Andrew Sullivan: Pan Fried

You may know the name or the mug of this prolific columnist, editor, author, blogger and all-'round opinion flinger. We hold such outspoken types in high esteem around here. Truth told, if we had our druthers, we'd have his audience and he'd have our Kansas bungalow.

Andrew Sullivan (photo: http://www.roycecarlton.com/) is a self-described "libertarian conservative". He's gay and Catholic. He's pro-gay marriage but Vatican-committed. He's British-born and obsessed with the American cultural and political landscape. He's authored "Virtually Normal", an apologetics manual for homosexuality in an adverse climate. He's also pined about the loss of the Conservative Soul (The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How To Get It Back). He's Pan - everything to everyone, thus not enough to anyone. You might say Andrew Sullivan stands as a beacon in the darkness for Gay/Lesbian people everywhere. Or you might say he's the ultimate half-assed excuse for a Gay public figure we've seen since Abraham Lincoln.

Well... we might.

Today, the paper brings word that Sullivan suggests Democrats dump Hillary due to her negative perception ratings (about double those of Barack Obama in a recent poll). He leaps at the opportunity to quote a "critic" (there's a deep well for you) who calls her a liar, rigid, and possessive of a divine sense of electability. Fair enough. We love name calling. We got good at it in grade school and honed the skill in Law School. What we want to know is where Sullivan bought the glass for that rock-launching pad of a mansion he inhabits.

If lying, rigidity, and divine sensibilities aren't hallmarks of the Right Wing that Sullivan has so tirelessly enabled to his own detriment (not least of all from his perch atop The New Republic), then we haven't been watching the same wing flap lo these many years. We don't have to go back to Nixon (Watergate), Reagan (take your pick - let's go with Iran/Contra to mix things up), Bush I ("read my lips"), or even call up Bush II (again...the well is deep) to talk about lying.

We don't have to call up the 6 year history of this administration in refusing to change course until the road was blown out from under them - and even then insisting on using the same dirt, the same asphalt, the same personnel and the same tire tracks to re-lay the same road to the same failure only for new reasons. Rigid, indeed.

We don't have to point out the rise of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell (may peace escape his rest), William (Let It Ride) Bennett, Ralph Reed, Don Wildmon, Phyllis Schlafly, James Dobson, Lindsay Graham or the myriad other religious zealots who took the reigns of his beloved Republican Party in the 80's and only now are being forced to loose their grip - by way of amputation.

So our question to Mr. Sullivan is: Was it a compliment or a curse that you were hurling at Senator Clinton, who has done more to serve her country in the public eye than most of the Sullivans in history combined? Is lying now anathema to your cabal on the Right? We'd like the memo for proof. We're assuming it isn't in Scooter Libby's or Karl Rove's briefcase any longer. Is rigidity now a bad thing after 6 years of Stay The Course - regardless of the consequences to people we'll never meet? Is God a registered Republican when it comes to lending divine touch to vain political ambition or genuine service? Do tell. We're protestant over here. We don't have a pointy-hatted man with great shoes to tell us what God thinks.

Perhaps Mr. Sullivan would like to pack in his Prada Pope, his Tiger-By-The-Tail pro-gay, pro-marriage, pro-Right compote and his keyboard and go somewhere to rest a while. What used to look like hopelessly sucking up to assholes in power now just looks inane. We liked having a smart, gay man out there stirring the pot - whether we agreed with him or not.

Now, we'd just as soon he go home and focus on England post-Blair. We're sure his mix is a hoot over there. We'll make up our own mind about Hillary and company without wading through the imported self-loathing, thank you.