Family Research Council Conference: An Occasionally-Updated Thread.

David Weigel | October 19, 2007

(A second thread here.)

My pet theory, unattached to any evidence, is that James Dobson et al started rumbling about ditching the GOP to stoke excitement for the Family Reseach Council (FRCAction) Washington Briefing. It worked! All of your favorite journos are here, even the ones who could afford to send their stringers. Everyone is chatting up doe-eyed religious conservatives about... mostly Rudy, actually. There's no better sign of how Rudy Giuliani is dominating this race than the mass angina affecting this conference. Very, very of these social cons could stomach a Rudy candidacy, although the ones I talk to haven't thought about a third party candidate. (Many claim they're just now paying attention.)

In the fully-stocked but not busy exhibit hall I chatted with Dale O'Leary, an organizer with Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays. She says that the media does a poor job of covering the ex-gay movement. "They'll have a traditional family character and they'll reveal, you know, that they're a hypocrite or a murderer or someone with a dark secret. Look around here," she said, craning her neck toward a booth for Samaritan Ministries. ("Does your health care support the darkness?") "These are nice people! None of them are murderers or anything." I suggested that the Larry Craig scandal, and other scandals like that, make it easy for creators or reporters to portray the ex-gay (or straight-up anti-gay) movement as hypocritical. "There is a very good reason to believe that Larry Craig is not a homosexual," she said. "Read the research or read The Tearoom Trade."

There's more in my notebook but I have to set up to see Ron Paul.

UPDATE 2:12: Duncan Hunter stubbornly refuses to change his stump speech whether he's talking to the VFW or a group of Iowan pig farmers or a group of rights-for-fetuses social cons. I walk into his stentorian spiel and he's talking about "making China play fair!" He goes a Steinbeckian ramble about the burial places of various soldiers with useless geographic details ("200 miles from there is the grave of Roy Benevides... 1500 miles from there is the grave of...")

His first big applause line is "we are crushing al Qaeda in Anbar province!" His second applause line is... more interesting. Swerving to the Middle East, Hunter praises Israel. "That little country, that little postage stamp called Israel, they have stood tall... they should not give back an inch of their land!" Huge, whooping applause. In the front rows at least three people get up and start waving Israeli flags.

2:18: "If a judicial candidate can not look at a sonogram and see a valuable human life, I will not appoint that candidate to the federal bench!" More applause, more standing up and "YEEEAH!"ing.

2:20: If Rudy Giuliani is the "president of 9/11," Hunter is the president of loping marines anecdotes.

UPDATE: After a reporting trip outside I've put up a second post.

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|10.19.07 @ 2:03PM|#

I'm a bit confused. The "Tearoom Trade" was, in a nutshell, about men who essentially identified themselves as heterosexuals or lived as heterosexuals but met up with other men for homosexual encounters.

Is her argument that you aren't gay if you have sex with men but maintain your claims/lifestyle of heterosexuality?

|10.19.07 @ 2:08PM|#

yes - their problem is with the "gay lifestyle" and the "gay lobby" i.e. people who aren't ashamed of what they like to do in private.

|10.19.07 @ 2:12PM|#

|10.19.07 @ 2:16PM|#

"Look around here," she said, craning her neck toward a booth for Samaritan Ministries. ("Does your health care support the darkness?") "These are nice people! None of them are murderers or anything." Ah, yes, because the fact that they look like nice people (and aren't murderers "or anything") means that they are competent, qualified, and telling the truth about what they can accomplish.

dhex|10.19.07 @ 2:23PM|#

it must be pretty neat to be that high all the time.

|10.19.07 @ 2:28PM|#

That little country, that little postage stamp called Israel, they have stood tall... they should not give back an inch of their land!"

Oh please! This isn't 1948. Poor little country, they only have most modern, best equipped, best trained military between Europe and China!

|10.19.07 @ 2:30PM|#

Holy fucking shit. I swear! If RON PAUL isn't elected President of the United States, I won't be able to stand living in this country any more. If RON PAUL isn't elected I vow to move to... to... to... AWW God Damn It.
*kicks brick, stubs toe
Son of a bitch!
Screw you guys, I'm going home

|10.19.07 @ 2:31PM|#

I really hope Ron Paul doesn't talk about the fictional "North American Union".

|10.19.07 @ 2:35PM|#

Cesar, the North American Union isn't very fictional. Considering that the former Mexican President confirmed it and a PDF on the plans/goals for a NAU is on the Council of Foreign Relations website.

And it's better to talk about something possibly happening than not happening if it concerns this nation. Well, unless it's misleading information that leads us to wars.

Plus, I think he'll talk more about his faith at this event :).

|10.19.07 @ 2:38PM|#

I can stop paying attention to the republican primaries now. Duncan Hunter's got the Joos support and we know they really control everything. Wake me for the general election between Hunter and Kucinich.

Cesar, the North American Union isn't very fictional. Considering that the former Mexican President confirmed it and a PDF on the plans/goals for a NAU is on the Council of Foreign Relations website.

Ok Brandt, for the sake of argument I'll say it exists (thought it really doesn't, and never will).

Explain to me what Canada and
Mexico would have to gain? Not much. The Union would be dominated demographically, economically, and culturally by the giant in the middle. It'd be like the "x-istan" countries of central Asia begging to be in a Union with Russia again. It makes no sense for them.

It would be complete electoral suicide for any Canadian, and especially an Mexican politician to advocate for such an organization.

|10.19.07 @ 2:50PM|#

2:20: If Rudy Giuliani is the "president of 9/11," Hunter is the president of loping marines anecdotes.

Marines do not 'lope'. They advance with confidence.

|10.19.07 @ 2:53PM|#

I freely confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Savior, and that I seek His guidance in all that I do. I know, as you do, that our freedoms come not from man, but from God. My record of public service reflects my reverence for the Natural Rights with which we have been endowed by a loving Creator. - Dr. Ron Paul

If he plays to the audience (rather than panders to them like Hillary did with the heavily accented "I don't feel no ways tired"), he'll just lay it out there that he is the man who aligns correctly with all the talking points, and is the man who has led his life as an example of what it is to be a good Christian.

|10.19.07 @ 2:56PM|#

It's Brent, Cesar.

I didn't say it exist yet, I said it is possibly being planned, like the EU was hush hush till creation. There are many things that lead me to believe this, and even if it didn't exist we need to protect our borders better. Ask some of the truckers what they think about the recent changes on the border.

|10.19.07 @ 2:57PM|#

Give us the paul update please!!! Thanks

|10.19.07 @ 2:59PM|#

Yeah - not sure about the N.A. Union stuff... I just read the pdf mentioned above...

Anyway, I just wanted to mention... aren't we 'supposed' to be a union of member states already (you know, under that 'constituion' thing)?

And Israel... bleh! Why don't they just petition the u.s. as the 51st state? Then I wouldn't mind defending them...

bill

|10.19.07 @ 3:01PM|#

I didn't say it exist yet, I said it is possibly being planned, like the EU was hush hush till creation. There are many things that lead me to believe this, and even if it didn't exist we need to protect our borders better. Ask some of the truckers what they think about the recent changes on the border.

Sorry for the misspelling.

I have a hard time believing the EU was secret until its creation. There was the Coal and Steel Community, then Benelux, then Benelux+France, then the European Community, then the European Union. I think it was all quite open.

Anyway, the European Union makes more sense because its compromised of four or five medium sized countries and a lot of small ones. No one single nation can dominate it.

Canada and Mexico would be screwed in an NAU deal the same way non-Russian Republics got screwed in the USSR, and the way non-Serb Republicans got screwed in Yugoslavia. Theres no way they would go for it voluntarily.

|10.19.07 @ 3:02PM|#

Yeah, what Warren said at 2:30.

*nods sadly*

|10.19.07 @ 3:03PM|#

"yes - their problem is with the "gay lifestyle" and the "gay lobby" i.e. people who aren't ashamed of what they like to do in private."

Pesonally, I have no problem with the gay lifestyle, with the exception of the rule that demands gay men such as Weigel spend all day obsessing about religious folks and Republicans. It's so damn adolescent.

Seitz|10.19.07 @ 3:04PM|#

"Look around here," she said, craning her neck toward a booth for Samaritan Ministries. ("Does your health care support the darkness?") "These are nice people! None of them are murderers or anything."

Shorter Wingnut: Look! No darkies!

"There is a very good reason to believe that Larry Craig is not a homosexual,"

Of course, it gets a lot easier to believe that if you just ignore that he pled guilty to propositioning a dude for sex in an airport bathroom.

Syloson of Samos|10.19.07 @ 3:10PM|#

Brent,

...like the EU was hush hush till creation.

It was? If I recall correctly the negotiations over the evolution and creation of the EU went on for decades and were quite public in nature.

ed|10.19.07 @ 3:11PM|#

our freedoms come not from man, but from God. My record of public service reflects my reverence for the Natural Rights with which we have been endowed by a loving Creator

Nice how he steps in shit then gets out of it and cleans up his shoes then steps right back into it.

|10.19.07 @ 3:13PM|#

Actually - I think a N.A. Union would hurt the U.S....

Take a rich guy (U.S.), Middle Class Guy (Canada), and a Poor Guy (Mexico) and form a company...

Who has the most to lose, gain, give, etc.?

bill

|10.19.07 @ 3:15PM|#

Take a country with 300 million+ people (USA), 107 million--including those who live in foreign countries--(Mexico), and a nation of 32 million people and whose going to control the Union?

VM|10.19.07 @ 3:17PM|#

"like the EU was hush hush till creation"

um. head on back to 1956 and the timelines from Rome to Maastricht.
(including the SEA vote in 1986. and the post Maastricht treaties, including Nice)

um.....

|10.19.07 @ 3:17PM|#

"Take a country with 300 million+ people (USA), 107 million--including those who live in foreign countries--(Mexico), and a nation of 32 million people and whose going to control the Union?"

The Clintons?

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|10.19.07 @ 3:25PM|#

Worst. Update. Thread. Ever.

|10.19.07 @ 4:11PM|#

2:18: "If a judicial candidate can not look at a sonogram and see a valuable human life, I will not appoint that candidate to the federal bench!" More applause, more standing up and "YEEEAH!"ing.

Do you still care about that "valuable human life" after it's born? If so, would you vote to override the SCHIP veto? Or is life only valuable from conception until birth?

|10.19.07 @ 4:26PM|#

"In the fully-stocked but not busy exhibit hall..."

Ah, I see. Dave's passed out after a few drinks. Well, update us when the buzz wears off.

|10.19.07 @ 4:37PM|#

As someone who worked most of a decade in the ultrasound industry, I still am able to see only vague blobby shapes in fetal sonograms. The new 3D images, however, are amazing. It is clear that you are looking at a human being.

|10.19.07 @ 4:38PM|#

Ah, I see. Dave's passed out after a few drinks. Well, update us when the buzz wears off.

Ha, If I had to attend an event full of religious statists I'd need a nice flask full of bourbon to survive.

|10.19.07 @ 4:40PM|#

I like how Dave throws Ron Paul into the post. triples (at least) the readership.

|10.19.07 @ 4:49PM|#

Ha, If I had to attend an event full of religious statists I'd need a nice flask full of bourbon to survive.

Bourbon? Hah! I'm thinking opiates. Lots and lots of opiates.

|10.19.07 @ 4:52PM|#

What's a gagortion?

Bourbon? Hah! I'm thinking opiates. Lots and lots of opiates.

I'd save the vicodin for the day after.

Paul|10.19.07 @ 6:14PM|#

"There is a very good reason to believe that Larry Craig is not a homosexual," she said. "Read the research or read The Tearoom Trade."

Rule #1 about any discussion: When someone responds to your point with "read this book and get back to me", they got nothing. Zip. Goose egg. What they hope is that you'll go away, spend a week reading some dumb-assed book and by that time, you'll forget the whole thing.

GILMORE|10.19.07 @ 6:51PM|#

There is a very good reason to believe that Larry Craig is not a homosexual," she said. "Read the research or read The Tearoom Trade.

Or, what she means is, "good christian heteros can suck dick in restrooms and still not be *gay*... which is Evil!"

That IS probably what she means. Urg. The head starts to hurt

Slippery arguments to say the least. our cocksuckers aint no fags! Like them liberal fags who want to make it Normal, instead of *sinuality*

Speaking of Sinuality, watch this priceless Mr Show sketch =

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFo8NGO4nTA

I'll see you all at the Dallas Joyathon

|10.20.07 @ 8:05AM|#

http://|10.20.07 @ 8:13AM|#

|10.20.07 @ 9:14AM|#

|10.20.07 @ 1:11PM|#

Who are you trying to kid? Countless people recognize Congressman Ron Paul and would be honored to speak with him.

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