Who exactly does Log Cabin represent?
Following its decision not to endorse Mr. Bush for re-election, Log Cabin Republicans finds itself on the outs with not only the administration but also with the gay and lesbian Americans it claims to represent.
Bay Windows:
In addition to Log Cabin's efforts to reconcile with the Bush White House, the organization may have to prove its legitimacy as the voice of gay and lesbian conservatives in the face of challenges from Bush supporters like Bonamigo. This year's election saw 23 percent of gay, lesbian, and bisexual voters cast ballots for Bush according to exit polls, down just two percent from 2000, indicating that conservative gay and lesbian people generally remained faithful to the president.
Last year's presidential election was the third consecutive one in which roughly a fourth of the gay and lesbian electorate voted Republican. Moreover, the 2004 GOP nominee kept his gay voters despite his well-publicized support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. (Although his percentage of the gay vote fell slightly from 2000, the number of gay votes Mr. Bush won in 2004 was up by 100,000 -- to 1.1 million -- on account of the historic turnout.)
From these facts, what should we conclude? I conclude that 1 in 4 gay voters is a Republican, probably ideologically conservative, who votes for the GOP candidate without reference to his position on gay-related issues. This was known after the 2000 election.
Now, with that fact as backdrop, what should Log Cabin have done? Would a politically savvy organization unmask itself as not influential with its Republican-voting constituency by refusing to endorse the Republican candidate for president?
A smarter organization, one in touch with its own base, would have endorsed Mr. Bush and then claimed credit for gifting him with more than a million votes. (This is in fact what the group did in 2000, when it was under the able leadership of Rich Tafel.) Instead, Log Cabin did one thing and its constituency did another. And now every future GOP presidential candidate knows that he gets a fourth of the gay vote regardless of what Log Cabin has to say.
In the halls of power, do you know what that means? It means you're politically irrelevant.
Say good night, Mary.
(Thanks to Gay Patriot.)