1 Comment Sagesse
Marc Mutty all like, ‘No — by ‘dangerous’ and ‘hyperbole’ and ‘not completely accurate’ I meant ‘AWESOME!”
April 26, 2011
Like I wrote last week, it’s difficult to determine whether Ken Mehlman or Marc Mutty has more for which to atone. Marc keeps himself in the running with this -Adam
Cross-posted at Good As You
By Jeremy Hooper
Remember those clips from the forthcoming Question 1 documentary wherein Marc Mutty, the director of Maine’s “Yes on One” campaign, pretty much admitted that his side’s ads were disingenuous, at best? Yea, well: Mutty has now broken his silence. But rather than actually explain what he meant or take some sense of responsibility for what he admitted were hyperbole-filled ads, Marc’s playing the “out of context” card. Oh, and the victim card, too.
This from the Portland Press Herald, some snippets and link to Mutty’s full “explanation”:
“• First and foremost, let me say directly that I fully support the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman.“
…
“• Second, this campaign was a long, painful process, made all the more difficult by the fact that the campaign staff and I were harassed and threatened repeatedly, to the point that I was concerned for the safety of my staff and our families.
Our computers were hacked, our campaign office was vandalized, death threats were made and our family members were shunned and verbally attacked.
…
It was with this in mind that I said I would never do such a campaign again, knowing the toll it would take on my personal health, and on the well-being of my staff given the degree of antagonism that our position generated from some gay activists and their supporters.
• Third, the Nemitz column extracted video clips out of context and made it appear that I did not believe the truth of our claims that homosexual marriage would be taught to children in the schools.
This is again a misrepresentation; I firmly believe that children should be taught to respect the dignity of all people.
However, legalizing same-sex marriage will redefine our core understanding of marriage as we know it, and have known it since the beginning of time, forever.“
…
“• And finally, this campaign was personally and professionally painful and difficult.”
Simply unreal. This is a man who chose, by how own volition, to step up and take — TO TAKE BACK! — a legislatively-granted civil right via a crude campaign filled with rhetoric that he himself now calls “dangerous.” And yet *HE* is the victim here?!
This writer worked very closely with Maine’s pro-equality campaign and all involved. Were computers hacked? Offices vandalized? Death threats waged? Well, all we can do is take Mr. Mutty on his word on that. But if these incidents did happen, then they (a) went unreported, and (b) were not anywhere close to representative of the intensely positive campaign that “No on One” ran. And if any incidents like this did happen (and Mr. Mutty isn’t planning on years later admitting that these claims are also hyperbolic misrepresentations) then they are born out of the ugly tone of this highly-charged situation — a tone that is set not by the very human idea of people who want to be treated with dignity and respect by the country they love but rather those who do attempt to limit the spectrum of normalcy and its associated rights/protections/benefits!
We would repudiate such incidents, nonetheless. But that doesn’t change that fact that Mr. Mutty’s “professionally painful and difficult” was more of a personal insult to LGBT people and their allies then he could ever possibly know. It’s a shame to see that he’s still campaigning.
Filed under: Marriage equality
31 Comments Leave a Comment
1.
Straight Ally #3008 | April 26, 2011 at 6:52 am
Bigotry is HARD WORK, dammit.
2.
AnonyGrl | April 26, 2011 at 6:54 am
LOL Thank you! That comment made my day!
3.
Sagesse | April 26, 2011 at 7:05 am
Mehlman never ever admitted how truly vile the Republican campaign strategy that he headed was. He just said he regretted it.
4.
Joe | April 26, 2011 at 7:07 am
I really get tired of the "beginning of time" argument to the definition of marriage. It ignores the fact that marriage does not have a universal definition even today, and much less so throughout history. Most of history, marriage has been defined as one man and however many women, or vice versa, other societies have nothing resembling marriage. Many societies today have already discarded the man and woman definition and gone with gender neutral. They just need to be honest and say they think two men kissing, much less all the other things married people do, is disgusting to them and makes them feel oogie. At least then the world can begin to ignore them.
5.
Kathleen | April 26, 2011 at 7:10 am
6.
JonT | April 26, 2011 at 7:12 am
It's not easy being sleazy…
7.
Ann S. | April 26, 2011 at 7:13 am
8.
Rhie | April 26, 2011 at 8:20 am
Watching…
9.
Carpool Cookie | April 26, 2011 at 8:20 am
I like the part about (sob) "We and our families were shunned!!"
Gee, I wonder how THAT happened??
10.
be4marriage | April 26, 2011 at 8:26 am
unbelievable.
11.
Fr. Bill | April 26, 2011 at 8:29 am
Marc Mutty is listed on the RC Diocese of Portland Maine's website as Director of Public Affairs. We know of the connection between NOM and that church. Given the publicity his comments received, perhaps he has received a "godly admonition" from the hierarchy.
12.
Straight Ally #3008 | April 26, 2011 at 8:31 am
Yeah, it's like the first subatomic particles got hitched. But not if they were two dude particles!
13.
Joe | April 26, 2011 at 8:36 am
*Gasp* But…. He isn't gay, how could people possibly shun him?
14.
Steve | April 26, 2011 at 8:40 am
Well, two dude or two girl particles would repel each other. Unless they are neutrons
15.
Alan E. | April 26, 2011 at 8:41 am
"Those comments were not intended to be taken as fact"
16.
AB | April 26, 2011 at 9:01 am
I would like to introduce Mr. Mutty to the families of hate crime victims, and then I would ask him to plead with them for their pity. I wonder how that would go. I bet a million dollars it would sound a lot more like the Mr. Mutty from the documentary.
17.
nightshayde | April 26, 2011 at 9:11 am
*snerk*
Whenever possible, I try to not take anything said by a NOMbie as "fact."
18.
Straight Ally #3008 | April 26, 2011 at 9:13 am
But is charge a choice?
19.
Joel | April 26, 2011 at 10:08 am
To paraphrase Dolly Parton – it's expensive to come across as a bigot!
20.
Ronnie | April 26, 2011 at 10:42 am
Subscribing….<3…Ronnie
21.
Rob in CA | April 26, 2011 at 11:15 am
I'm not one to poke fun but as I read through this thread everytime I come across the subjects name my mind involuntarily reads it as Mr. "Nutty". While I seldom contribute, I read every post and comment in this blog. Maybe I'm starting to crack under the strain.
Rob
22.
Michelle Evans | April 26, 2011 at 1:07 pm
I've always seen it as "McNutty."
23.
Rob in CA | April 26, 2011 at 1:35 pm
That reading has imposed itself on my subconscious as well
24.
be4marriage | April 27, 2011 at 1:24 am
I'm continually surprised at the number of people that will call themselves a Christian, and then purposefully lie. He knew the ads from his campaign were untruthful. He knows that no one sabotaged his headquarters. He knows there weren't any credible death threats. What a crock of… I hope he feels good about himself as he drives good people away from the Catholic Church.
25.
maxvoltagesf | April 27, 2011 at 3:21 am
re: “It has only been man / woman marriage since beginning of time”
umm.. intersex folks have been and continue to get married for as long as there has been marriage. which kind of totally destroys the exclusive man / woman dichotomy claim.
26.
Glenn I | April 27, 2011 at 3:54 am
Shunned by whom? People he's personal responsible for stripping of legal rights?
27.
Glenn I | April 27, 2011 at 3:59 am
I hope he feels terrible as he drives good people away from the Catholic Church. I hope he feels awful in the morning and uncomfortable at night. I hope feels sad over coffee and weepy over tea. I hope Mr Mutty regrets seeing himself in the mirror and having to use his lying face to look out at the world. I hope he moans at the movies and sobs at the rink. I hope he sighs when he should be smiling and chokes up when he should sing.
Until he does penance for his sins, which would include restitution. At that time, hey, I'd be all for his happiness.
28.
pgbach | April 27, 2011 at 4:42 am
There is a cost for advocating bigotry. Mr. Mutty needs to grow up and accept that fact. I'm rather tired of these stupid
rednecks.
29.
pgbach | April 27, 2011 at 4:43 am
Do not confuse Christian with Catholic
30.
pgbach | April 27, 2011 at 4:43 am
Hopefully, he will rot in hell.
31.
Rich | April 27, 2011 at 10:18 am
Marc Mutty spoke the truth in his interview with Bill Nimitz in the Maine Sunday Telegram. Marc Mutty admitted that his association with the anti marriage equality vote was misdirected, based upon lies and misleading innuendo and, on its face, foul and ugly. Marc Mutty then heard from Bishop Malone and the legions of fanatical, bigoted and ultra right christians who assured him that his very soul was headed for hell, that his job was on the line and he must have misspoke. We see this every time the Catholic Church (aka NOM) is called out. Marc Mutty spoke the truth; the Church made him repent…at the risk of losing his soul. And in the end…he lost it.
Leave a Comment
XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
TrackBack URL | RSS feed for comments on this post.