Politiks As Usual: In The News 6/29/14

Supreme Court Narrows Obama’s Recess-Appointment Power

Same Sex Marriage: Big Government Power Grab

Appeals Court Orders Atheists to Justify Lawsuit Against 9/11 Cross

Reince Priebus: People Tired of the Clintons' Show

Give It Back! Students Ask Selfish Hillary to Return $225K Speaking Fee

Al Gore Denounced in Australian Press as Money Hungry 'Ferengi' for Suspicious Mining Magnate Alliance

Pastors Rise Up To Challenge Same-sex Bathrooms

MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry: GOP Wants To 'Humble' 'Uppity' Obama

Soros Offered Ex-Girlfriend $6.9 Million Settlement

Egos And Infighting: The GOP’s Biggest Opponent In November

Hillary Clinton's Gay-Marriage Problem

TheAtlantic.com:

Hillary Clinton didn't refrain from supporting same-sex marriage for political reasons—before last year, she earnestly believed that marriage equality should be denied to gays and lesbians. That's the story the 66-year-old Democrat settled on when NPR host Terry Gross pressed her on her views. The admission is easily the most significant in the interview with the former senator, secretary of State, and presidential candidate, though much of the subsequent media attention has focused on the perception that there was a "heated exchange" where Clinton "lashed out" at her interviewer.* The mild tension stemmed from persistent questioning as Clinton obfuscated on an issue that could damage her chances in a 2016 primary but is relatively unlikely to hurt her in a contest against a Republican, given that her coalition is so much stronger on gay rights than the opposition. 

In a primary, Clinton could be forced to explain a longtime position that a significant part of that Democratic political coalition now views as suspect or even bigoted. Most famously, the Silicon Valley left forced the ouster of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich for a 2008 donation he made to an anti-gay-marriage ballot initiative. That same year, Clinton ran for president while openly opposing gay marriage. If she is to be believed, she also opposed gay marriage as recently as 2013, long after a majority of Americans already held a more gay-friendly position. Would the subset of Democrats who thought 2008 opposition to gay marriage should prevent a man from becoming CEO in 2013 really support the 2015 presidential campaign of a woman who openly opposed gay marriage until last year?

Doing so would seem to show inconsistency, yet there's a strong argument to be made that Clinton's anti-gay-marriage past shouldn't drive decisions to support or oppose her. No one doubts she will be a strong supporter of gay equality if elected president, now that all the political incentives to take that position are aligned. She has advanced gay rights other than marriage at times in her long career. And she has never come across in speeches or interviews as an anti-gay bigot. There is, however, a vocal segment of the left that is invested in likening people who opposed gay marriage to racists who opposed interracial marriage. There is also resentment from gays who feel that the Clintons wronged them in the past.

Andrew Sullivan's perspective is instructive:
She was the second most powerful person in an administration in a critical era for gay rights. And in that era, her husband signed the HIV travel ban into law (it remained on the books for 22 years thereafter), making it the only medical condition ever legislated as a bar to even a tourist entering the US. Clinton also left gay service-members in the lurch, doubling the rate of their discharges from the military, and signed DOMA, the high watermark of anti-gay legislation in American history. Where and when it counted, the Clintons gave critical credibility to the religious right’s jihad against us. And on the day we testified against DOMA in 1996, their Justice Department argued that there were no constitutional problems with DOMA at all (the Supreme Court eventually disagreed).

What I’d like to hear her answer is whether she regrets that period and whether she will ever take responsibility for it. But she got pissed when merely asked how calculated her position on this was. Here’s my guess: Unlike Obama, she was personally deeply uncomfortable with this for a long time and politically believed the issue was a Republican wedge issue to torment the Clintons rather than a core civil rights cause. I was editor of TNR for five years of the Clintons, aggressively writing and publishing articles in favor of marriage equality and military service, and saw the Clintons’ irritation with and hostility to gay activists up close. Under my editorship, we were a very early 1991 backer of Clinton – so I sure didn’t start out prejudiced against them. They taught me that skepticism all by themselves, and mainly by lying all the time.

RELATED:  Hillary Clinton Snaps at NPR Host for Questions About Gay Marriage Evolution

Mitt Romney Bashes Hillary Clinton, Calls Foreign Policy A 'Monumental Bust'

Mediaite.com:

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney harped on Hillary Clinton on Friday, further criticizing the foreign policy she and the Obama administration pursued during her time as secretary of state.

"The Obama-Biden-Hillary Clinton foreign policy is a monumental bust," Romney told about 300 of his top donors, according to The Washington Post's Philip Rucker.

The donors were gathered, along with potential presidential candidates, at Romney's "ideas summit" in Park City, Utah.

Romney took a number of punches at Clinton during his speech on foreign policy and domestic issues, saying the United States is worse off after her tenure as secretary of state leading the U.S. diplomatic corps.

"Secretary Clinton actually presented Russia's foreign minister with a large plastic button labeled reset," he said, according to Rucker. Romney added that she was "gushing with smiles" as she did so.

On Thursday, Romney told Fox News, "There’s almost not a place in the world that’s better off because of her leadership in the State Department."

Romney also responded to Clinton's remarks in regard to the exchange of five Taliban detainees for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's release.

In an interview on NBC News this week, Clinton said, "These five guys are not a threat to the United States. They are a threat to the safety and security of Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Romney told Fox News, "Well, that may be one of the most clueless responses I have heard in a long time because of course you don’t throw our allies under the bus."

RELATED:  Limbaugh: Clinton Remark on Gitmo Shows She’s ‘Neither Smart Nor Competent’

Politiks As Usual: In The News 5/18/14

Romney Calls for NH Police Commissioner to Apologize, Resign for Obama Slur

Taser Death Could Get Supreme Court Review

Christians Sin by Putting Kids in Public School

The Pill Kills Families

Catholic Cardinal: Obamacare Regulation ‘Violates God’s Law’

Karl Rove Is Right About Hillary's Health

Suspend Your Reality For Godzilla: It’s An Anti-Global-Warming Alarmism Smash

Sports Illustrated's McCann Lumps Pro-Traditional Marriage Supporters With Actual Criminals
 
10,000 Young Toddlers Are on Stimulant Drugs for ADHD
 
GOP Iraq War Vet Blasts ‘Democratic Hacks’ Who Called Him a ‘Coward’

The God of Liberalism

Kristol on NYT: Liberals Worried About ‘Persecution’ of Someone Making $750K

Poll: 67 Percent Support Creation of Benghazi Special Committee

Townhall.com:

The White House derides continued questions about the Benghazi attacks "conspiracy theories" driven by "delusional" partisans. Harry Reid calls the new commission chaired by Rep. Trey Gowdy a distraction cooked up to protect the Koch Brothers' interests. Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) has compared the coming proceedings to a lynching. NBC journalist Chuck Todd sniffs that "all" relevant questions have already been answered. The American people have a decidedly different perspective, according to a new Fox News poll: 

Fully two-thirds of the public endorses the propriety and necessity of forming this select committee, which all but seven House Democrats opposed. Fewer than 30 percent have embraced the official White House line on the matter -- and by a 16-point margin, Americans say the Obama administration's general goal has been to deceive, rather than elucidate the truth, regarding Benghazi. Now, it's not as if voters view Republicans as crusading champions for truth in this scenario. Asked whether the GOP was pursuing the select committee to get to the bottom of what happened or to score political points, respondents broke for the latter option by more than a 2-to-1 margin. They nevertheless overwhelmingly back the probe. More numbers lay bare the depth of the public's cynicism over this entire episode: A majority (51/39) believes Obama's team "knowingly lied" about the cause of the attack to boost the president's re-election bid, and a similarly-sized majority (50/40) says Hillary Clinton has been deceitful about the raid.

Seventy-two percent of respondents believe the Obama administration bears at least some responsibility for what happened, with another super-majority (68/27) blaming the administration for the fact that nobody has been brought to justice for the assassinations. Democrats have been agonizing over whether to boycott the panel, or to assign members to it. I've warned that a boycott wouldn't just been a dereliction on principle -- it would be a political liability, too. This poll reaffirms that public opinion does not align with the Left's instincts to walk away from Benghazi. Not by a long shot.

RELATED:  Bridgegate or Benghazi: Can You Spot the Spin?

Arianna Huffington Says Monica Lewinsky Should've Been 'Happy' Bill Clinton Allowed Her To Give Him A Blow Job

Remember, according to the Godless Left it's Republicans who are engaging in the "war on women":

Liberal comedian Bill Maher has some remorse for one of his former punchlines—Monica Lewinsky—after reading her essay in Vanity Fair.

“I was moved by it. I gotta tell you, I literally felt guilty,” Maher said Friday on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

Maher said he was moved after reading what Lewinsky described in the pages of the magazine as a time in which she was suicidal.

“I remember doing a million Monica Lewinsky blow job jokes, and I kinda feel bad,” the late-night host said.

Maher said he understands why Lewinsky is coming out now after ten years of silence.

“She says it out there, which is basically, ‘I’ve spent 20 years in infamous person prison, because what? I had an affair in my early 20s,’” Maher said, who noted other girls have an “experimental phase” with club bouncers or fraternity brothers.

“People have worse problems, but I am sympathetic to her,” he said.

Not as sympathetic to the scandal was Arianna Huffington, a guest on Maher’s show who said it is “not a question sex, but of judgment.”

Huffington said she knows 20 women in Washington who “would’ve been happy to give Bill Clinton a blow job.”

“And would’ve kept their mouth shut afterwards…So why pick a 22-year-old intern?” Huffington said

RELATED: Regrets and insights: 6 major takeaways from Monica Lewinsky's Vanity Fair essay