Posted on 03/10/2010 7:47:03 AM PST by SmithL
Bakersfield - -- The state senator who represents this Bible Belt region of farms and oil fields was once best known for moments like the one he created on April 2, 2005.
Organizing a rally at Bakersfield's Patriots Park, Roy Ashburn stood with evangelical leaders to condemn same-sex marriage as gay-rights advocates shouted him down.
"Marriage between one man and one woman is fundamental to civilization," Ashburn said that day.
Now, after a drunken driving arrest near a gay bar in Sacramento forced Ashburn to reveal that he is homosexual, people in his district - including some who were at Patriots Park that day - are wrestling with what to make of him and his long public career.
Conservative leaders call him a sinner, while gay-rights activists say he wielded anti-gay votes as a shield to protect his secret. But in cafes, salons and saloons, many regular folks voiced the same opinion: It's better to have a gay politician voting against gay rights than to have a straight one voting for them.
While lauding him for being a politician who could set aside his sexuality, however, many voters admitted they couldn't do the same.
They said Ashburn never would have been elected if voters knew he was gay - not even to the Kern County Board of Supervisors, where he started out in 1984. Whether that makes Ashburn a liar or a pragmatic politician who knows his constituency is the subject of hot debate....
At the Head of Time hair salon in downtown Bakersfield, cosmetologist Cindy McGregor, 43, voiced a familiar theme among locals, saying, "I was more upset about (Ashburn's alleged) drunk driving than anything."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
What’s the conflict? Vote him out.
There is a Bible Belt in California? Hmm. Can we find a new analogy?
Where is the conflict in his statement to reality?
I'm sure that Timothy Geithner would say that paying your taxes is fundamental to the sustainability of government even though he is a known tax cheat.
He can’t run again due to term limits, and he won’t be running for any other office.
What conflict? He lied.
If he was secretly married to a man then I would see the hypocrisy claimed by a lot of the media. Don’t see it yet.
I don’t know anything about the terms of his marriage to his (now divorced) wife, but presuming that he deceived her into thinking she was marrying a heterosexual than that is his most egregious act that makes him unfit for any public office. As Ross Perot once said “If ya wife caint trust ya, then I caint trust ya.”
he’s like a fiscal conservative with a zero credit rating.
It’s just sex, so I hear.
I have yet to see anyone denouncing him as a legislator for his DUI charge. It’s all over sexual matters.
Drinkers aren’t saying “hey, he’s one of us”.
But the lavender mafia is ready to pounce on him.
Again, if a tax cheat can be in charge of our tax system, then a homosexual can vote against same sex marriage and talk about the nuclear couple (male and female) being the basis to stability in our culture.
I’d rather have someone convicted of DWI/DUI running the state highway admin than a tax cheat running the treasury.
Amen. I think.
Vote him out in the next primary.
In a similar vein as “people who live in glass houses should not throw bricks”; people with personal conflicts like Mr. Ashburn has, should avoid careers that put them in the public spotlight; it only compounds their problems when their life-secrets come undone.
Who do I feel MOST sorry for? Not him. I feel most sorry for his wife and then his children. They were betrayed.
Not necessary. He’s termed out.
I’m a fiscal conservative and I have a zero credit rating. I don’t own any credit cards.
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