Mike McWherter Was Against Gay Adoption Before He Was Okay With It (Or Not)
Posted on November 11, 2009 at 10:24 amSean Braisted reports from this morning’s progressive kitchen cabinet meeting that, according to the Mike McWherter for Governor campaign, blogger Joe Lance didn’t hear what he thought he heard back in October. Mike McWherter is not against gay adoption and never has been:
Now, Joe Lance is an extremely straightforward blogger who tries to maintain neutrality, and wasn’t looking to make news with this statement. So, I’m going to go ahead and assume his version and initial posting was the most accurate interpretation of what Mike McWherter was saying.
But, hey, yesterday was yesterday and today is today. So, going forward, Mike McWherter’s position on gay marriage (verified by the campaign) is that he thinks the traditional family is best, but he couldn’t imagine a piece of legislation hitting his desk that would accurately protect it when it comes to adoption.
I’m gonna have to echo Braisted here in saying that Joe Lance is probably one of the most trusted political bloggers in the state.
He is fiercely independent. He bears allegiance to no party or ideology I can discern and is scrupulous and conscientious to a fault. I have a hard time believing he would have misinterpreted a conversation with a political candidate especially considering the potential sensitivity of the issue.
Absent a recording and/or direct quotes to stand by, however, the campaign gets the benefit of the doubt.
Additionally, I have an equally hard time believing that an experienced political hand such as Mike Kopp would simply spout off on an issue like this on behalf of his candidate without checking with him. But again, absent a recording, the campaign gets the benefit of of the doubt — at least on the record.
I suppose we will never know the full truth of the matter but, if you asked me to speculate, I would say it looks like McWherter just implicitly besmirched a blogger’s reputation and threw a respected spokesman under the bus because the candidate didn’t have his proverbial sh** together.
SEE ALSO: Bruce Barry
Comments
17 Responses to “Mike McWherter Was Against Gay Adoption Before He Was Okay With It (Or Not)”
Flipity flop.
I would hope that in the democratic primary, mcwherter’s opponents would stress their support of “gay” adoption in campaign advertisements prominently and often. thus, when the primary turns into the general, it will be fresh in the voters mind that the priority of the Democratic candidate matches that of the progressive Kitchen Cabinet in terms of strong support for “gay” rights. and, i would hope all of the legislative candidates in Tennessee can ride the coattails of their gubernatorial leader as being strongly in support of “gay” rights.
WTF?
So this guy manages to say nothing of substance and piss off everyone?
Quite a coup . . .
NOT!
I would hope that some day, frankj comes to a full understanding of the meaning of “rights.”
“I would hope that some day, frankj comes to a full understanding of the meaning of “rights.”
That is why I am hoping that the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, sans apparently McWherter, work hard to educate me and the rest of the state how strongly they prioritize “gay” “rights” so that the issue is fresh on the minds of voters such that they automatically think of homosexuals when they think of “rights”.
My comments (at my blog) are forthcoming. Please bear with me: server issues and looming Panera timeout. In a nutshell, I don’t believe I misinterpreted the response, but if I did, I am sincerely sorry and will work to correct the record.
frankj, take a moment to educate me on what you have against gay people?
If Joe Lance did in fact misinterpret the response, the campaign has certainly have had plenty of time and opportunities to correct the record, but has not done so. Sounds more like McWherter was put on the spot.
How confusing. Does he support gay adoption or not?
I’m not looking to cut McWherter any slack — I didn’t know he was still in the race — but people can have what appear to be ambiguous and confusing ideas and positions on the adoption issue.
Generally I’m in favor of gay equality. Still, I’m leery of allowing adoption by single males, gay or straight, and by gay male couples, unless the child is the biological or already adopted child of the male’s gay partner. This is just to err on the side of caution, as most sexual abuse of children is committed by males, and most of that, of course, is committed by heterosexual males.
Many good males would lose out if I had my way, but with the defenseless, we have to err on the side of caution.
I support adoption by gay females, single or partnered, and by unmarried heterosexual couples.
I feel bad about taking the position against the males, because it seems I’m indicting gay males, but again, I feel the same about adoption by heterosexual males without a female in the picture.
It’s not where you start out but where you wind up that counts.
“frankj, take a moment to educate me on what you have against gay people?”
Nothing more or less than I have against molesters, polygamists or other deviants.
Dru, but the road you take could indicate how your decisions and positions are formulated.
So, it appears either:
a) Mike McWherter hung Mike Kopp out to dry today.
b) Mike Kopp hung Mike McWherter out to dry last month.
c) Someone’s all wet.
frankj, if that’s the view of gay people that you assume and hope the majority of Tennesseans share, that’s good to know. How did you come by your attitude? Educate me.
So let me get this right. The good news is that McWherter isn’t as hard core against gays as previously thought. The bad news is he has a campaign team that takes about a month to correct media errors?
It would be nice if we actually had real Democratic party candidates instead of Republican Lite people.
We need a party that supports liberty, justice and equal rights for ALL.