By Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in MediaThursday, January 4, 2007
The conventional wisdom is that George Allen lost his Senate race to Jim Webb because the media focused on some of his embarrassing gaffes, such as calling a Jim Webb campaign operative a "Macaca." But it's also the case that Allen failed to run a conservative campaign on the most important social issue in the race-traditional marriage.
It is significant to note that while Allen was losing, a state amendment reaffirming traditional marriage was passing. It got 57 percent of the vote while Allen only got 49.2 percent. One veteran political observer asks, "Why did George Allen not campaign loudly in support of Virginia's gay marriage ban?" If he had, he would likely have picked up far more than enough votes to defeat Webb, and the Republicans would still hold the Senate.
Liberal homosexual-activist blogger Mike Rogers insists that Allen was surrounded by key personnel who were secretly gay, with the implication that they were instrumental in moving Allen into a more "moderate" position on homosexual rights. Rogers, who specializes in "outing" closeted Republican homosexuals, notes that John Reid, Allen's press secretary, had told the Washington (gay) Blade that the Senator had opposed same-sex marriage but had not joined his GOP colleagues who had come out in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment. (Eventually, Allen did vote for it).
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth said flatly that "Allen's defeat-after failing to strongly embrace Virginia's successful marriage amendment-led to the GOP's loss of the Senate." He attributed this to the fact that "Allen is widely reported to have homosexual staff."
He added, "Now we are left to wonder: did the stealth influence of gay Republican staffers move him toward this course that would ultimately turn the Senate over to the Democrats?"
The questions about the possible sabotage of the Allen campaign come in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal, in which several key figures, including top Republican congressional staffers, turned out to be gay. They had inside information that found its way into the hands of a staffer at the pro-Democrat Human Rights Campaign and ABC News. The belief is that the gay Republicans were really closet Democrats looking for a way to undermine "their" party. The Foley scandal fit the bill.
Allen did urge passage of the anti-gay marriage amendment in the final days of the campaign, after the New Jersey Supreme court had made a pro-gay ruling on the matter, ordering the state legislature to give homosexual couples practically the same rights as traditional heterosexual married couples.
"There is a clear difference here between me and my opponent," Allen said. "I support protecting marriage from judges who do not understand their role, which is to interpret the law, not invent the law. My opponent does not."
But this push for traditional marriage was too little and came too late. Alluding to the Foley scandal and the namby-pamby Allen campaign, a veteran political observer told AIM that Republican homosexuals have "mixed loyalties," since they share the liberal social agenda of the Democratic Party, and "they killed the GOP majority by operating as a fifth column."
But one wonders whether the Republican establishment will clean house.
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