The Democratic party of Tennessee has disavowed their own nominee for US Senate because of his membership in a “hate group.”
Mark Clayton, a political gadfly who believes, among other things, that “Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to amend the Constitution so that he can become president and fulfill Hitler’s superman scenario,” came out on top in the primary, largely because no prominent Dems wanted to run against a strong incumbent, Senator Bob Corker.
“The only time that Clayton has voted in a Democratic primary was when he was voting for himself,” said the Tennessee Democratic Party in a statement. “Many Democrats in Tennessee knew nothing about any of the candidates in the race, so they voted for the person at the top of the ticket. Unfortunately, none of the other Democratic candidates were able to run the race needed to gain statewide visibility or support.”
“Mark Clayton is associated with a known hate group in Washington, D.C., and the Tennessee Democratic Party disavows his candidacy, will not do anything to promote or support him in any way, and urges Democrats to write-in a candidate of their choice in November,” the statement concluded.
The “hate group” referred to in the statement is Public Advocate USA, a group that, according to a description on its website, “has become a highly visible political organization and a model for other conservative activist groups in Washington D.C. and across the country.”
Public Advocate USA’s recent efforts include advocacy campaigns against same-sex marriage and in favor of pro-life legislation.
“Our members are often at the forefront of the defining political issues of our time, always defending the rights of fathers, mothers and children to live their lives free from government intrusions and the self-serving motives of liberal special interests and agendas,” the website says.
Why did they wait until Friday to disavow this nutcase? Come to think of it, they knew he was running for months and did nothing to steer Tennessee Democratic voters away from voting for him. Their cries of outrage ring a little hollow at this point, all things considered.
This fellow Clayton is pretty entertaining. His website is “Dedicated to the defeat of Neo-conservative Lamar Alexander.” Alexander ran successfully for re-election in 2008, where Clayton failed to gain the nomination. He spent no money in the primary, so we assume he just used his campaign website from his last effort.
He “believes the federal government is building a massive, four-football-field wide superhighway from Mexico City to Toronto as part of a secret plot to establish a new North American Union that will bring an end to America as we know it.” It would be pretty hard to keep such a massive construction project “secret.” Besides, Clayton and a lot of other Birchers know about it so it’s hardly under wraps.
This is real fever swamp stuff, akin to FEMA prison camps — something Clayton also believes in. Corker should definitely debate this guy, if only for the entertainment value in tagging the entire Tennessee Democratic party with Clayton’s beliefs.
And what about this “hate group,”Public Advocate USA. Yeah — they’re loony:
Public Advocate has a history of attacking the LGBT community. The letter notes that Public Advocate “has spread lies and vitriol about LGBT people to raise funds, impede progress toward greater equality and to deny LGBT people basic dignity and respect.” It also describes other anti-gay activities by the group, including:
•Provoking readers through a fundraising letter to “imagine a world where the police allow homosexual adults to rape young boys in the streets”;•Comparing marriage equality to bestiality through production of a “Man-Donkey Mock Wedding Ceremony”;
•Defamation of gay people as pedophiles and rapists to be feared. For instance, permitting gay men to be Boy Scout leaders, Public Advocate said, is “the same as being an accessory to the rape of hundreds of boys”; and
•Mischaracterizing national legislation to address an epidemic of anti-LGBT harassment at schools as “requir[ing] schools to teach appalling homosexual acts… force private and even religious schools to teach a pro-homosexual agenda… ram through their entire perverted vision for a homosexual America…. create a new America based on sexual promiscuity.”
If you’re going to oppose the homosexual agenda, you might want to think about doing it without portraying gays as child molesting rapists. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s bar for conservative “hate groups” is pretty low, but Public Advocate USA would have made the cut even if the bar was set at world record height.
Clearly, Tennessee Democrats didn’t do enough to stop Clayton from being the nominee. In that sense, they are complicit in enabling his campaign and have no standing to complain about what the nominee believes and who he represents.
This has never happened before. /sarc
We can chuckle about the Tennessee Democrats’ travails here, but it points to a problem Republicans share; in many states any damned fool can get on the ballot for any party’s nomination. Even US House and Senate races have very low filing fees or other requirements. Anybody who says s/he’s a Republican goes on the Republican ballot and gets a lot of free publicity by doing so, gets to participate in most debates, forums, and other candidate events and can either do major damage to truly legitimate candidates or sometimes win the nomination.
Back in ’98, our Democrat-leaning Supreme Court opened up the closed Republican Primary. Democrat Governor Tony Knowles who barely won in ’94 was VERY vulnerable and could have been beaten by most any well-known Republican. A guy who had been a publisher of small newspapers around the state and had once been elected to the State House entered the primary. He was handsome, articulate, and independently wealthy with both his own and, especially, his wife’s money. He ran a slick, well-financed campaign and became every Democrat’s favorite Republican. He had so much media that a low-information voter would have thought him the only candidate for Governor, Knowles had little media because Democrats settle their nominations far in advance over chardonnay and brie in some wealthy contributor’s house. Trouble is, he was well known to political activists as a scumbag with a LOT of baggage. He cruised to the nomination and then the McClatchey-owned Anchorage Daily News came out with all guns blazing with hit piece after hit piece focussing on his wife’s family ties to the Chicago mob forcing him from the race and leaving the Republicans with no nominee. A State Senator, himself controversial, threw in as a write-in and his poorly funded write-in campaign got 40% of the vote, which shows how vulnerable the Democrat was as he cruised to a second term.
After the Davis decision, we closed the Republican Primary to registered Rs and NPs again thinking that would solve the problem. But a closed primary doesn’t help with the fact that every state and Alaska more than most has a fair share of complete whackjobs that like to run for office and there are plenty of opinion leaders and interest groups that will provide funding to them if they have an axe to grind with another candidate or just want to make mischief. Enter Sarah Palin and her puppy Joe Miller. Sarah hates all things Murkowski because Frank Murkowski didn’t appoint her to his Senate seat. She uses her influence to secure funding for Miller’s candidacy in the Republican Primary, in which incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski seemed to be cruising to the nomination and re-election over place-holder Democrat opposition. It was a deadly dull primary for both parties with almost no contested seats and very little interest – until the last two weeks when Miller unleashed a massive media buy. That huge media buy at the last moment and a Parental Choice initiative on the primary ballot gave Miller an narrow victory over Murkowski. Most active Republicans were terrified that the Democrats would see the opportunity and put in someone, anyone, with statewide name recognition and we’d find the once Reddest state in the Country with two Democrat senators. I still don’t know why they didn’t. In any event, Miller’s inner whackjob came out in spades and Murkowski’s write in win is well known.
I don’t really want to go back to the days of caucusses and smoke-filled rooms, well, yes I do, but I don’t think it is possible in today’s world, but parties really do need some way to control who can get on the ballot for a party’s nomination. Spoiler candidates can do enormous damage. With politics having become all but a blood sport since the Clinton Administration and the enormous influence of interest PACS, parties really need to examine their qualification and nomination processes. If you think the RonPaul people have been disruptive to the Republican Party, think about a Soros-funded ringer in the Republican Primary.
Art. Are you sure that Lisa Murkowski wasn’t/isn’t the “whack job” and not so much Joe Miller? Not debating your assessment which may be accurate but many respected conservative commenters felt otherwise during that race. What is the reasoning behind your take on Miller?
‘any dam fool can get on the ballot for any party’s nomination’. yeah, we can relate to that. i heard about this guy from ken…
oh, never mind. most amerikans are too dumb to go and do a search and learn about fraud and such. and most of the rest are too sensitive to being laughed at to complain about fraud. it seems that alinski was right about a lot of things.
“Clearly, Tennessee Democrats didn’t do enough to stop Clayton from being the nominee”
Other Democrats are guilty of the same thing.
I’d like to know, how long is the list of Scoundrels, reprobates, scalawags, and similar ilk that ran, or run, as Democrats.
Correction: FEMA camps are a bit more plausible than that 400-yard-wide highway.
I don’t see the problem here. Aren’t the Democrats known for their support of the rights of minorities? How much smaller and more downtrodden a minority could there be than homophobic conspiracy promoters?
(All right, so there’s the Black Lesbian Socialists Tatting Circle, and the Ultra-Vegan Alien Abduction Enthusiasts League. But still!)
Thanks, Rick, for helping to shape my worldview this morning. /sarc Glad to hear you are so pro-gay. That explains a lot.
Public Advocate is working to prevent the enactment of the Gay Bill of Special Rights to force employers to hire LGBTs and prevent them from firing them, once hired. Also, they are opposing the Homosexual Classrooms Act (HR 998 and S 555) which would force schools to teach homosexual acts as part of their comprehensive sex education program. Public Advocate also worked to get CPAC back to supporting traditional pro-family values.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a leftist attack operation. Any time they are against what you are doing, you must be doing something for truth, justice and the American way!