Republican Presidential Race Focuses On The Issue Their Base Obsesses Over: Homosexuality-- Will It Destroy Romney Or Bachmann... Or Both?

Not many people are paying attention to Santorum (except on Google's search engine), even though the former Pennsylvania senator and far right fanatic claims to be running for president... of the United States. He fancies himself in a battle royale with Michele Bachmann for the hatred and bigotry portion-- which seems to be the biggest portion-- of the Republican Party base. Both are more or less ceding the selfishness and greed portion of the base to former vulture capitalist Mitt Romney. The GOP Establishment-- the political hacks with the connections to the Big Business special interests that keep the loathsome party afloat-- know Romney is their only shot at beating Obama. And now they're worried because Bachmann is starting to catch up to him in polls. Her brand of hysterical Know Nothing stoopid passes for charisma in GOP precincts, especially in the backward, fear-and-hate-driven parts of Iowa where she's beating the striped pants off Romney. And now Romney, who has failed to sign the anti-gay pledge that Santorum and Bachmann enthusiastically embraced, faces a nightmare scenario inside GOP politics of being branded as the pro-gay candidate. It's happened to him before. And conservatives are absolutely obsessed with homosexuality.
I got this story from BoingBoing a few years ago. It's just as relevant today.

Wikipedia is "The Free Encyclopedia." What's on the mind of Wikipedia its readers? Here are the top ten most viewed pages on Wikipedia:

     1.     Main Page [30,090,900]
     2.     Wiki [904,800]
     3.     Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [413,400]
     4.     Naruto [401,400]
     5.     Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock [396,000]
     6.     United States [330,000]
     7.     Wikipedia [329,400]
     8.     Deaths in 2007 [321,300]
     9.     Heroes (TV series) [307,500]
     10.     Transformers (film) [303,600]

Conservapedia is "The Trustworthy Encyclopedia." What's on the mind of its readers. Here are the top ten most viewed pages on Conservapedia:

     1.     Main Page [1,906,729]
     2.     Homosexuality [1,572,713]
     3.     Homosexuality and Hepatitis [517,086]
     4.     Homosexuality and Promiscuity [420,687]
     5.     Gay Bowel Syndrome [389,052]
     6.     Homosexuality and Parasites [388,123]
     7.     Homosexuality and Domestic Violence [365,888]
     8.     Homosexuality and Gonorrhea [331,553]
     9.     Homosexuality and Mental Health [291,179]
     10.   Homosexuality and Syphilis [265,322

The GOP Establishment's hope that Santorum could derail Bachmann-- the candidate Obama would most like to run against, the one who would assure him the biggest landslide-- is falling flat... everywhere. Next up: Palin. It looks like they've persuaded her to jump in and drain votes away from Bachmann and ruin her candidacy so Romney can limp through the brutal GOP primaries and caucuses and give the GOP a relatively mainstreamish nominee. (Palin may be an idiot but even she can read polls and knows she isn't going to be president. If she jumps in, it's to destroy Bachmann, who she detests and is jealous of.)

Meanwhile, Bachmann is playing the gay card in Iowa relentlessly. And now the national media has started picking up on it. The L.A. Times, ABC-TV News and CNN were all over the angle this week. Last night Anderson Cooper just devastated her:

In her campaign for president, Michele Bachmann touts her background as a small business owner.

"A small business job creator," is how the Minnesota Congresswoman and Republican Presidential candidate described herself in her first campaign ad in Iowa.

That business is Bachmann and Associates. It's a Christian counseling service located outside Minneapolis. Bachmann started the center with her husband, Marcus who is the lead counselor at the clinic. The aspiring First couple and their children are pictured on the center's web site.

For at least five years, Bachmann and Associates has faced accusations it uses a controversial therapy that encourages gay and lesbian patients to change their sexual orientation.

Andrew Ramirez, a former patient at Bachmann and Associates, said in an interview with CNN he witnessed the practice first-hand. In 2004, Ramirez turned to the clinic at the urging of his mother who wanted him to talk about his homosexuality.

Just 17 at the time, Ramirez said he was immediately skeptical of what one of the clinic's counselors told him.

"It was therapy that would help me change from being homosexual to straight," Ramirez said. "If I did this and worked his therapy program, God would perform a miracle and I could no longer be gay," Ramirez added he was told.

Ramirez was assigned a therapy program consisting of prayer, reading Bible passages, and mentoring with an ex-lesbian minister. If none of that worked, Ramirez said the counselor had another suggestion.

"Not acting out on my same sex attractions and living a life of celibacy," Ramirez said.

After the second session, Ramirez told his mother, Beth Shellenbarger, he wanted to stop the therapy.
"And I could just hear his voice quiver and I just said, 'you know, Andy, if you're good with being gay then I am too,'" Shellenbarger said.

The American Psychological Association is sharply critical of efforts by counselors to change a patient's sexual orientation, what's known in the mental health community as "reparative therapy."

"There is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation," one APA report said.

Marcus Bachmann has suggested parents of gay teenagers can turn to religion for help.

In an interview last year with the "Point of View" talk radio program, Bachmann was asked how parents should deal with a teenager who thinks he or she is gay.

"I think you clearly say 'what is the understanding of God's word on homosexuality,'" Bachmann said.
"We have to understand barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined and just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn't mean we're supposed to go down that road," he continued.

In 2006, Bachmann denied his clinic engaged in reparative therapy to "City Pages," a Minneapolis newspaper. "That's a false statement," Bachmann said. "If someone is interested in talking to us about their homosexuality, we are open to talking about that. But if someone comes in a homosexual and they want to stay homosexual, I don't have a problem with that," he continued.

This week, a gay rights group called "Truth Wins Out" released to CNN a hidden camera video recorded by one of its activists who posed as a patient at Bachmann and Associates.

In the video reviewed by CNN, a counselor can be heard suggesting homosexuality can be treated at the center, to varying degrees of success.

"You can actually leave homosexuality completely and become heterosexual?" the undercover activist asked on the video. "Definitely," the counselor responded. "It's happened before. It really has," the counselor added.

But the counselor cautioned he is not an expert on the subject.

"I don't have a ton of experience with this. I mean, a little bit here and there," the counselor added.
Michele Bachmann has a long history of controversial views on homosexuality.

As a senator in the Minnesota legislature in 2004, Bachmann called for an amendment to the state constitution that would block gay marriages in other states from being recognized in Minnesota.

"If we allow this to happen, group marriage, polygamy, and much worse would not be far behind," Bachmann said in a video to her supporters.

In an appeal to socially conservative Iowa voters earlier this month, she signed a "Marriage Vow" pledge that also equated same sex couples with polygamists.

Both Bachmann and her husband declined to discuss the clinic's practices. A secretary at the clinic referred all questions to the Bachmann presidential campaign. A sign on the center's door says "no media."

A statement released by her presidential campaign said the Bachmanns were unable to comment on the clinic's practices out of respect for its patients.

"The Bachmann's are in no position ethically, legally, or morally to discuss specific courses of treatment concerning the clinic's patients," the statement said.

The issue has followed Bachmann onto the campaign trail. Asked about the clinic's practices at an event in Iowa Monday, Bachmann dodged the question.

"Well, I'm running for the presidency of the United States. And I'm here today to talk about job creation," Bachmann told WHO-TV. "We're very proud of the business that we've created," she added.

And the irony, one the media won't touch (other than Jon Stewart on the Daily Show last night), is that Marcus Bachmann himself is a notorious closet case, a leather queen. I wonder if he and Palin's first dude will ever debate.



Or maybe the gay issue won't be all that important in Romney's campaign. He has one of the worst records of any politician in America... and it's starting to get out. Massachusetts voters hate him and they're very familiar with this series of ads from Kennedy. Watch them all 'cause it's important to remember, as disappointing as Obama is... there's even worse: