DownWithTyranny!: Republican Homophobia In Arizona? Jeff Flake Vs Matt Salmon

In 2004, when the GOP introduced a constitutional amendment to forever ban same-sex marriage, it failed to get the needed 2/3s majority in the House. 191 Republicans (+36 bigoted Democrats) voted for it. 158 Democrats and 27 Republicans voted against it. Three of the Republican closet cases-- David Dreier (R-CA), Mark Foley (R-FL) and Jim Kolbe (R-AZ)-- voted against it. Most of the hypocritical GOP closet cases, like Ed Schrock (R-VA), Denny Hastert (R-IL), Trent Franks (R-AZ), Dave Camp (R-MI), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Phil English (R-PA), and Jim McCrery (R-LA), voted for it. Rob Portman's son, Will, was still 7 years from coming out so, of course, Rob Portman voted for the anti-gay constitutional amendment. And then for DOMA. He's evolved now... after his son came out. But not all congressional parents of gay children have. Matt Salmon is a raging homophobe, an all-around bigoted hatemonger, a hero of the far, far right fringe of the House GOP. He has a gay son-- and he's still voting against equality for gay people. Listen to his son:

Salmon, a hate-filled anti-gay Mormon, is a freshman but his congressional homophobia goes way back to when he was in Congress between 1995 and 2001. He left Congress to run (unsuccessfully) for governor, losing to Democrat Janet Napolitano, who his vicious campaign accused of being a closeted lesbian. Aside from general right-wing claptrap, Salmon's first stint in Congress is best known for his unsuccessful attempt to get Ronald Reagan's face carved into Mount Rushmore. After losing to Napolitano he became a lobbyist for an Inside the Beltway telecommunications group. He was widely considered one of the sleaziest and most disreputable lobbyists in town, setting him up perfectly for another run at Congress after redistricting created a blood red seat in Mesa and the eastern Phoenix suburbs, AZ-05, which includes much of his old district and from which Jeff Flake was retiring to run, successfully, for Jon Kyl's open Senate seat.

Perhaps you watched Senator Flake on Meet the Press yesterday. Flake, also a Mormon gay-hater, has a very homophobic voting record but, unlike Salmon, he senses the winds of change that are blowing down the American highway. Oh, don't get me wrong, Flake is still pretty much a dedicated homophobic bigot-- if not as extreme as Salmon on the issues-- and has every intention of voting against marriage equality for as long as he's in Congress, but what he told Chuck Todd is that he realizes it's "inevitable" that the GOP will change to being less of the hatemonger party-- and perhaps soon.

Todd: Let me ask you on gay marriage. Could you support a Republican presidential candidate some day who supported same-sex marriage?

Flake: Oh, I think that’s inevitable. There will be one and he will receive bipartisan support-- or she will. So I think that yes, the answer is yes.

Todd: And where are you on this issue, you say it’s inevitable. Are you... Lisa Murkowski, a Republican colleague of yours called it evolving on the issue; are you evolving to use her words on this issue?

Flake: I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman I still hold to the traditional definition of marriage.

As you can see in the video above, Salmon likes his gay son-- but not enough to support equality for him. Interestingly, he broke with right-wing extremists who still insist God never created any gays and that it's a "lifestyle choice." In the interview, Salmon seems to endorse his son's assertion that he was "born this way." Which kind of undercuts the whole bigotry thing the Republican Party-- and Salmon-- are clinging to.

“I’m just not there in believing in my heart... It doesn’t mean I don’t have respect, it doesn’t mean I don’t sympathize with some of the issues, it means I haven’t evolved to that station, Rob Portman apparently has.”

Sounds like Salmon thinks "evolution" is a good thing and that it's just a matter of time. It also sounds like he's a political coward more eager to please the extremist neanderthals who back him than to support his own son and do what he appears to already knows is the right thing to do.