If there were ever a time for the openly-gay staffers on Mel Martinez' Senate campaign in Florida to resign, the time is now.
Kirk Fordham, a longtime openly-gay Republican Hill staffer (and former chief of staff to repeatedly-outed gay Republican congressman Mark Foley) is Martinez' chief of finance for the Florida Republican's Senate campaign. Martinez is running against Rep. Bill McCollum in the upcoming Republican primary.
According to today's St. Petersburg Times editorial, Martinez' campaign blasted McCollum in a press teleconference set up to - get this - show that McCollum is anti-family because he's too pro-gay. During the conference call, Martinez' representatives spoke of their disdain for the "gay agenda," and when the reporters asked a question about gays working for Martinez' campaign - bit of hypocrisy there, Mr. Martinez? - the Martinez reps turned around and said McCollum has a gay political consultant! Martinez' reps actually used the fact that McCollum allegedly has a gay campaign staffer to smear McCollum. This even though Martinez has an openly gay finance chair, and has used another gay political consultant in the past (who ironically was head of the Florida Christian Coalition).
The Times' editorial concluded:
...the disgraceful intolerance on display in this conference call arranged by the Martinez campaign sank to depths that hadn't been seen in this or any other recent statewide race. Former Republican U.S. Sen. Connie Mack reacted by saying Martinez "has forfeited his ability to attract mainstream Democrats and independents in November." Mack may well be right.How can these people live with themselves?
