REPUBLICAN RALLY TAKES BIZARRE TURN …
One of the six Republican candidates challenging liberal U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RINO-S.C.) in the 2014 GOP primary this spring sparked a firestorm this week when he referred to the two-term incumbent as “ambiguously gay.”
Dave Feliciano – a former police officer from Spartanburg, S.C. – made the remarks at a rally of Graham opponents on the steps of the S.C. State House.
“It’s about time that South Carolina (says) hey, We’re tired of the ambiguously gay senator from South Carolina,” Feliciano said. “We’re ready for a new leader to merge the Republican Party. We’re done with this. This is what it’s about, all of us coming together and saying, one way or the other, one of us is going to be on that ballot in November.”
Feliciano was joined at the event by fellow Graham challengers Lee Bright, Richard Cash and Bill Connor – all of whom are die-hard social conservatives. The four candidates were gathered to sign a pledge of mutual support in the event one of them makes it to a runoff election against Graham.
Two other Graham opponents – Charleston, S.C. businesswoman Nancy Mace and Columbia, S.C. pastor Det Bowers – did not attend the rally.
Feliciano’s remarks drew a swift rebuke from Thomas Ravenel – a former statewide official who is mulling a third party challenge to Graham in November.
“There is no place for this sort of juvenile homophobia in a United States Senate race – and the Republican Party should be ashamed of itself for fostering such hateful, narrow-minded views,” Ravenel said in a statement.
Of course while he defended Graham from attack on the one hand, Ravenel also noted that the incumbent deserved criticism for “banning openly gay soldiers from serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.”
“This discriminatory policy resulted in the discharge of roughly 114,000 servicemen and women from 1940-2011 – and many of these veterans are still waiting for their rights to be restored,” Ravenel said.
Despite considerable speculation to the contrary, Graham – who has never been married – has publicly affirmed his heterosexuality.
“I know it’s really gonna upset a lot of gay men – I’m sure hundreds of ’em are gonna be jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge – but I ain’t available,” he told The New York Times Magazine in 2010. “I ain’t gay. Sorry.”
We’ve made a few jokes at Graham’s expense ourselves, but at the end of the day his sexual orientation has always been irrelevant to us.
“We’re much more concerned with Graham’s record of selling out the taxpayers – and the secret support he has received by some of the nation’s most left-leaning special interests as a result of it,” we wrote a few years back.
We still feel that way …
In fact Graham has veered even more wildly to the left in recent years … becoming even more hypocritical.
90 comments
The obscure Smigel cartoon reference may escape some. Note the Colbert connection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ambiguously_Gay_Duo
Is it really that obscure, given the popularity of those Smigel cartoons on re-runs of SNL and on YouTube?
“We’ve made a few jokes at Graham’s expense ourselves, but at the end of the
day his sexual orientation has always been irrelevant to us.”
Sure Sic Willie, that is why you mention it day after day, after day.
Fits is one of the best known homophobes in SC,plus did you know a lot of his best friends are Black?
Once you go Black, you can’t go back.
I though it was “till you go black, you haven’t the knack”.
back black paddy wack
Ligamentum nuchae
max euwe, world chess champion, 1935-37.
Machgielis
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he gave Alekhine a rematch – maybe the sanest and kindest World Champion that ever lived.
I don’t think he’s a homophobe.. I think he finds the subject humorous.. how else could you explain Grand Tango?
Inaccurate. On the blog he actually seldom brings it up.
I agree with him on this. I don’t believe, in any case, in outing gay people if they do not want to be outed. Political affiliation and ideological orientation have nothing to do with it. It is only the business of others if they want it to be.
Goes for Graham, Scott, McConnell, any of them.
Perhaps I get a different edition than you.
Perhaps you mistake your hyperbolic rhetoric for clear-eyed examination of observable reality. He’s brought the subject up before — as have thousands of others — but he does not bring it up “day after day.”
Since, according to Sic Willie, it doesn’t matter, why does he bring it up at all?
He probably brings it up because he knows the cockroaches will come out from under the stove if he does.
Eh, I’m willing to give Willie a pass on this one. I indulge in poking fun at him too. I look at it in the same vein as making fun of “family values” Republicans who are quite clearly anything but, or like Ted Haggard.
At least he (Graham) does not flaunt it in everyone’s face.
” … he told The New York Times Magazine in 2010. “I ain’t gay. Sorry.” Why would someone who “ain’t gay” say they are sorry for not being gay?
I have to say, a quicker, easier, and by far more reasonable response could’ve been done in just three words: “Ask my wife.”
He’s married?
These guys are reading this blog!
Well, damn, I feel a bit dumb now. I figured the guy had a wife. Maybe I was thinking of Joe Wilson or something. My bad!
Hell, I don’t know.
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/is-lindsey-graham-gay/Content?oid=1111370
“Ask my wife.”
Heh.
Lindsey’s a short-haired pinko type commie fag…
…not a faithful follower of Brother John Birch….
In the NY Times you have got to apologize for being:
White
Male
Straight
American
Christian
or Conservative.
I think it was as in sorry to disappoint anyone or prove them wrong
According to Republicans, being sorry for disappointing someone would make a person gay… Republicans are *real* men – never saying they’re sorry – even if in a war based on lies, they machine gun a bunch of visibly unarmed reporters from a helicopter, or get caught torturing and humiliating prisoners of war, or causing the collapse of the economy of the entire nation with silly ideas about deregulation and the “free market”….
Regret may be all it takes to tip the scale anyway… after all, the difference between being gay and straight is a simple decision to have that preference – there’s no genetic taboo.
they were being propositioned?
Nancy Mace is fortunate not to have been in attendance.
WHO?
Wait, ambiguously?
Ambiguosly gay- you can use your left hand or right hand equally well.
Whenever Clemson plays South Carolina in baseball. Homerphobia.
That’s “amphibious…”
Ooh, right.
silly me, I thought he was trying to say unadulterated.
What difference does it make? Lincoln was gay and he was a great President.
As well as the first to appear on “Between Two Ferns.”
Not to mention his whole-hearted support for eavesdropping on every conversation and reading all of the mail in America.
Ooooohhh…nice!
Ravenel, like his old man, is a total jackass and a buttplug. He needs to stick with snorting lines of cocaine and keep his opinions to himself. As for Graham, he is clearly a pathological liar and a psychopath in sheep clothing. Anyone who follows him, what he says and does, what he has done and said, they know he is fucked up in the head.
I recall many, many moons ago when I was young and stupid and Daddy Ravenel was running for office – all of us high school kids “liked him” because we got to cuss and say “Give ’em hell, Ravenel!” . . .
Aaaaaaaaaaand Will finds a way to feebly interject a comment from an irrelevant candidate (Ravenel) in response to an inane comment from another irrelevant candidate (Feliciano). If I didn’t know better, I would think there’s an agenda at play here somewhere…
… an irrelevant political web blog.
I may have to politely disagree there. For all his weirdness, Will gets a kajillion eyeballs every month and probably has the best “inside baseball” stuff from Gervais Street. In my grown-up life (when I’m not twiddling away minutes of my life here that I’ll never get back) I am often sitting in rooms with some pretty heavy hitters (politically speaking), and they are almost bitching about something Will has up on here. Don’t get me wrong, not as relevant as all of Will’s alter egos think they are, but pretty relevant within SC political circles, I think.
Well thanks, I think.
That wasn’t a sideways compliment -don’t go getting all sensitive on us. If we didn’t dig your site, why would we waste so much time sparring with you? :-)
I thought it was for the camaraderie and wit of the members, and the joy of seeing the humiliating pratfalls of the arrogant….
…and the lack of censorship.
Absolutely. Without a doubt. Effing-A.
There’s that too…
I hear a lot of politicos bitching too,but actually that doesnt mean a whole lot.I hear them bitching about Letters To the Editor,comments on Talk radio shows made about them,,negative remarks at social clubs,etc.
Most politicians ,despite their disclaimers, are sensitive to criticism of any type.The stuff here at Fits is no different.
I hear you, most pols are sensitive little pussies. I submit, though, that Will has a special rent-free spot up in their heads. They try to ban staffs and employees from accessing FITS and drive themselves stupid trying to find leaks.
drive themselves stupid
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short trip
Really? a kajillion? I had no idea!
It’s a highly technical term…
akin to brazillian.
Don’t forget, a Trillion..
If T-Rav is planning on winning any future elections here in South Carolina he probably should not have showed/shown (take your pick – I cannot figure it out! Help me TBG or Mike-at-the-Beach!) his ass – LITERALLY – on that last episode of Southern Charm. I’m not sure which constituency he thought he was pandering to in that moment . . .
Sorry, I can’t help you with the grammar right now…TBG has gone rogue on me and we’re trying to patch things up. Damn, OK. Present perfect tense (even with the addition of the negative “not” makes it “should not have shown,” and your point, by the way, is dead on, even if that was Ravenel’s “19th Nervous Breakdown” on his road to irrelevance.
Not to worry, I feel sure that you and TBG will kiss and make up. You both can be dicks but I’ve decided that I like you both anyway . . .
I would remind you that being a dick in the defense of liberty, the Queen’s English, intelligent discourse, the rules of logic, etc. is no vice (with my apologies to ol’ Barry). I talked TBG off of the ledge and it’s all good now- I insulted Ron Paul just one too many times, I think. We certainly bear no malice toward you, even as we beat you up a little on here; I have several misguided (but well meaning) liberal friends. ;-)
LOL As stated above, I still like you anyway.
LOL As stated above I still like you anyway
I have several misguided (but well meaning) liberal friends. ;-)
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I’m sure they laugh behind your back, and smile in your face… “friends” Bah!
traitors…
No, my politician “friends” do that. My liberal buds and I are good,although they are a like me to a certain extent; not too doctrinaire to make up their own minds on things beyond a party line. My “best” lib buddy and I share a bizarre set of relationships. We know in each other in two worlds- government and academia. On our gov’t projects, he is the token liberal. In our academic group, I am the token conservative. It’s all about context, but we have a good time.
Sounds like a rag-tag group of irresponsible teens, not a gaggle of bigot-class spooks.
Ouch…wrong on both counts, I’m afraid. I’m just a conservative dude who happens to do some part-time work in a field thoroughly dominated by libs, and my bud is a fairly liberal dude who does some part-time work in a field (slightly) dominated by conservatives. Besides, I am not sure I’m tracking with you on the “bigot-class clearance spooks” thing…
bigot class clearance spooks is the nightmare spawned by the improbability of keeping a secret.
Mmmmkay. I’ll have to give you that one, because the USG is like an old broken fridge; it can’t keep shit. BTW, that’s the primary methodology I use to shoot down conspiracy kooks. Quick story- film crew from NYC was in my office one day (long story) when one of the techs sees a framed doohickey on my wall indicating that I used to work for a federal agency. Within only a few minutes of conversation he asks me how I could affiliate myself with the group that “really brought down the towers.” I gave him a quick rundown on how many people it would have taken to make that conspiracy happen (he was the real deal truther- says we used explosives to drop the towers). I broke it down for him by each phase of the op; the total was in the hundreds. When I asked him how in the world we are keeping all of those people quiet (no yapping to girlfriends, not a single guilty conscience cleansed with a call to the NTY, etc.). Of course, it didn’t work. he just said, “I don’t know, but it’s obviously working.” You can’t beat that with logic, so I quit (although I confessed to nothing).
Mmmmkay. I’ll have to give you that one, because the USG is like an old broken fridge; it can’t keep shit. BTW, that’s the primary methodology I use to shoot down conspiracy kooks
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If there were aliens, we would have been contacted by them? I’ll try to remember to dig out bigot class security clearance.. I saw it during my missionary travels.
I love conspiracy freaks, you can bag on them all day, and they just keep leaving themselves open. Instant entertainment.
According to WWII historian Stephen Ambrose, there was at least one instance where there did exist a clearance higher than “Top Secret”. From his book D-Day, speaking of Operation Overlord:
Quote:Among the millions of men gathered in southern England to participate in the invasion of France, only a handful knew the secrets of Overlord-where the assault would go ashore, and when. Those few had a supersecret designation, above Top Secret, called Bigot; they were said to be “bigoted.”
That’s good stuff. You are absolutely correct- compartmentalization is still in vogue in the intel/CT business. Once you get your TS-SCI (Top Secret – Sensitive Compartmented Information) you’re “in the club” for codeword and and compartmented info. I just wasn’t tracking on where you were headed with it. Neat background, too.
Was the whole point of this story to set up a quote from an unannounced candidate – at least FITS believes in transparency – because it was transparent as hell.
So Ravenel is bi?
FITS has his head up his @$$…or is it Obama’s @$$…This video is speaking Truth to power as FITS claims he’s all about…yet he is posting anything but this…because it slap the $#!* out of his lord-god Obama….
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/03/120902-rep-trey-gowdy-gives-congress-obama-much-needed-lesson-constitutional-checks-balances
Trey Gowdy has half-million views in his Rousing speech on the House floor.
He is neither an @$$-backwards South Carolinian, as you see us…nor is he an only self-serving politician, like your mentor, Mark Sanford…
With political “media” like FITS is trying to be, is it any wonder we’re in the mess we’re in…???
If only your articles were in the Times and the Guardian verbatim… what a world it would be.
This is *just* the kind of yellow journalism that can cost him the race! The Republicans are all homophobes.. just the *suggestion* that he’s gay will kick him to the curb.. unless like Craig, he claims “a wide stance.”
http://www.acadianabusiness.com/business-news-sp-416426703/acadiana-business/43-the-indsider/-sp-687/2330–sp-1408816211
Ambiguously RINO too…
An unknown candidate drops into a media event, makes a fool of himself, adds to the “kooky” image ginned up by the media concerning conservatives, then goes his merry way. It sound like a plant by another candidate to me. Too perfect, to well timed, to out of the blue to be anything else. RESTORE HONOR VOTE CONNOR.
All of reality a hoax, and Republicans actors, duped on the stage before a multitude of screeching monkeys.
Didn’t see any of your folks there.
Republicans killed them all.
Anyone notice in this photo that Sessions seems like he’s staring at Lover Boy with want in his eyes. Could be the whole GOP establishment is a little queer.
Hey T-Rav: A bit dog hollers. Just sayin”.
The only way that Lindsey would be defeated would be my changing to the Democratic party.
There is nothing Ambiguous about him, he is a full on flamer!
I don’t give a crap whether he is gay or not. I do think he needs to to support the conservative agenda of most South Carolinians are get his butt off the pot. He was not elected to be a compromiser.
He needs his ass thrown out – PERIOD! Fuck Him and the horse he rode in on.
Imagine all of the illegal and felony conduct this douche bag has been involved with. Sure there is plenty in his closet.
Listen up Fellatio, Feliciano or whatever your name is. Graham is smart enough that he LOVES it when you idiots can’t control yourselves. You’ve just eliminated yourself from contention. Nancy Mace said in a radio interview that she is running because she wants to “change Washington”. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she is naive enough to believe that a junior senator can do that because the alternative is to believe that she’s lying. Graham couldn’t hope for a better group of loose cannons to run against.