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Thursday, Nov 26, 2009
His Christian Coalition appearance marks him as the leading conservative rival to George W. Bush.
Oct 4, 1999 | Two gay men and their lesbian friend were eating Ben & Jerry's ice cream pops in the Steve Forbes family picnic area at the annual Christian Coalition convention Saturday.
"We're from the neighborhood," explained Daniel Quinn, 38, a clinical social worker who lives just blocks from the Hilton Hotel, where the convention was held, in D.C.'s gay-friendly Dupont Circle neighborhood. "The neighborhood where Steve Forbes' father used to hang out," Quinn went on, adding that the late, since-outed publisher Malcolm Forbes would routinely pop into a local hot spot called the Eagle, a gay leather bar.
Quinn and his partner, Robert McRuer, 33, a gay-studies professor at George Washington University, and Cheryl Court, 34, popped in Saturday to raise some eyebrows, make a statement and get a giggle over the annual religious right confab. "Even though we're not welcome in their hometowns, they're more than welcome in ours," said McRuer.
Not surprisingly, the three said, a few convention attendees approached the flamingly dressed trio (one of their shirts was emblazoned with "GAY" in Gap-style font) and urged them to "change" to heterosexuality.
"I was like, 'You can change, too,'" said McRuer. "'That style went out in '84!'"
Court pointed out that she has changed -- she was once not only straight, but a married fundamentalist Christian. Quinn seconded that, adding that he was once a Franciscan monk. "So we understand these people," he said.
Steve Forbes, the son of one of Quinn and McRuer's former bar mates, is desperately trying to understand "these people," too. And it looks like he's having some success.
In a well-received speech to the convention on Saturday, Forbes bashed Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura for his comments in this month's Playboy magazine interview, in which he said that "organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people."
"Bullies end up belittling themselves," Forbes said. "It makes you wonder if organized wrestling should require wrestlers in the future to wear protective helmets."
The crowd loved it.
"It was people of faith who founded this country," Forbes said. "George Washington said that 'It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe without a Supreme Being. And it is impossible to govern ... without the aide of a Supreme Being.'
"Take that, Jesse," he added, much to the crowd's delight.
But Ventura was just target practice; Forbes' rhetorical sights were locked on front-running Texas Gov. George W. Bush, whom he derided as another weak-kneed moderate Republican without a foundation of principle. "We don't have to settle for mush," Forbes said. "If you don't know where you're going, every road can take you there."
Calling for a series of five debates with Bush and the other Republican presidential prospects, Forbes lit into the Texas governor by throwing red meat to the ravenous crowd. Bush "wanted troops in Kosovo," Forbes said, while he opposed the NATO campaign. Bush "believes in business as usual in Communist China," while Forbes doesn't.
Bush wants more federal control of schools; Forbes wants less. Bush has no pro-life litmus test for judges; Forbes hands out fliers that say "If you don't respect this child, you won't wear this robe." Bush won't promise that he'll only select a pro-life running mate, Forbes makes that promise again and again and again.
In addition to new religious-right whipping boy Jesse "The Mouth" Ventura, Forbes bashed more traditional New World Order touchstones like the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund.
Forbes' newfound Christian voice is clearly finding an audience. But it remains to be seen whether it will make him anything other than a bridesmaid to Bush's bride.
A Mason-Dixon poll conducted at the end of September had Forbes holding steady with 22 percent support among likely Republican Iowa caucus voters. Bush, on the other hand, shot up from 21 percent in July to 41 points in September.
