Well, crap. Now I want to contribute to the DNC

Oh, sweet mother of mercy.

I am trying really hard to stay strong in my commitment to withholding cash from the DNC until they start getting more attentive to gay rights issues. But, as I live and breathe, the Republicans seem hell-bent on making me change my mind.

Via TPM:

The NRCC has been quick to attack Tennessee state Sen. Roy Herron, who has emerged as the Democratic candidate for the seating of retiring Blue Dog Rep. John Tanner -- and along the way, they seem to be using some rather interesting rhetoric.

[snip]

Over the course of the past week, the NRCC has mounted a series of attacks on Herron that taken together could suggest they're trying to say that Herron is gay or effeminate.

To be perfectly honest, I think the bulk of the complaints against the NRCC are pretty thin gruel. There may be some dog-whistling going on, but I think it requires a lot of inference to make a case that there is overt gay-baiting at hand.

However, there is this:

Seré has sent out some press releases since then, such as "See Roy Run...From His New-Age Liberal Values," attacking Herron for opposing a ban on adoption by gays, and having been endorsed in his gubernatorial campaign (which he dropped out of when the House seat opened up) by a local gay newspaper. [ed: emphasis wearily added]

It is important to remember that Sere [Blogger won't let me make that little accent mark] is not a local politician from Tennessee. Dude is the spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. So, an official with a national organ of the GOP thinks the fact that the Better Half and I have the Critter is something to be attacked. It is not enough that the Republicans are rabidly opposed to expanding my civil rights, but they think I should lose the right to raise kids to boot.

In the end, it will be the actions of [lower digestive apertures] like Sere that have me rushing to cut another check to the Democrats. No number of polite (but dogged) phone calls can possibly equal the power of the louses on the other side.