Defeating Radical Islam!

Tangent time.

Have you noticed the proliferation of “pass through” websites for political fund-raising. Very savvy. If the organizations took money from donors and cut a check for the candidate, they would have to register as PACs and be limited to giving $5,000 per election under federal campaign laws. However, these websites tell you where to send money DIRECTLY to support candidates “like you.” Such sites include www.actblue.com for Democrats and www.slatecard.com for Republicans.

If you look up Jon Elrod on Slatecard, you’ll see he has 27 donors who gave less than $2,000 total. http://www.slatecard.com/slatecards/SlateCaps. But more interestingly, you'll see that Slatecard awards candidates “issue badges” from the donors. These awards give you insight into the donors’ perception of the candidate. Under “Most Received Issue Badges,” Mr. Elrod has four:

- Conservation of Resources (awesome, unless by “conserve” you mean saving the resources until we can give permits to private strip mining companies)

- Faith & Family (could be awesome, depending on how you define "faith" and "family")

- Energy Independence (could be awesome if we’re talking hybrids and not Anwar drilling)…and last, but not least….

- Defeat Radical Islam.

WHAT!?!??!!!!

As I just read Jon Elrod’s website in its entirety and saw no “anti-radical Islam” plank, I can only conclude, in these donors' estimations, that you defeat “radical” Islam by making sure no Muslims serve in Congress. Can I now say that Elrod feels the same way because a supporter said it? Oh, don’t be silly. That would be like saying that Andre Carson hates Jews because he was endorsed by Minister Farrakhan, and we know nobody would…..what’s that? They have??? Hmmm.

One of the favorite sports for political camps is to act like every nut who gloms onto a campaign is the candidate’s alter ego. Andre Carson has NO current connection with Farrakhan or his beliefs. But the Carson Hater Camp (CHC) act like they’re in league because Carson won’t denounce Minister Farrakhan’s endorsement. People point out that Minister Farrakhan called Judaism a “gutter religion” and spoke in what we can charitably call unflattering terms about gays.

But I know another guy who uses the exact same words about gays. His name is Eric Miller, and his people designed Jon Elrod’s website. Eric Miller supports Jon Elrod publicly. That is why I am calling on Jon Elrod, right now, to denounce this endorsement. Only by doing so can we defeat “Radical Evangelism.” What makes things more staggering is that a prominent GLTG organization recently endorsed Elrod, noting in their commentary on the endorsement that Farrakhan and Islam are homophobic. Yes, but so is the version of Christianity practiced by Eric Miller. And, respectfully, I didn’t see Achmed and his jihadists pushing SJR 7 to constitutionally abolish gay marriage in Indiana. I saw Eric Miller.

Every political party plays on hobgoblins, but when I’m thinking about the 7th District of Indiana, I see Eric Miller as a greater threat to it than Louis Farrakhan ever could be. Andre Carson has seen Louis Farrakhan, what, probably 3 times in his life? I bet Jon Elrod sees Eric Miller three times a week.

Now onto some FUN stuff...

Man, today’s Abdul show stirred up a dookie tempest! Jon Elrod’s sexuality became an issue, and it prompted people to suggest shortly thereafter that the Carson campaign is churning this issue to deep-six Elrod.

This might be true if by “Carson campaign” you mean every person who supports Andre Carson. I’m sure SOMEBODY is talking about Jon Elrod’s sexuality. Let’s be frank. Every man who isn’t married at 30 gets ridiculously questioned, usually by his own mother. Throw in that the guy is metrosexual and a theater major, and I imagine he gets four times the scrutiny. Also, I’m sure it doesn’t help that he periodically wears a funny hat. (See page 6 on the link below).

http://www.aasr-indy.org/doubleeagle/DoubleEagle-54-3_LR.pdf

(I’m not sure what it is about lodges and bad headwear. I love the Scottish Rite, but these guys look like they’re at Chuckie Cheese for their birthday).

At the same time this discussion is going on, SOMEBODY who supports Elrod is talking about Andre Carson being Muslim and not in a favorable way. But having water cooler discussion among people who follow politics is a lot different than having the campaign disseminate the view as an attack. Andre Carson is not a homophobe and Jon Elrod is not close-minded when it comes to religion. Neither one would sanction these type of attacks.

I loved Truman’s idea that “the buck stops here.” But Truman was talking about being responsible for all things under his command. We ask too much of any political candidate when we make them responsible for every comment from every potential supporter.

Defeating Radical Islam!