Remember when the Human Rights Campaign used to portray itself as nonpartisan? Now, following on the heels of the group's decision to oppose the re-election of incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), one of the GOP's most consistently gay-supportive members, HRC has garnered attention for its high and unstinting praise of New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey. Unethical he may be, but he's a gay Democrat, and they're not admitting to any concerns.
And then there's the presidential race, in which HRC's involvement included a "Fahrenheit 9/11 Audience Outreach Campaign." And, at its Dupont Circle storefront in the nation's capital, HRC's placards, stickers and shirts proclaim "George W. Bush: You're Fired!" rather than much about gay issues. Moreover, HRC has hired billboard trucks to troll around New York City during the GOP convention, again promoting the same, now cliche "You're Fired" message.
HRC may bill itself as "the nation's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender political organization," but it's getting harder to see any difference between the group, which in the past has made unequivocal support for abortions without restrictions and for race-based preferences into candidate "scorecard" items, and other liberal-left Democratic Party affiliates such as Moveon.org.
As noted earlier, EMILY's List may have
no compunction about supporting an anti-gay rights but
pro-abortion rights Senate candidate, but HRC is determined to make
itself the leader of a grand coalition of the left, even as its
mission of bipartisan gay advocacy gets lost along the
way.