2014-- Can You Imagine A Serious Candidate Standing Up At A Debate Opposing ENDA

[The video above is Tony Strickland speaking at College of the Canyons in Los Angeles County, after being questioned by Lee Rogers for living outside of the district in Ventura Country and running for the primarily Ventura County district even 4 months ago, forgets which district he's running in.]

Tuesday night the College of the Canyons in Valencia hosted a debate for the CA-25 primary congressional candidates running to replace Buck McKeon, not just frontrunner Lee Rogers (D) and his two main GOP opponents, right-wing extremists Steve Knight from Palmdale and Tony Strickland, a carpetbagger from Sacramento, Thousand Oaks and Moorpark, but for all 8 candidates including independents and vanity candidates. Not long after Strickland made himself a laughing stock again by messing up in trying to remember which district he's running in this year, an audience member asked all 8 candidates for a show of hands of those who would support ENDA. Only Lee Rogers and one of the minor candidates raised their hands; one of the other candidates asked, "What is ENDA?"

The questioner explained that it's an acronym for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and that it would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by employers with at least 15 employees. (For anyone not following this, last November Jeff Merkley's bill, S.813 passed the Senate, 64-32, a healthy bipartisan vote-- after beating back a GOP filibuster-- only to get killed by Boehner and Cantor in the House who had John Kline and Bob Goodlatte bury it in their committees.) After the brief explanation, everyone raised their hands except one person: notorious bigot and gay hater Tony Strickland.

Left to right: Singh, Thomas, Strickland, Rogers, Mussack, Knight , Castagna, Bruce. The one asshole with his hands on his pecker is Ventura Co. bigot Tony Strickland

Now the odd thing is that Steve Knight did raise his hand. Knight's voting record in the state legislature is vehemently nti-gay and he voted against every piece of legislation promoting equality that has ever come before him. For example, last May he was one of only 9 senators to vote against a bipartisan bill that prohibits tax-exempt status for organizations that discriminate against the LGBT community and he also one one of only seven right-wing sociopaths who opposed an anti-bullying bill that passed the Senate with huge bipartisan support. But, apparently, even Knight is evolving. Steeped in vile hatred and small-minded divisiveness, Strickland is still proud of his primitive social vision.

"Anyone," Lee Rogers told us after the debate, "who thinks it's okay to fire an employee because they are gay, certainly is not fit to serve in the U.S. Congress. That's extreme even for California Republicans, but I'd expect nothing less from someone endorsed by the Koch brothers and Mitt Romney."

Of course, the debate was only about equality. It covered a wide range of topics. Rogers made it clear that he's "a doctor. I’m not a partisan. If you come into my office or my operating room or even in my Congressional office if I were elected, I’m not going to ask if you’re a Democrat or a Republican. I’m going to say ‘what’s the problem, and here’s what we can do to fix it’. There are a lot of things that can help the middle class stay strong. One of them is making sure people have affordable health care. Another one is making sure the person (elected) is going to vote for a minimum wage increase. Seventy-five percent of the country-- a majority of the people in our district, even a majority of Republicans-- want to see a minimum wage increase. And these are policies that are going to help the middle class and help Santa Clarita.”

When endorsing him this week, Congresswoman Barbara Lee emphasized his ability to get things done in the real world. "Lee is a friend of the environment," she told the media. "In his home district, he has fought to stop the CEMEX mine, a project that will pump harmful debris and gas into the air just yards away from where children go to school… He's a doctor, and so he sees in his day-to-day life how important it is to ensure that all of our citizens have access to quality medical services-- and how bad things can get when people don't have coverage. In Congress, he will stand against those who have voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and he will stand with those who want to make the ACA better."