Cathi Herrod is no Voice for this Seething Mom’s family

Well Arizona’s self-appointed “Voice For Arizona’s Families”, Cathi Herrod is ecstatic over the victory of getting another “state constitutional amendment on the definition of marriage” on the November ballot. In fact you can just feel the joy spilling from her cold hard heart:

This is a great day for the people of Arizona. The people of Arizona will be able to decide the future of marriage in Arizona, not judges as we have witnessed in California.

The situation in California demonstrates that Arizona's current marriage laws are not enough. There's nothing to stop a future court or legislature from redefining marriage. This amendment eliminates the uncertainty. The future of marriage in Arizona shouldn't be left to the courts or the politicians; it should be left to the people.

We thank and commend all the senators and representatives who recognized the importance of marriage for all Arizonans and voted to give the people the opportunity to place the time-honored definition of marriage beyond the reach of the courts.

Well Cathi Herrod:

You may think you are the voice for Arizona Families, but you certainly do not speak for my family or thousands of other families in Arizona either. In fact, I would venture a very safe guess that you only speak for a certain type of family, the type that fits your oh-so narrow template for what you consider normal.

But I just have to wonder what kind of person could derive so much joy from hurting fellow Americans by insuring that there will be laws that take away rights that they themselves enjoy. From my perspective, as a wife of 26 years and a mother of three beautiful children, one of whom will be victimized by your actions, it is a very misguided and ignorant person. And I would argue that when that ignorance translates into laws that hurt other people, that makes the person evil as well.

History is full of people like you. And history has not been kind to most of them either. And I don’t think history will be kind to you. But fear not, you have some great company on the federal level, the honorable U.S. Senator David Vitter and the honorable U.S. Senator Larry Craig are helping you to keep American families safe from that which destroys marriages. And who better to link arms with in your the fight to save marriages and families? I mean what bastions of morality these two men are! And, as an additional bonus, these two Christian, Family Values soldiers have first-hand personal knowledge of what destroys the Sanctity of Marriage. And I am sure that once they get done beating up on gay and lesbian Americans, they will get right to addressing the real things that threaten marriage.

You know Cathi, if this weren’t so personal, I’d be rolling on the floor laughing at you. Your ignorance is beyond comprehension. You know damn well what threatens marriages and families, and it’s not gays and lesbians, but then to admit that might mean fighting for legislation that will hit many of the very dimwits that actually believe your drivel about gays and lesbians. You know, the people who for one week every Sunday sit in a church pew and bask in a false sense of being better than everyone else while conveniently forgetting about their own adulterous affairs, divorces, drug/alcohol problems, spousal abuse problems, etc that actually do tear apart families and marriages. But when your ignorance with threatens the rights and happiness of one of my children and you do it under the guise of protecting Arizona families, you’ve made it personal lady. And I’ll be damned if I am going to sit quietly while you try and impose your twisted version of morality and religion on my family. When you single out the child of any family and fight for laws that will make them separate but equal, the only causes you become champion of are bigotry and ignorance.

You may have won this battle Cathi, but you are not going to win this war. You see, people are starting to realize that self-appointed morality police like you don’t stop once they’ve gotten a taste of victory. Today it may be law-abiding gay and lesbian Arizonans who have the bulls-eye on their backs, but tomorrow it will be someone else that gives Cathi Herrod the heeby-jeebies for being different. Sanctimonious frauds are dangerous creatures, and you Cathi Herrod are a sanctimonious fraud.

Dear Senator David Vitter and Senator Larry Craig,

My letter to you today is a bit late in coming and I do apologize for that, but I needed a few days to calm down and think rationally about your latest flurry of Senatorial activities and proposed legislation. And now that I have had a few days to work through the seething anger that has been burning deep within my gut, I have calmed down enough to realize that this is why common ordinary people like me could never be big U.S. Senators like you two esteemed gentlemen. We simply do not have the proper temperaments, the mandates from God, or the courage to carry out the difficult and sometimes unpopular work that you two have been called upon to do.

First let me start by thanking you both for all the hard work you have done for us Americans. You have sacrificed so much by selflessly giving a big part of yourselves so that we Americans can live Godly and moral lives that are strictly in line with how your interpretation of the bible dictates we live them. It truly scares me to think of what a horrible cesspool of sin this country would be if it were not for you two good men, but then, I am sure that is why God handpicked you to help His Party do this tremendously difficult work. Maybe that is why so many people mistake the acronym, GOP, for God’s Own Party.

Secondly, I owe you both a big apology. You see, right after I learned that you two were both co-sponsors of another Federal Marriage Amendment, which would forever cement my gay son’s second-class citizenship into the Constitution by denying him the right to marry the person he loves and all the rights that everyone else enjoys when they marry, I completely lost it. In fact, I must confess to you that I was blinded by so much hatred and contempt for the two of you that I actually frightened myself. After all I know how sinful those emotions are, but I just couldn’t help it since they emanate from the intense unconditional love I have for my son, which I know is no excuse since my son is an abomination in your eyes. But it is that love for my child, I suppose, that has made it so difficult for me to understand that you are only doing this for the good of our country and the safety of one-man/one-woman marriages everywhere.

So it is at this point that I must beg your indulgence. I am having an extremely difficult time understanding something that I am sure has a very simple explanation that I am just not seeing. So would you mind helping me to reconcile your claims of wanting to protect the sanctity of my 26 year marriage with what looks to me like your complete lack of regard for the sanctity of your own marriages? And could you also help me understand how cheating on your wives with numerous hookers and gay strangers in public bathrooms and indulging in diaper fetishes makes you strong proponents of Family Values, because judging from the very pained and humiliated looks on the faces of your wives as they stood by your sides in front of those television cameras as you made your statements, I certainly didn’t get warm and fuzzy “Family Values” vibes. If anything I got the feeling that if the Supreme Court had made their ruling allowing citizens in Washington DC to own handguns any earlier, you both would be wearing diapers out of necessity and not because of weird sexual desires. But then maybe that was just me projecting my own barely contained emotions onto your wives.

Now again, I confess to not having a complete understanding of all the strange ways in which God does His work. So I am working very hard to accept that there will always be things I can never understand and I shall push all those nasty thoughts of diaper fetishes and trolling for gay sex in airport bathrooms out of my mind. But if you could spare a few minutes from your very important and busy schedules, I’d really love to hear from you. I just know there is a simple explanation for all of this and it’s probably just my silly old imagination that is in the gutter and not you two wonderful Senators.

Most sincerely,

Seething Mom

P.S. Wow, what an amazing impact your good deeds have had. You cannot imagine how many of God’s Marriage Guardians you have inspired here in Arizona. Why, right here in my little ole’ state alone, you have drawn every homophobic wingnut person worried about the Sanctity of Arizonan’s marriages out from under their rocks the pews of their Mega-Churches and helped them spew their mind-numbing ignorance get another Marriage Amendment on the ballot just in time for the 2008 elections. Even Cathi Herrod, our own tireless local morals defender hag hero of Family Values is celebrating this great day and I am sure she is greatly indebted to you two wonderful men for helping pave the way for Arizona’s great victory in saving marriages from Republican Hypocrites who cheat on their wives while legislating other people’s values those dangerous gays and lesbians who threaten our marriages.

Senator John McCain – changing the hearts and minds of people I didn’t even think had hearts or minds

Well I guess kissing up to the religious extremists within the Republican base should come as no surprise. After all, John McCain did make some pretty powerful enemies back when he was running against George W. Bush to be the Republican Presidential nominee in 2000. And I guess he realizes now how badly he miscalculated when he figured he didn’t need them to win and he chose to stand firmly on his principles and call these people what they are: “agents of intolerance”. And sadly, that very well may have been a factor in his losing the nomination to George W. Bush, soon to be one of the worst presidents this country has ever had.

Man, talk about being between a rock and a hard place. I really don’t envy Senator McCain. Running for president as a Republican in today’s world means constantly walking a very fine line in which one must weigh and measure which group to please at the expense of another. And alienating the wrong group could have huge consequences.

So here we are on the doorstep of the 2008 elections and again we have John McCain in the mix only this time he is the Republican nominee for President. And this time he’s decided not to make those same mistakes again. He’s learned his lesson: in order to win the love of the most hateful segment of his base, he must abandon every principle that once earned him the love and admiration of moderate Americans on both sides of the aisle. But this time he’s gonna tell the religious crazies anything and everything they want to hear -- and to hell with everyone else:

CINCINNATI -- Sen. John McCain, who has struggled to win the trust of evangelical voters, met privately Thursday in Ohio with several influential social conservatives who have been critical of him -- and impressed them, while telling them only some of what they wanted to hear.

McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told the small assembly that he was open to learning more about their opposition to embryonic stem cell research despite his past disagreements with them on the issue.

And, according to participants, he indicated that he would take seriously their requests that he choose an anti-abortion running mate and would talk more openly about his opposition to gay marriage -- a pledge he carried out later in the day by endorsing a ballot measure in California to ban gay marriage.

"It was obvious there were a lot of changed hearts in the room," said Phil Burress, who led Ohio's anti-gay-marriage ballot measure in 2004. "We realized that he's with us on the majority of the issues we care about."

I think poor, tired, old Senator McCain is stuck in a time warp and is either oblivious to the mood of the country right now or doesn’t care, but either way this isn’t 2000 anymore, and our biggest issues are no longer blow jobs in the White House or gay marriage. Call me crazy, but I don’t think McCain’s pandering to the Dobson bible-thumping crazies is going to endear him to rational, everyday Americans who are far more worried about things like the economy, a failed war, a broken military, high gas prices, high food prices, rising unemployment, a decimated budget, trillions of additional debt, global warming, domestic spying, a ruined reputation abroad, a destroyed housing market, an imminent credit crisis, a broken government filled with hacks and religious nuts, a broken healthcare system, a broken educational system, a broken immigration system and the resulting brain drain, health insurance only for those who can afford it, job outsourcing, an increasing gap between the extremely rich and the extremely poor, an impotent FEMA that couldn’t rescue a cat much less an American city, etc., etc., etc.

I just don’t think Americans are going to fall for this shit again. They see what it got them in 2000 –and they are ready to put the past eight years far far behind them. They won’t be doing that with a vote for the 2008 version of John McCain.

I’ll tell you what, for me personally, every time I see Senator McCain promise everything but his first-born to the bible-thumping crowd, a group that represents just about nothing I believe in, I vow to do everything in my power to see that he is defeated – badly – in November. I will man the phones, pass out fliers, knock on doors, donate money, and fall down on my knees and beg, cry, and pray every night to make sure that we never again have a President who uses my gay son or any other divisive hot-button social issue as political weapon for personal political gain. If a candidate cannot win by appealing to the masses, then he certainly does not deserve to be President.

The choice is simple. Do we want more divisive Rovian politics with a President who dog-whistles to the Dobson crazies by promising them he’ll legislate their twisted version of the bible into every aspect of our private lives or is it time to send the Republicans packing? You already know what I think.