HOMOPHOBIA WILL SAVE BLUE AMERICA DONORS SOME MONEY THIS YEAR: 40 DEMOCRATS REUNITE WITH VIRGIL GOODE TO BURY THE HATCHET-- IN THE BACKS OF GAY PEOPLE

One's a real American and one is a KKK terrorist. Wanna guess?

Yesterday we wondered whether the one-man Executive Department and his mouthy wife would stand by silently while their new grandson, David Samuel Cheney, was legislated into second-class citizenship. Today a super-reactionary, hysterically homophobic, ex-Democrat Virgil Goode introduced a blatantly anti-gay amendment to the DC Appropriations Bill so that Bush could pacify his-- and Goode's-- most extremist, hate-filled base.

I wasn't that worried because the Democrats certainly had the votes to stop it. I mean, sure there are the rabid gay-haters in the Democratic caucus, who always vote to penalize gay men and women-- vicious hate-mongering jerks like Jim Marshall (GA), John Barrow (GA), David Scott (GA), Gene Taylor (MS), Colin Peterson (MN), Dan Boren (OK), Chris Carney (PA), Dan Lipinski (IL), John Salazar (CO)... you know the Democratic Gay Hater Caucus, member's whose existence in Congress endangers gay people's lives and families. But with a dozen Republicans abandoning their bigoted leaders-- though not GOP closet queens like Patrick McHenry, David Dreier and Jim McCrery-- I figured Speaker Pelosi would have this well in hand.

But then something very strange happened. The Democratic leadership either was asleep at the wheel or just didn't give a crap as 40 Democrats showed their true gay-bashing colors. It passed by 6 votes. I hope gays in West Palm Beach, Florida get the message that their new quasi-Democratic congressman, Tim Mahoney (a vile homophobe) just voted to make Washington DC gays second class citizens. And the other reactionary that Rahm Emanuel talked into calling himself a Democrat and then running for Congress-- Heath Shuler (NC)-- also voted with the Republicans. So did Zach Space (OH); we could have kept Bob Ney and had the same result. Other freshmen voting the bigotry line: Boyda (KS), Ellsworth (IN), Donnelly (IN), Lampson (TX), and, of course, Carney (PA).

Let me go back to something I said yesterday about never donating to the DCCC, who will funnel your contributions to gay haters like Chris Carney, John Barrow and Jim Marshall (all of whom are on the skids because progressives are unenthusiastic about their Republican-lite votes, not just on this but on all important issues). Donate to progressives directly and thru trustworthy progressive groups like Blue America. Make sure your money goes to Democrats with Democratic values, not to Democrats with reactionary Republican values.

The whole list of Democratic traitors is up at AMERICAblog.