McCain's "maverick" image may apply to some issues, like campaign finance reform. But it clearly doesn't apply to others, including sexual politics. This is one example. Another is LGBT rights (which I described in the comment section of the NYTimes piece, so please don't thing that I'm plagiarizing). I remember, in the lead up to the 2000 election (probably in the Fall of 1999), when he was on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and a man called in with an impassioned request to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), the absurdly straightforward sexual orientation anti-discrimination act which still hasn’t passed. McCain said something that sounded nice and sincere about how he’d have to learn more about the issue.
A few minutes on the net, however, told me that he apparently already felt he knew enough to vote on it–in 1996, when it had failed in the Senate by one vote, McCain had stood up to be counted and cast his vote aginst ENDA. That is, he voted to make sure that employers could still fire employees simply for their sexual orientation. And years later, he wouldn’t own up to it.
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Date: 2008-03-23 04:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-23 03:14 pm (UTC)McCain's "maverick" image may apply to some issues, like campaign finance reform. But it clearly doesn't apply to others, including sexual politics. This is one example. Another is LGBT rights (which I described in the comment section of the NYTimes piece, so please don't thing that I'm plagiarizing). I remember, in the lead up to the 2000 election (probably in the Fall of 1999), when he was on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and a man called in with an impassioned request to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), the absurdly straightforward sexual orientation anti-discrimination act which still hasn’t passed. McCain said something that sounded nice and sincere about how he’d have to learn more about the issue.
A few minutes on the net, however, told me that he apparently already felt he knew enough to vote on it–in 1996, when it had failed in the Senate by one vote, McCain had stood up to be counted and cast his vote aginst ENDA. That is, he voted to make sure that employers could still fire employees simply for their sexual orientation. And years later, he wouldn’t own up to it.