Is KBH a RINO?

I found this blog editorial from Texas Fred so disturbing, I felt I had no choice but to write about it. This opinion piece, written by Fred himself, is a reaction to a recent report out of Washington, DC, about Kay Bailey Hutchison's recommendations for the US Attorney post in San Antonio. Fred seems to aim his piece squarely at those Texas conservatives who might be undecided about which Republican gubernatorial candidate to support in 2010. Fred is not undecided: he wants his readers to support Rick Perry.

Fred references an article explaining that Senator Hutchison submitted two suggestions for the post to the White House, and one of the suggested candidates, Robert Pitman, is openly gay. According to the article, Pitman is also a highly regarded career prosecutor and judge. The author of the post, who describes himself in his blog profile as a "highly opinionated blogger" who "does not play the PC game," skips right over the highly regarded part, and chooses to focus his rant entirely on the openly gay part. Specifically, the author attacks Hutchison for having the temerity to even suggest a gay person for the job. Fred also piles on Republican Senator John Cornyn for the same affront to Texas conservatives, but focuses primarily on Hutchison, labeling her a RINO (Republican in Name Only) who is "out of touch" with both Texas and conservatism. After all, John Cornyn is not running for governor; Kay Bailey Hutchison is, and the author clearly does not want her elected to the position. As Fred states toward the end of his post,

"I would say, at this point in time, the Governors race in Texas is Rick Perry’s right about now. His opponent is doing everything she can to hand it to him in a gift wrapped package!"

This blogger seems to represent an extreme far-right conservative Republican point of view. He seems personally offended (and offended on behalf of other Texas conservatives) that Hutchison would take an action that he views as pushing a homosexual agenda, and then expect to be supported by Texas conservatives in the 2010 election. Not only does he want her to lose the race for governor, he also wants her out of the Senate for good.

After reading this opinion piece, I was so angry that I had a difficult time organizing my thoughts to write about it. Trust me when I say you do not want to read my first draft, which was equal parts vitriol and sarcasm. My reaction stems from my own frustration with the current two-party system that dominates politics. There is no mainstream home for someone like me who is an economic conservative and a social liberal. Kay Bailey Hutchison's attempts to open the Republican Party to those of us who are not religious conservatives gives me hope; but then I read something like this that represents such an extreme and non-inclusive point of view, and my hope diminishes.

In this case, I believe the author of this post is advocating discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, which I really hope will be illegal in every part of this country sometime very soon. How does Fred know that Pitman is a bad choice for the job of US Attorney? He doesn't, because he hasn't bothered to find out. Fred fails to address Pitman's qualifications for the job, and chooses instead to simply dismiss him as an inappropriate candidate solely on the basis of his sexual orientation. This seems like shaky ground from which to launch an attack on Hutchison's qualifications for the job of governor of Texas. How do I as a reader know that Fred hasn't also failed to do his homework on Hutchison and Perry? I suspect he may have jumped to conclusions about these candidates also. This makes me question Fred's qualifications for the job of critic. And I don't even care about his sexual orientation.