Dallas Gay Leaders Okay Miers Pick

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.dallasvoice.com/articles/dispArticle.cfm?Article_ID=6701

None of Dallas’ gay City Council members served at the same time as Miers. But they all said they have met her and respect her abilities and accomplishments. All said they would be comfortable with her appointment to the Supreme Court.

Chris Luna, a Dallas attorney, worked with Miers more closely than any of the other gay council members. She chaired the city’s Judicial Nominating Commission when he was a council member, Luna said..

“She is judicious, she listens to people, gets all of the facts, doesn’t jump to conclusions. Then she makes a decision,” he said.

William W. Waybourn, a former president of the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance who is president of Window Media, which owns and operates a group of gay newspapers, said he is also comfortable with the selection.

“She was always very nice and very cordial and friendly,” Waybourn said. “I don’t remember anything bad about her.”

Waybourn said as a council member Miers had appointed some gay people to municipal boards and commissions, including gay Dallas attorney Don McCleary, whom she appointed to the Community Development Commission.

“I don’t think the right-wing Republicans are going to feel comfortable with her,” Waybourn said.

[rpannier]

1. If I was a Gay Dallas Council Member I Might Endorse Her

even if I thought she was a poor choice. What better way to get santorum, allen and the rest of those homophobes up in arms.
Whether he is being sincere or not, I don't know. But either way it could help to sink her nomination.

[readmoreoften]

2. For all I know they're Log Cabin Republicans. n/t

[crispini]

5. I think Chris Luna's a Dem.

I haven't heard of the others....

[Zhade]

18. Well, Zell Miller was a "Dem", too.

Just sayin'.

[struggle4progress]

32. The Dallas Observer: Luna Landing (April 1996)

Chris Luna's deceitful public-service career finally hits bottom
By Laura Miller
Published: Thursday, April 18, 1996

<snip> "I'm not talking about the settlement at all until after it's done," Luna said.

Yeah, but how do you feel when your fellow council members sit there week after week, privately making snide remarks and nasty jokes at your expense about your incredibly sleazy role in one of the most costly lawsuits in the city's history? <snip>

Not surprising, of course. Because what he had done--what council members have been discussing among themselves for almost a year, and what the city attorney finally made official last week--was to actively help Cinemark, the wealthy Dallas-based movie-theater company, by providing ammunition useful in its suit against the city.

He had done this by slipping information and documents to Cinemark's zoning lawyer Kirk Williams--including, most damaging of all, a highly confidential memo the city attorney had prepared for a closed-door meeting with the council.
<snip>

http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/1996-04-18/news/columns.html

[struggle4progress]

35. William Waybourn may be building corporate power by consolidating ..

.. gay newspapers:

Under corporate ownership,
the Washington Blade has lost its edge

By Brian Montopoli
Courtesy of the Washington City Paper

http://gaytoday.com/garchive/penpoints/041502pp.htm

[booksenkatz]

3. So the criteria is nice, cordial and friendly, eh?

Wow, all these years, I thought you needed more than THAT to sit on SCOTUS!

[Starbucks Anarchist]

10. Hell, half of *'s votes were based on that assumption about him.

The other half were based on alcohol, tobacco and firearms.

[elfin]

4. They keep hoping that

a closeted Repug gay will have some conscience at critical votes. They keep forgetting that closeted Repug gays are the most homophobic of all when it comes to public policy matters.

This is the stangest phenomenon of the current political climate.

[Sandpiper]

16. Self-loathing gays make the most vicious homophobes

J. Edgar Hoover being an infamous example.

[nvliberal]

37. Evidence she's gay?

Didn't think so.

[Bumblebee]

6. wow, now the conservatives are going to be really unhappy! Great!

[Jersey Ginny]

14. This could be a new strategy for dems

If they don't like a nominee, get a group of gay people to endorse that person and watch the right wing go ballistic!

[Kenergy]

20. LOL! Yes, that would be a good strategy :-) n/t

[WenWorld1]

7. Shut Up and Watch

So my fellow lefties were expecting Bush to nominate a supreme court candidate who wears a lot of hemp clothing, does not own a car, and plays in an alternative band? For God (or god) sake, shut up and let this nomination happen. If the left joins the righty nuts and kills this nomination, we are going to get a knuckle dragging hard core anti-Roe judge from the 5th Circuit as the replacement candidate, who will be confirmed after a lot of pointless BS from the left. Let Ms. Miers show us what she has. If Kerry had not been such a pointless idiot, we would not be in this position, but we are so suck it up and do the smart thing.

[Bumblebee]

9. she is still bad news and should not be confirmed

let him keep nominating people until his 3+ years are up!

[EST]

11. I make it a specific point, on alternate hours,

to think exactly as you do! Welcome to DU! We were all wondering when you'd show up!

[Smarmie Doofus]

12. But tell us what you really feel ! n/t

[calmblueocean]

17. You got it.

I think we lucked out with Miers. She's splitting the Repub base, and to be honest, I expected much worse. I love that conservatives are hating her nomination. Let her sit on the bench as a lifetime monument to their President-King.

[MADem]

24. If she doesn't make the cut, and they pass over Priscilla Owens

or Janice Rodgers Brown, the likely pick will be Gonzalez.

[Sgent]

30. Welcome to DU

I agree with you mostly on this one.

She seems to be better than Owens or other options that might come down the pipe.

[sasquatch]

8. I bet the FReepers are trying to hang themselves by their mullets

:D

[Fridays Child]

13. Now, there's a great visual!

:D

[TaleWgnDg]

15. Overall, from what I've read about Harriet E. Miers, she seems

.

Overall, from what I've read about Harriet E. Miers, she seems to be "charitable" to minorities, i.e., fulfilling her "Christian duty."

However, there's one hell of a huge difference between being "charitable" to other people than there is to being damn sure that their legal civil rights are law and are equal with the rest of the nation's people. I believe that Miers is "charitable" but will not vote for minority rights. Plain and simple.

You know, one may say that George W. Bush, in his "born-again" over-zealous Jesus-speak is "charitable" to the "little guy," but when it comes to putting civil rights including gay rights into law, then George Walker Bush walks away.

I believe Harriet E. Miers is of similar mind and action.





.

[daleo]

19. I agree, she will politely listen, then rule as a neo-con

Bush wouldn't make a choice this unlikely (from the point of view of experience) unless she was reliable.

[Kenergy]

21. I wonder what O'Connor thinks of her n/t

[IndianaGreen]

22. Was this before or after her abortion?

She had a significant event in her life that caused her to leave her church and turn into one of those evangelicals. Bush and Dobson have given signals that she is anti-abortion. What was this event? Is she like "Jane Roe," who after giving up her child for adoption turned against the abortion rights movement.

[Blaq Dem]

23. But most gay women don't have abortions...

hint...hint

Miers is sounder gayer these days. Is she really a very happy person?

[nvliberal]

36. My, my how we make assumptions

where no evidence exists.

Geez, we could have four gays on the court, if nonsense rumors are to be believed: Miers, Roberts, Souter, and Kennedy.

[OKNancy]

25. kick

[janx]

26. Dallas gay leaders OK Miers pick

Only known record of her stances on gay rights
surfaces in lesbian’s garage

President Bush on Monday nominated Dallas native Harriet Ellan Miers to the United States Supreme Court — turning the eyes of the nation on a 16-year-old document stored in the garage of longtime lesbian leader Louise Young.
Bush named Miers, the White House counsel, to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Miers, formerly a prominent Dallas lawyer and a past president of the State Bar of Tex-as, is a longtime, close associate of Bush’s. She has no prior experience as a judge.
When she heard the news of Bush’s nomination, Young re-membered that Miers had appeared before the Lesbian/Gay Political Coalition’s screening committee when Miers ran for the Dallas City Council in 1989. The politician did not ask for the political coalition’s endorsement, but she filled out the questionnaire and spoke to the group.
Rummaging through the storage boxes that she had moved from Dallas to Vermont and back, Young found the document. Its existence has now been reported by virtually every news organization in the country.
Young said that she fielded numerous calls from the media this week.
“I think I’ve talked to just about everybody,” Young said. “It’s been kind of wild.”
Young said she kept all of the records from the coalition, which eventually merged with the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance, because to do otherwise “would be like throwing away our history,” she said.
Her foresight apparently paid off.
“It’s interesting that the only paper trail on her stand on gay rights was in my garage,” Young said. “Isn’t that odd?”

More at link:

http://www.dallasvoice.com/articles/dispArticle.cfm?Article_ID=6701

No comment... :rofl: !!!

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[struggle4progress]

38. " ... Louise Young, former co-chair of the Lesbian/Gay Political Coalition

of Dallas, said Miers provided mixed responses to a questionnaire on gay issues that the group sent her during her council campaign, with some of Miers’ responses 'non-supportive' on gay rights.

Former Lesbian/Gay Political Coalition member Marc Lerro, a D.C. resident, said he recalls that Miers stated in the questionnaire that she would not support a bill to repeal the Texas sodomy law, saying the matter would not come before the Dallas City Council. <snip>

"I can’t say policy wise that she will be good on our issues," Lerro said. "But on a personal level, she was very open to having gay people serve on boards and commissions." <snip>

http://southernvoice.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=2742

<edit:> SoVo is one of Waybourn's publications: see post #35 above

[janx]

27. Recommended!

This should have a prominent place in the NEWZ. :rofl:

[CountAllVotes]

28. no one should "endorse" Miers

If the gays in Texas are endorsing her, they are truly stupid.

:kick:

[Rich Hunt]

29. kick

LOL

:kick:

[adaada]

31. LOL...well I'm sure that's going to help her win over Bush's base. eom

[VegasWolf]

33. Miers, a 60 year old and never married woman and gay friendly! Humm! nt

[anotherdrew]

34. two gay-friendly SC noms from bush, odd.

is 'base' is gonna love this (all night long)