Could it be? A simple newbie kossack like me posting a diary that hasn't been flogged to death by everyone else yet? Offering a fair and balance voice to the progressive community? Meh...you decide. And I know you will below the fold.
With all the fruitcake and caroling, peace on earth and donning now my gay apparel, I admit I've been away from dailykos longer than I'd like. When I last checked in, many were up in arms about Obama's choice of Rev. Rick Warren to lead the invocation during his inauguration. Fair enough.
Now that the dust has settled and many kossacks have moved on, I thought I'd take a minute to offer a flip-side that I didn't hear mentioned. Please correct if I've missed any previous diaries on this topic.
It was reported in the 12/16/08 SF Chronicle:
...Nancy Sutley joining Team Obama as chairwoman of the Council on Environmental Quality, ...becomes the first prominent, openly gay or lesbian to join the Cabinet.
She is currently L.A.'s deputy mayor for energy and environment and the mayor's rep on the board of directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Most politically intriguing: She was a member of Hillary Clinton's California Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender steering committee during the state's primary.
There it is. An obvious, IMHO, counter-weight to the Rick Warren uproar. I mean, as far as we know, Warren hasn't secured a position within the administration, has he?
The Chron also reported:
Former SF Supe/mayoral also-ran Roberta Achtenberg is one of seven open LGBT folks on Obama's transition advisory crew. You may recall that back in 1993 Achtenberg was the first openly gay public official appointed to a federal position (assistant HUD czar during the Clinton administration) that had to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
I hear you. I hear you. And I do understand that many of you may agree, as I do, with our smirking friends
Not only are there few progressives on Obama's team, but there are no name progressives at all. You won't find Maxine Waters there, or Bernie Sanders or Dennis Kucinich or Mario Cuomo, or even Russ Feingold. And then, with the Rick Warren fiasco, it manages to get even worse still.
I simply point out Sutley and Achtenberg's roles being more meaningful,and impactful than Rick Warren's 15 minutes of fame.
I still find myself sitting with the chimps, thinking...
There is, in short, good reason for suspicion and even anger on the left. I'm not there yet, and hope not to be. Not because I'm a Barack groupie. Far from it. My attitude toward him and anyone else is to wait and see before judging...What I care about is policy, and the broad strokes of policy are typically made by the guy sitting behind the sign that notes where the buck stops.
Indeed, there is every possibility that his cabinet picks and other decisions are yet another demonstration of the wisdom that is Barack Obama, in a sort of 'keep your enemies even closer' kind of way. How soon, and how ardently, do you think Rick Warren is going to be out there criticizing the new administration?
Please remember that I am only seeking some balance to the Rick Warren discussion. To give some levity and laughs, I leave you with The Rude Pundit's slightly editorialized transcript of Warren on Larry King Live:
... here's Tubby the Preacher on Larry King Live (But Just Barely) on December 2, 2005, in all his eclair cream-sucking glory, explaining why homosexuals are not right. Warning: it's a long conversation that involves genitalia, bananas, King's daughter, and peanut butter (really):
TUBBY: Now people ask me all the time what do you think about homosexuality, OK? Well, I don't approach it -- I approach it like this. When you look at a female body and you look at a male body it seems that naturally certain parts go together.
KING: It seems that way, therefore how do you explain why someone is homosexual? Do you know why women, why you like women, just because the body is shaped differently?
TUBBY: Oh, no, I'm sure I know why I like women. I think I was wired by God to like women. I think they...
KING: So, what did he do to the gay person, God?
TUBBY: I don't know that God did that. I really don't...I believe that God created one man for one woman for life. A lot of the problems -- as a pastor I've notice that when God gives certain rules they're really for our benefit. They're not because God's capricious or just "I think that I'm going to make your life miserable."
I think they're always for our benefit and when I do certain things God's way I have fewer broken hearts. I have less STDs. I have -- and I'm not just talking about sex. I'm talking about if I followed God's will about the right things about eating, I wouldn't be fat and overweight. I wouldn't, you know, and I -- people say well there are lots of sins. Of course there are. And to me the greatest sin is pride. The Bible tells us that pride is what Satan got kicked out of heaven and so we're all in the same boat.
KING: All right. You used the word natural. Define it. For example, is it natural to like bananas? I like them. You may not. Peanut butter, I love peanut butter. I know, I had a daughter, my daughter Chaia never liked peanut butter. Is that natural?
TUBBY: No, I think the difference is do you like food or not, not what flavor of food because you can't live without food. Now you can live without sex. It's possible. Lots of people do. So, I wouldn't even put it in the same category. A lot of people live without sex. It's not an essential for life.