We hear down from Austin that Craig James has hired an east coast consultant named Arthur Finkelstein for his campaign. We googled this guy and found a picture with this curious caption:
Gay partner? Oh this gets interesting.
So we googled around and found this from the New York Times:
G.O.P. Consultant Weds His Male Partner
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
ASHINGTON, April 8 - Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts.
Mr. Finkelstein, 59, who has made a practice of defeating Democrats by trying to demonize them as liberal, said in a brief interview that he had married his partner of 40 years to ensure that the couple had the same benefits available to married heterosexual couples.
"I believe that visitation rights, health care benefits and other human relationship contracts that are taken for granted by all married people should be available to partners," he said.
He declined further comment on the wedding, which was in December.
Some of Mr. Finkelstein's associates said they were startled to learn that this prominent American conservative had married a man, given his history with the party, especially at a time when many Republican leaders, including President Bush, have campaigned against same-sex marriage and proposed amending the Constitution to ban it. Mr. Finkelstein has been allied over the years with Republicans who have fiercely opposed gay rights measures, including former Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, and has been the subject of attacks by gay rights activists who have accused him of hypocrisy. He was identified as gay in a Boston Magazine article in 1996.
WOW!
So what's the name of that bogus front group James formed to promote himself? Texans for a Better America? I guess this is Craig James' idea of a better America.
Not sure how well this will go over with sports fans and Republican voters...
...but it does fit in quite nice nicely with his other examples of lapsed ethics and allegedly amoral behavior.
Gay partner? Oh this gets interesting.
So we googled around and found this from the New York Times:
April 9, 2005
ASHINGTON, April 8 - Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts.Mr. Finkelstein, 59, who has made a practice of defeating Democrats by trying to demonize them as liberal, said in a brief interview that he had married his partner of 40 years to ensure that the couple had the same benefits available to married heterosexual couples.
"I believe that visitation rights, health care benefits and other human relationship contracts that are taken for granted by all married people should be available to partners," he said.
He declined further comment on the wedding, which was in December.
Some of Mr. Finkelstein's associates said they were startled to learn that this prominent American conservative had married a man, given his history with the party, especially at a time when many Republican leaders, including President Bush, have campaigned against same-sex marriage and proposed amending the Constitution to ban it. Mr. Finkelstein has been allied over the years with Republicans who have fiercely opposed gay rights measures, including former Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, and has been the subject of attacks by gay rights activists who have accused him of hypocrisy. He was identified as gay in a Boston Magazine article in 1996.
WOW!
So what's the name of that bogus front group James formed to promote himself? Texans for a Better America? I guess this is Craig James' idea of a better America.
Not sure how well this will go over with sports fans and Republican voters...
...but it does fit in quite nice nicely with his other examples of lapsed ethics and allegedly amoral behavior.
