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10/17/2014
NOM's latest desperation: Relying on hearsay James O'Keefe video to smear Democrat for 'secretly' not opposing equality
James O'Keefe, the controversial conservative filmmaker whose big thing is to secretly film progressives in what are often lazily twisted versions of incomplete truths, released a latest video wherein a leader with the Arkansas Young Democrats' gay caucus intimated that Sen. Mark Pryor, one of the only Democratic Senators who still publicly opposes marriage equality, is actually less against it than he says he is. Here's the truly lame video:
Now, even on its face, this is a pretty ridiculous "revelation." For one, it's no secret that national Democrats are very supportive of marriage equality, so it's not like his evolution would be some majorly startlingly thing. But even so, the young strategist in the video really only suggests that Pryor would not vote against or stand against marriage equality, which I would hope would be obvious here in 2014, where a bipartisan majority of his colleagues stand in full support of the notion. She doesn't even really make it sound like he's some major champion or anything. She, a Democratic strategist, essentially just suggests he's better than the other guy.
And it's also just her own opinion, stated as someone who is strategizing for his victory. The words are not from the candidate. Unless and until Mark Pryor comes out for marriage equality, he is a candidate running against marriage equality. I hope our politics are not in a place where non-surrogates who make their own intimations about a candidate are morphed into official campaigns spokespeople or Hill staffers. Maybe we are there, but I hope not
Anyway, the reason why I'm even talking about a lame, conjecture-driven attempt at a political hit that I would otherwise ignore is because the increasingly desperate National Organization For Marriage certainly believes the "gotcha" effort to be solid and newsworthy. In fact, president Brian Brown made it a big part of his weekly email to supporters:
"Exposing"? "Bald-faced lie"? While I certainly wish that were true, since I hate that there is still even one U.S. Senator, and particularly a Democrat, who thinks discrimination is a value, that fact is that Sen. Pryor was not "exposed" as anything. In fact, it is borderline defamation to use another person's words in order claim that the senator is engaging in a "bald-faced lie." You can't just connect one person's thoughts to another person's truth and proceed to print it as the gospel. That is where your political opinions stop being options and start instead turning into statements of supposed fact. If Sen. Mark Pryor is not, in fact, yet with us on marriage equality, then NOM is the one pushing bald-faced lies and calling them reality.
But this is where NOM now lives. It's a desperate address, NOM's.
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