{"id":364278,"date":"2010-02-25T23:00:59","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T04:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=69149"},"modified":"2010-02-25T23:00:59","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T04:00:59","slug":"late-night-%e2%80%9chonest-any-friend-of-dorothy%e2%80%99s-is-a-friend-of-mine%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/364278","title":{"rendered":"Late Night: \u201cHonest! Any Friend of Dorothy\u2019s Is a Friend of Mine\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_69239\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 310px\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-69239\" href=\"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/2010\/02\/25\/late-night-honest-any-friend-of-dorothys-is-a-friend-of-mine\/6a010534b94968970c0120a5b4caae970c-800wi\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-69239\" title=\"6a010534b94968970c0120a5b4caae970c-800wi\" src=\"http:\/\/static1.firedoglake.com\/1\/files\/2010\/02\/6a010534b94968970c0120a5b4caae970c-800wi-300x208.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"208\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">If the shoe fits&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Harold Ford, sweat beading on his upper lip at the prospect of potential runs against Kirsten Gillibrand <strong><em>and<\/em><\/strong> Mort &#8220;The &#8216;Dozer&#8221; Zuckerman, stopped just short of renting a place in Cherry Grove this summer in order to convince the LGBT community of <a title=\"New York City\" href=\"http:\/\/nyunews.com\/news\/2010\/02\/24\/25ford\/\">New York City<\/a> that he wants to be its BFF:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div class='wbq'>\n<p>Former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., addressed the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, the largest LGBT democratic political club in New York state.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nDuring his speech, Ford touched on several aspects of his voting record, particularly regarding his votes against same-sex marriage. <strong>He reminded the audience that he had changed his mind on the issue<\/strong> and that holding this event would reinforce his commitment to marriage equality and other important issues.<\/p>\n<p>Over 50 people attended. <strong>Several of them brandished large white posters with messages like &#8220;LIAR&#8221; written on them. At several points during his speech, angry protests heckled him, chanting things like &#8220;Anti-choice! Anti-gay! Snake Oil Harry, go away!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Silly Harry. He thought that by showing the gay community of New York how fabulous he is, what with his <a title=\"spacious loft\" href=\"http:\/\/gawker.com\/5467717\/harold-ford-yellow+dog-democrat\">spacious loft<\/a> in the Flatiron District, his helicopter hate for Staten Island, natty fashion sense, and weekly pedicures, he&#8217;d be a shoo-in, at least within the more heavily populated downstate region.<\/p>\n<p>He was wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Y&#8217;know, nobody likes to be presented with a two-dimensional, &#8220;Hey, I&#8217;m just like you!&#8221; stereotype as its party&#8217;s political candidate, and Ford has misjudged the gay community badly, presenting them with some weak-ass tea about &#8220;changing his position&#8221; on marriage equality while simultaneously refusing to take a stand on DADT.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-69149\"><\/span>As if the whole Prop 8 debacle out in California hadn&#8217;t been demoralizing enough for people, now this smarmy, disingenuous, ham-handed politician is trying to manipulate the gay community. Too bad for him that they&#8217;re not even one-tenth as naive as Harold Ford would like to believe.\u00a0 &#8220;What more do &#8216;teh gheys&#8217; want from me?&#8221; he probably wailed to his waiter over his $24 bowl of cereal at the Regency this morning.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Peacock Harold can cry on the shoulder of Lauren Ashley, the Bible-thumping publicity whore\/&#8221;Miss Beverly Hills&#8221; who, just yesterday, declared that she&#8217;d be fine with having her gay &#8220;friends&#8221; stoned to death for trying to <a title=\"exercise their civil rights\" href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2010\/02\/24\/beverly-hills-gays-death\/\">exercise their civil rights<\/a>. Ford has much in common with Miss Beverly Hills; like Harold, the allegedly virginal Lauren Ashley turns out to be yet another self-absorbed, <a title=\"superficial poser\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dependablerenegade.com\/dependable_renegade\/2010\/02\/maybe-she-can-move-to-south-carolina.html\">superficial poser<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div class='wbq'>\n<p>Beverly Hills Mayor Nancy Krasne said Wednesday she is outraged over a Miss California USA contestant who is claiming to represent the city in the upcoming pageant and who spoke out against same-sex marriage in recent media interviews.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Krasne said in a statement that 23-year-old Lauren Ashley does not live in Beverly Hills or represent the city in any capacity<\/strong>. Krasne said she was shocked to see statements made by a beauty pageant contestant under the name of Beverly Hills, &#8220;which has a long history of tolerance and respect.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And, like Ford, Ashley is now Stone. Cold. Busted!<\/p>\n<p>So what&#8217;s the lesson to take away here for Harold and Ashley? Simple. If you&#8217;re a forked-tongued, insincere carpetbagger, you are going to get PW3ND by people far smarter than you, especially when the most basic of civil rights and human dignity are at stake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"akst_link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/share-this\/share-icon-16x16.gif\" alt=\"Share This icon\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=69149&amp;akst_action=share-this\"  title=\"Email, post to del.icio.us, etc.\" id=\"akst_link_69149\" class=\"akst_share_link\" rel=\"noindex nofollow\">&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the shoe fits&#8230; Harold Ford, sweat beading on his upper lip at the prospect of potential runs against Kirsten Gillibrand and Mort &#8220;The &#8216;Dozer&#8221; Zuckerman, stopped just short of renting a place in Cherry Grove this summer in order to convince the LGBT community of New York City that he wants to be its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-364278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}