Posted on Sep 22, 2015
"Mike Huckabee shows why he’s an absolute jerk with response to appointment of first gay Army secretary"
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From: Salon
More than two decades of experience working on military policy, serving as chief of staff under Defense Secretary Ash Carter at the Pentagon and serving as the undersecretary for the Air Force are apparently not sufficient enough accomplishments to prevent Republican presidential candidates from demeaning your promotion to Secretary of the Army if you are gay.
On Friday, President Obama announced the historic appointment of Eric Fanning to become the first openly gay civilian secretary of any branch of the military. Fanning was described by Defense Secretary Ash Carter as “one of our country’s most knowledgeable, dedicated, and experienced public servants,” but that did not stop former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee from denouncing Fanning’s appointment as pandering to “America’s homosexuals.”
“Homosexuality is not a job qualification,” the right-wing candidate wrote on Facebook following Fanning’s appointment, denouncing “social experiments” in the military. As the Washington Post notes, the Obama administration has six openly gay ambassadors; a gay man serving as the first special envoy to promote global LGBT rights; five transgender men and women who have served in federal agencies, and a full-time transgender staffer in the White House.
“It’s clear President Obama is more interested in appeasing America’s homosexuals than honoring America’s heroes,” the Huckster surmised:
Below is Gov. Huckabee’s statement in response to President Obama’s decision to nominate Eric Fanning as Secretary of…
Posted by Mike Huckabee on Saturday, September 19, 2015
According to CNN, Fanning’s nomination was also questioned by Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, who told evangelical Iowans at this weekend’s Faith and Freedom forum that he worried Fanning’s nomination was meant to serve as a “political statement” from the President.
“I certainly hope that the secretary of the Army is being nominated because the President wants the right person to defend our nation and not because he is looking to make a political statement on issues of sexual orientation unrelated to defending this nation and keeping us safe,” Cruz said. “But as I said, I will wait until his confirmation hearing to assess his record on the merits.”
Fanning’s nomination now awaits confirmation by Cruz and his Senate colleagues.
http://www.salon.com/2015/09/21/mike_huckabee_shows_why_hes_an_absolute_jerk_with_response_to_appointment_of_first_gay_army_secretary/
More than two decades of experience working on military policy, serving as chief of staff under Defense Secretary Ash Carter at the Pentagon and serving as the undersecretary for the Air Force are apparently not sufficient enough accomplishments to prevent Republican presidential candidates from demeaning your promotion to Secretary of the Army if you are gay.
On Friday, President Obama announced the historic appointment of Eric Fanning to become the first openly gay civilian secretary of any branch of the military. Fanning was described by Defense Secretary Ash Carter as “one of our country’s most knowledgeable, dedicated, and experienced public servants,” but that did not stop former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee from denouncing Fanning’s appointment as pandering to “America’s homosexuals.”
“Homosexuality is not a job qualification,” the right-wing candidate wrote on Facebook following Fanning’s appointment, denouncing “social experiments” in the military. As the Washington Post notes, the Obama administration has six openly gay ambassadors; a gay man serving as the first special envoy to promote global LGBT rights; five transgender men and women who have served in federal agencies, and a full-time transgender staffer in the White House.
“It’s clear President Obama is more interested in appeasing America’s homosexuals than honoring America’s heroes,” the Huckster surmised:
Below is Gov. Huckabee’s statement in response to President Obama’s decision to nominate Eric Fanning as Secretary of…
Posted by Mike Huckabee on Saturday, September 19, 2015
According to CNN, Fanning’s nomination was also questioned by Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, who told evangelical Iowans at this weekend’s Faith and Freedom forum that he worried Fanning’s nomination was meant to serve as a “political statement” from the President.
“I certainly hope that the secretary of the Army is being nominated because the President wants the right person to defend our nation and not because he is looking to make a political statement on issues of sexual orientation unrelated to defending this nation and keeping us safe,” Cruz said. “But as I said, I will wait until his confirmation hearing to assess his record on the merits.”
Fanning’s nomination now awaits confirmation by Cruz and his Senate colleagues.
http://www.salon.com/2015/09/21/mike_huckabee_shows_why_hes_an_absolute_jerk_with_response_to_appointment_of_first_gay_army_secretary/
Politics
Army
LGBTQ+
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 25
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You can question the timing, you can question his sexuality, but you cannot question his resume, and that alone speaks volumes. The man is qualified. Did his sexuality have to be mentioned no, but had the administration not said something first, and it still came out (which in DC it would), they would've been called out for saying it. This is the same crap when Eric Holder was nominated for AG...Obama's only asking for him because he's black. Not because he had a solid resume. And his replacement for AG, female and black...don't look at the resume and see that she also was very qualified. Or with the invitations for meeting the Pope. Out of 15k people invited, the focus is on the few that aren't "normal". Huckabee there's so many more pressing issues in America than worrying about race, sexual orientation, religion, and a myriad of other things. BTW how did your standing with Josh Duggar work out? He shared you uber conservative Christian views and wasn't a sinner was he? Hoe about the KY Clerk? Worry about governing ALL and placing the best person for the job in there. But at the same time, if it wasn't for affirmative action, in some ways these glass ceilings wouldn't be crushed.
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SSG Warren Swan
SGT William Howell - Are you sure you're in a mixed marriage or is the wife just letting you think that you have a political view point (just joking). Carson is dead on with that too, but in the case of our glorious legislature, even if you're in the same party you can't agree and if you're in opposite parties you still don't agree. Maybe what we need is for someone to agree to something all the time? I'd like to gripe on that compared to what we have now, where we gripe over nothing at all with nothing being done.
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SGT William Howell
SSG Warren Swan I believe in all my heart that there is a leader out there that can get Congress to work together. JFK turned this country upside down with the fight for racial equality in the '60s. Not only did he have to work to get Republicans on board, but he had to fight within the Democrat Blue Bloods. He made it happen even with all that opposition. So I know we have had it in the past, maybe again we can have a leader like that again.
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SSG Warren Swan
SGT William Howell - Honest question; and here's my answer before you answer. In the vein that JFK had to work to pull this country together while preparing it for war, he had a charismatic side to him that IMO made folks want to listen and excel. He came from a respected family line of politicians and himself was a combat non draft dodging or using the military as a stepping stone for office war vet, so he knew what the dangers were. This is just me talking. With todays candidates, I don't see them working for "country" I see them working for special interest, big "anything", and those who can give them more money for their parties. I'd like to see another JFK in office (we came close with Bill and Monica to rival JFK and Marilyn). But are we doomed to have another eight years of waiting to see if we can get someone comparable? I'm not speaking of JFK in the party sense, but of JFK the man. I don't see it with the batch of candidates we have now from either party.
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1SG Joseph Yorski, MHS
I'll question his resume. Here it is from the Army's own website. Looks pretty light to me and more than a little of it is private sector and political appointments. Decide for yourselves, but it's clear to me this guy's lifestyle choices have more to do with his nomination than his qualifications.
http://www.army.mil/e2/rv5_downloads/leaders/usa/fanning_bio.pdf
http://www.army.mil/e2/rv5_downloads/leaders/usa/fanning_bio.pdf
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Not at all...the timing does seem a little too coincidental that he is the best qualified. Huckabee shows courage to not pander to political correctness.
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For far too long, being gay has been considered to be an automatic DISqualifier for a lot of things. Now they're saying 'See, he's gay, and he got here. Sexual orientation really doesn't matter" and the typical ones who are up in arms about it are giving the usual smokescreen.... Give it a rest.
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