The Big Tent

So, here's something odd and compelling.

Check out this post from the Log Cabin Republicans blog, which places Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon, Sen. Collins and homophobe Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) within smiling inches of each other.

Explains Log Cabin blogger Scott Tucker:

Last night, Log Cabin Republicans hosted a fundraiser in Washington, DC for one of our endorsed Senate allies, Susan Collins (R-ME)...Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)...surprised the crowd by stopping by to express his support for Sen. Collins.

Surprised? I'll bet. (There's another pic here.)

Coburn, you see, has had some, well, interesting things to say about gays and gay rights over the years.

In the lead-up to his 2004 campaign, he told a Republican group:

The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power ... That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda.

Around the same time, he warned of rampant lesbianism in Oklahoma schools.

(He's also called for the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions.)

Coburn explained his presence at Log Cabin event this way: "I always come to a fundraiser for Susan Collins. The Senate needs more people like her, and I’m proud to call her my friend."

So we have to ask: Why does Sen. Collins welcome the support of this dangerous man?

And why does Coburn see Collins' reelection as so important that he's willing to fight for it even if it winds up advancing the "gay agenda" that he thinks is "the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today"?

Finally, what of the Log Cabin Republicans? What kind of train wreck of an organization downplays the the virulent views of someone who longs for the group's political annihilation, and then goes out of its way to boast of its "friendship" with him?

As I said, odd and compelling. But not exactly pretty.

Can't say it reflects well on any of the parties involved.