Anti-Immigration Group Demands Sen. Graham Admit He Is Gay

[Emit]

From RightWingWatch~

Anti-Immigration Group Demands Sen. Graham Admit He Is Gay
Submitted by Kyle on April 20, 2010 - 11:02am

One of the strategies we didn't include in our Right Wing Watch In Focus, "(P)reviewing the Right-Wing Playbook on Immigration Reform," was "attempting to out a sitting Republican Senator" because, frankly, we could never have imagined it would come to this.

But here you have the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC attempting to do just, sending out this email demanding that Senator Lindsey Graham admit to being gay as part of its effort to stop him from supporting comprehensive immigration reform:

The national border security organization known as Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) is officially calling for US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to make his homosexual lifestyle public knowledge in the interest of political integrity and national security.

ALIPAC's President, William Gheen, addressed Graham's homosexuality in a speech before thousands of Tea Party supporters on Saturday, April 17, 2010, in Greenville South Carolina where Lindsey Graham has offices. A brief clip of Gheen's speech, which is out of proper context, has already gone viral on YouTube and been reported by Keith Olberman on MSNBC, Metro Weekly, The Guardian, and Metro Weekly without proper permissions or attributions.

"US Senator Lindsey Graham is gay and while many people in South Carolina and Washington DC know that, the general public and Graham's constituents do not," said William Gheen President of ALIPAC. "I personally do not care about Graham's private life, but in this situation his desire to keep this a secret may explain why he is doing a lot of political dirty work for others who have the power to reveal his secrets. Senator Graham needs to come out of the closet inside that log cabin so the public can rest assured he is not being manipulated with his secret."

~snip~

ALIPAC, one of America's largest groups fighting against illegal immigration and amnesty, is releasing this full version of William Gheen's speech containing the request for Senator Graham to confess his homosexuality to the public at this link...

~snip~

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/anti-immigration-group-demands-sen-graham-admit-he-gay

[marmar]

1. This country has become a satire of itself......

nt

[JI7]

2. he can't because of "Don't Ask Don't Tell"

[JI7]

3. are they saying being gay is not a choice ?

[derby378]

4. Assuming that it takes one to know one...

...I demand that Americans for Legal Immigration out themselves first.

And then I'll shrug my shoulders and continue on my merry way.

[unkachuck]

5. a man's....

....got to do what a man's got to do....confess, Lindsey, confess!

[gratuitous]

6. Suggested response for Sen. Graham to ALIPAC

"Get bent, assholes."

[Jefferson23]

7. Tea Party speaker gay-baits Lindsey Graham

Monday, Apr 19, 2010

Really, only a gay person (or maybe a Muslim) would be enough of a deviant to disagree with these folks, right? Video
By Gabriel Winant


Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has had an uneasy relationship with his party's purists for years. Even in his own home base of South Carolina, the right wing has long thought of Graham as a squish on an array of crucial issues, including campaign finance, immigration and environmental regulation.

There's also, however, always been a nastier undercurrent. For years, unsubstantiated but persistent rumors have swirled about the sexuality of the unmarried Graham. What's unsettling is how some on the right seem eager to connect one complaint about Graham to the other.

At a Tea Party rally in Greenville, S.C., last week, a speaker tried to figure out just what, exactly, is wrong with Graham. "Barney Frank has been more honest and brave than you. At least we know about Barney Frank, nobody’s going to hold it over his head."

He continued, "Look, I’m a tolerant person. I don’t care about your private life, Lindsey. But as our U.S. senator, I need to figure out why you’re trying to sell out your own countrymen, I need to make sure you being gay isn’t it." (Video is at bottom.)

What's interesting here is the thought obviously running through the speaker's head: that something about the personal features of a politician like Barney Frank or Lindsey Graham explains their otherwise disagreeable behavior. The argument isn't that Frank and, supposedly, Graham, are horrible liberal traitors, and gay to boot. It’s that they are, or might be, horrible liberal traitors because they're gay.


remainder: http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/04/19/tea_party_graham_gay

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

8. That's got to be the weirdest headline I've seen in quite some time. n/t

[Morning Dew]

9. Careful with those acronyms -

I bet they didn't intend for their PAC to sound like an offshoot of CAIR.

I'm still :rofl:

[pampango]

10. I hadn't seen "(P)reviewing the Right-Wing Playbook on Immigration Reform" before. It's great!

"In October 2008, the Anti-Defamation League criticized anti-immigrant groups for utilizing the strategies of hate groups and "resorting to hateful and dehumanizing stereotypes and outright bigotry to demonize immigrants." To the categories identified by the ADL we can now add demagoguery over the swine flu virus and exploitation of the nation's economic woes.

Here is a review of the rhetorical strategies used to inflame anti-immigrant sentiment and build political opposition to comprehensive immigration reform."

"Table of Contents

* Introduction
* The Fire Last Time-And the Arsonists-in-Waiting
* Strategy 1: Appeal to Racial Fear and the 'Brown' Threat to 'White' America
* Response to Strategy 1
* Strategy 2: Appeal to Racial Resentment by Portraying Immigrant Rights Advocates as Racists
* Response to Strategy 2
* Strategy 3: Portray Immigrants and Their Supporters as Invaders, Conquerors, Enemies of the U.S.
* Response to Strategy 3
* Strategy 4: Portray Immigrants as Criminals and Terrorists
* Response to Strategy 4
* Strategy 5: Portray Immigrants as Carriers of Disease and Weapons of Bio-Terrorism
* Response to Strategy 5
* Strategy 6: Stop Reform by Shouting 'Amnesty'
* Response to Strategy 6
* Strategy 7: Denigrate Reform Efforts as Vote-Buying
* Response to Strategy 7
* Strategy 8 : Portray Anti-Immigrant Stance as 'Pro-Worker' (While Voting Against Worker Interests)
* Response to Strategy 8
* Strategy 9: Push Divisive Black-Brown Wedge
* Response to Strategy 9
* GOP, Right Wing Gearing Up To Oppose Comprehensive Immigration Reform
* Decency in Debate"

I'll have to keep this list handy, so I can see which strategy is most popular with republicans when immigration reform comes up.