Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has a mixed record on gay issues. (Photo by Steve Helber/AP)
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CHRIS JOHNSON
Friday, February 15, 2008
Former Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), who is gay, voiced his support for the presidential candidacy of Sen. John McCain in an interview with the Blade this week.
Kolbe, who served as a House member from 1985 to 2007, called himself “a close friend of John McCain” and a “strong supporter” of his fellow Arizonian.
“What is particularly encouraging about John McCain is that he helps the ticket overall for Republicans … because he does make Democrats and independents very comfortable, so I think he’s going to be a strong candidate,” Kolbe said.
Kolbe came out as gay in 1996 after being pressured by gay advocacy groups following his vote for the Defense of Marriage Act. The Blade ran a full-page ad prior to his announcement that called on “all closeted gay and lesbian members of Congress” to “end your silence and defend your community.”
Shortly afterward, McCain declared his continued support for his fellow lawmaker from Arizona and said Kolbe’s coming out did not cause “much of a ripple around here.”
“I think Jim Kolbe has the respect and appreciation of most Arizonans,” McCain said at the time. “I believe if he ran for re-election, he wouldn’t have much difficulty.”
Kolbe continued to serve in Congress for an additional decade. He is now a fellow for the German Marshall Fund, a think tank that works on building ties between the United States and Europe.
The former congressman said he knows “how open [McCain] is from a personal standpoint.”
“It makes me comfortable knowing how he feels personally,” Kolbe said. “While I wish perhaps that he had different positions on things, I’m quite comfortable with where he’s at.”
McCain in 2006 voted against an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as an agreement between one man and one woman.
In the same year, he supported a marriage amendment to the state constitution in Arizona, which was narrowly defeated in referendum. The senator said he supported the state amendment but not the federal amendment because he was a “cultural federalist.”
In 1999, McCain said in an interview that he’d be “comfortable with a homosexual as president of the United States.”
McCain voted four times against expanding the federal hate crimes law to include sexual orientation and in 1996 voted against prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Last June, in the Republican presidential debates, McCain endorsed the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, arguing that it contributed to the U.S. military’s status as the strongest military in the world.
“I think it would be a terrific mistake to even reopen the issue,” McCain said. “The policy is working. And I am convinced that that’s the way we can maintain this greatest military.”
Kolbe said he wished McCain’s voting record was better, but added that Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York “doesn’t favor gay marriage either.”
How well McCain will fare in the general election will depend on the Democratic candidate, Kolbe said. McCain would have a better chance against Clinton because he would take independent voters away from her, but Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois would present a greater challenge, Kolbe said.
“He’ll have a tough time against someone who’s charismatic, youthful and seen as kind of bringing a new hope to Washington.”
The former Arizona congressman said McCain has to perform a “very difficult balancing act”: maintaining his appeal to independents while reaching out to conservatives. McCain can’t “play a Romney” and flip-flop his positions, which would alienate independents, but at the same time “he cannot walk away from the conservative base,” Kolbe said.
“He’s got to somehow bring the base of the Republicans back in under his fold in order to have a chance to win,” Kolbe said.
Patrick Sammon, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, said it was “good news” that McCain “appears headed for the nomination” as presidential candidate of the Republican Party.
The most important aspect of a McCain victory in the primary would be that the Arizona senator would have claimed the nomination without help from social conservatives, Sammon said.
“That’s hugely important because he’s not going to owe them anything … during his campaign or once he’s elected,” Sammon said. “He’ll have the flexibility to be true to his own beliefs.”
Sammon said his organization has yet to endorse any presidential primary candidate. Sammon would not disclose the process by which the Log Cabin Republicans would decide on whether or not to endorse a candidate.
Jon Hoadley, executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats, said McCain’s record on gay issues was poor compared to any Democratic candidate and said a McCain presidency would be more of the same politics experienced under the Bush administration.
“Come November, we expect to mobilize our community and, especially if there is a McCain candidacy, [educate] people on the real record of this so-called moderate,” Hoadley said. “The reality is regardless of the Democratic candidate, their record is always going to far and away outpace Sen. McCain’s record on GLBT issues.”
Sammon said McCain’s voting record was not perfect, but said McCain’s opposition to the federal marriage amendment is proof that the candidate has an “inclusive record on issues of basic fairness for gay and lesbian couples.”
“For gay activists to gloss over that courageous vote by McCain is a bit disingenuous,” Sammon said.
McCain has offered a nuanced position gay marriage. As noted, he opposes the federal marriage amendment but supported the Arizona state marriage amendment. McCain’s campaign web site states that he believes “the family represents the foundation of Western Civilization and … John McCain believes the institution of marriage is a union between one man and one woman.” The site also suggests the Constitution reserved for states the right to make decisions on marriage and says McCain would nominate federal judges that would refrain from “legislating from the bench” and not interfere with how local governments “act to preserve the traditional family.”
Sammon said McCain is focused on getting the Republican Party back to limited government, fiscal discipline and an aggressive foreign policy. This focus means that “he’s not going to use gay and lesbian people as a political issue the way that President Bush did in his re-election campaign,” Sammon said.
Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign president, said McCain did employ gays as a political issue last month in the Florida presidential primary when his campaign sent to voters robo-calls with anti-gay messages. Log Cabin Republicans spokesperson Scott Tucker later told the Blade that McCain never saw the call script and halted their usage when he found out about them.
Solmonese acknowledged that McCain has used markedly less anti-gay rhetoric than other contenders for the Republican nomination such as former Govs. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts or Mike Huckabee of Arkansas.
“A cornerstone of many of their stump speeches includes preserving the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman [and they] have talked about banning gays in the military,” Solmonese said. “It is not something you’d hear in Sen. McCain’s rhetoric.”
Despite this praise, Solmonese also criticized McCain for his voting record and said McCain’s position as a “cultural federalist” may be rational but doesn’t excuse the consequences to the gay community.
“Throughout the course of his term in the Senate, he has had a decidedly anti-GLBT voting record,” he said. “Our role … will be to make sure that members of our community have a very clear sense of that record.”
Solmonese said McCain’s statement about being comfortable with a gay U.S. president was contradictory to his other positions.
“I find it most contradictory … given he’d be comfortable with a gay commander-in-chief but not with gays and lesbians serving in the armed forces,” Solmonese said.
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