing domestic partners many of the same benefits as a married spouse.

This comes one week after Sen. Smith also introduced a bill to end the draconian ban on HIV-positive visitors to the U.S.  (A practice, by the way, that even China has recently ended.  This leaves America in the rare company of Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Libya as countries that discriminate against HIV-positive travelers and immigrants.)

Thank you, Senator Smith, for showing all of us what a compassionate conservative really is.

-posted by Scott Tucker

Posted: December 20th, 2007 under From the Right, In the News, Log Cabin In Focus.
Comments: none

Interesting article in USA Today looking at what the phrase “family values” means in today’s politics and in the 2008 presidential race.  According to the article, “family values” are taking a back seat to more pressing issues like the war, economy, and health care. 

The article also highlights Ronald Reagan’s courageous and very public stance against an initiative in California in the 1970s that sought to ban gay teachers.  Then-Governor Reagan’s public opposition to the measure helped prevent it from becoming law. 

You remember Reagan?  The one that supposedly didn’t like gays…

(The Briggs Initiative and the fight to defeat it, incidentally, played a critical role in the founding of the Log Cabin Republicans)

-posted by Scott Tucker

Posted: December 18th, 2007 under Elections, In the News, Log Cabin In Focus.
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Former Acting Governor Jane Swift, the Republican who bowed out of the race for Massachusetts governor to make way for Mitt Romney, wrote an op-ed in the New Hampshire Union Leader revealing why Romney is the wrong candidate for the GOP.  Swift, who was an early Romney supporter during his 1994 bid for the U.S. Senate, says that the former governor “has become unrecognizable to the citizens who voted him into office.”

In one sentence, she says it all: “American voters don’t trust chronic flip floppers.”  Read the article.

-posted by Scott Tucker

Posted: December 12th, 2007 under Elections, From the Right, In the News.
Comments: none

A fantastic op-ed in the Richmond Times Dispatch from Log Cabin-Virginia Vice President David Lampo.  In it, Lampo offers the Virginia (and national) GOP a way forward: Invite people IN to the GOP, don’t exclude them.  Makes sense, eh?  David’s op-ed is well worth the read.  Here are a few highlights:

“What are the lessons the Republicans should learn from the 2007 elections?  Certainly not the one that the Family Foundation is pushing in its e-mail blasts to its supporters that claim the losses were attributable to candidates who were not socially conservative enough…

“For Republicans to succeed, we must get back to focusing on real Republican ideals and values–such as limited government, individual responsibility, and fiscal discipline–and move away from campaigns that do nothing more than attack gays and immigrants…

“…if the Republican Party wishes to reverse its recent electoral misfortune, it will need to adopt a message and run campaigns that invite people into the party rather than exclude them from it.”

Amen to that.

-posted by Scott Tucker

Posted: December 7th, 2007 under Chapter News, Elections, From the Right, In the News, Log Cabin In Focus.
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Check out this article from today’s Washington Blade about a recent poll showing what gay, lesbian, and bisexual voters care about going into next year’s elections.  First, I was happy to offer some insights into a few of the poll numbers, which, frankly, don’t seem too believable.

The poll’s findings did not go unchallenged.  Scott Tucker, a spokesperson for Log Cabin Republicans, said past exit polls show that 25 percent of gays, lesbians and bisexuals vote Republican.

“To say that only 2.6 percent of lesbians have any Republican leanings is not really believable,” he said.  “So I would question some of those numbers.”

But the more striking thing in this article was a comment from Ken Sherrill, a Hunter College political science professor who helped to analyze the poll results:

“The country’s at war, the economy is in the toilet, the health care system is in crisis.  It’s not as if we’re dealing with a single issue.”

The economy is in the toilet?!?!  Really??  Last I checked, though the housing market is suffering and energy prices are on the rise, unemployment remains relatively low.  The economy is actually getting along fairly well given the circumstances.  I’m sorry, dear professor, but your objectivity is what appears to be in the toilet.  Liberal bias, much?

-posted by Scott Tucker 

Posted: December 7th, 2007 under Democrats, In the News, Log Cabin In Focus.
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A huge disappointment yesterday as Democratic leaders in Congress decided to drop a hate crimes provision from the Defense Authorization Bill.  Log Cabin Republicans have issued a strong statement holding the Democrats accountable.  Read an AP story here.

-posted by Scott Tucker

Posted: December 7th, 2007 under Democrats, In the News, Log Cabin In Focus.
Comments: none

Check out today’s Ellen DeGeneres Show.  Her guest is first daughter Jenna Bush.  During the interview, Ellen asks Jenna how easy it is for her to just pick up the phone and call her parents when she wants to.  Next thing you know, Ellen and Jenna are on the phone with President and Mrs. Bush.  Quite entertaining.  The video of the phone call is already up on Ellen’s website: http://ellen.warnerbros.com/

UPDATE: In case you can’t find it, here it is on YouTube.

-posted by Scott Tucker 

Posted: December 5th, 2007 under From the Right, In the News, On the Lighter Side.
Comments: none