The Hollywood Liberal

Pfeiffer: Obama Did Not Write His 1996 Questionnaire Supporting Gay Marriage
In 1996, Barack Obama stated in a questionnaire, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.” Yet since taking office, the President has taken a great deal of criticism for backtracking on his record regarding LGBT civil rights. Now, in an interview at Netroots Nation with Daily Kos Associate Editor […]

In 1996, Barack Obama stated in a questionnaire, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”

Yet since taking office, the President has taken a great deal of criticism for backtracking on his record regarding LGBT civil rights. Now, in an interview at Netroots Nation with Daily Kos Associate Editor Kalli Joy Gray, a hassled White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told the audience the 1996 questionnaire was not written by Obama, despite the candidate’s signature being affixed to the bottom of the document. Here’s what was said:

GRAY: In a 1996 Illinois Senate Race questionnaire, Barack Obama wrote, ‘I favor legalizing same sex marriages.’ After the Proposition 8 decision came out in California, David Axelrod said, ‘the President does oppose same sex marriage.’ So it seems like his position has actually evolved from being more supportive of civil rights to being less supportive of civil rights. Is the President going to evolve again and get back to supporting civil rights and gay marriage?

PFEIFFER: Well– a couple things on that. The President has –actually I think the best way to do this is I’m going to try to paraphrase an answer that the President gave.

GRAY: Well I’ve got his exact answer right here. ‘I favor legalizing same sex marriages and would fight efforts to prohibit them.’

PFEIFFER: Well if you actually go back and look, you’ll see that question–that questionnaire was actually filled out by some one else not the President. There’s been a long debate on this and–

GRAY: Wait—So it was a fake questionnaire?

PFEIFFER: No, So what I was going to tell you is the President’s position has been consistent on this but what he said is–

GRAY: Hold on a minute–You’re saying that this was a fake questionnaire?

You can watch the interview here:

This revelation, which comes as Obama has been highlighting his LGBT accomplishments ahead of his reelection campaign, is sure to raise some concerns. Earlier this month, the administration unveiled a website dedicated to the LGBT accomplishments.
–Sean Savett

Liberals see space to work with GOP on Afghanistan

While liberal online activists gather in the Minneapolis Convention Center this weekend for Netroots Nation, conservatives are meeting at a hotel a few blocks away for Right Online. There’s a couple issues they might actually agree on: President Obama’s policies in Afghanistan and Libya.

Republicans have traditionally supported the war in Afghanistan, but that support is eroding. Presidential contenders Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney have recently questioned the purpose of the U.S. presence there. And Republicans in Congress are questioning the White House argument that the action in Libya does not rise to the level of “hostilities.”

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Boehner: Obama has not sufficiently answered questions on Libya

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) on Friday evening delivered his strongest criticism yet of President Obama’s decision three months ago to intervene militarily in Libya, saying in a statement that the White House has not sufficiently answered lawmakers’ questions about the mission and that the House may take action as soon as next week aimed at halting the U.S. involvement.

“The American people and members on both sides of the aisle have concerns about the mission in Libya and questions that have gone unanswered by this White House,” Boehner said in a statement late Friday, two weeks after the House passed a resolution rebuking Obama and giving the president 14 days to respond to lawmakers’ questions. “While the President responded to some questions earlier this week, it is unfortunate that he specifically chose not to respond to an important question about whether the Office of Legal Counsel supports the White House’s extraordinary legal basis for ongoing military operations in Libya.”

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Republican ‘doctrine’ on suppressing black vote is key to Md. case, and maybe to 2012

In a room last summer, the brain trust behind the only Republican governor to lead Maryland since Spiro Agnew sat thumbing through a campaign strategy to suppress turnout among the state’s black voters.

It was a document that could have seemed like a relic, more likely to be found in a campaign office during the time of Agnew and the 1960s civil rights movement than during a campaign in 2010 to reelect former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

Now, the document in the hands of the Office of the Maryland State Prosecutor. It constitutes the centerpiece of indictments issued this week that that accuse one of Ehrlich’s most trusted aides, as well as a campaign consultant, of conspiring to suppress the black vote last year.

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Worries Grow About Breadth of Debt Crisis
Graham Bowley, NY Times
The tumult in the European monetary zone is spreading concern among investors of a broader crisis in financial markets from Ireland to Spain.The worry is that the worst case, a Greek debt default, would lead to damaging losses for European banks and spur a global panic, replaying the events of September 2008. Then, investors fled all but the safest government debt, unloading everything from corporate bonds to American and emerging country stocks. Global markets froze.

Republicans Return to Reality
Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal
First impressions from a presidential debate are always about how things look, how people come across. Tim Pawlenty doesn't really assert, he natters. Rick Santorum is earnest, Michelle Bachmann serious. Mitt Romney knows how he looks in every camera shot from every angle: He is a master of the cutaway shot, when the camera isn't on him. He keeps his posture and maintains a kindly smile, as if he's pleased the other candidates are sharing their nice little thoughts.But the GOP debate in New Hampshire was a big success in two ways. First, there was no obvious candidate…

Recovery Summer, One Year Later
Speaker John Boehner, National Review
One year ago today, the Obama administration launched its “Recovery Summer” publicity tour to bolster flagging support for the “stimulus.” Vice President Biden said, “The fact is, the recovery act is working.” But the fact is, it didn’t. “Recovery Summer” fizzled, much like the “stimulus” itself.Republicans have a real blueprint for job creation — the “Plan for America’s Job Creators.” What makes our plan different is that it focuses on one…

GOP’s Remarkably Poor Show in New Hampshire
Bob Shrum, The Week
Newt Gingrich usually resides on a separate astral plane. But out of stubborn pride or the momentary regeneration of the rusty sense of strategy that bought the GOP control of the House in 1994 — for the first time in four decades — the former House speaker and soon-to-be-former presidential candidate dared one of the few sensible comments in the recent New Hampshire debate. He essentially repeated, in muted form, his earlier critique of Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposal to save Medicare by destroying it. This time, Gingrich didn’t call it …