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Loading ...Alaska legislature rejects Palin homophobic AG pick
04.17.2009 11:13am EDT
(Juneau, Alaska) The Alaska Legislature on Thursday rejected Gov. Sarah Palin’s nominee for state attorney general, the latest of several clashes between lawmakers and the governor since she became a national figure as the GOP’s vice presidential nominee last year.
Nine Republicans and 26 Democrats rejected Anchorage attorney Wayne Anthony Ross in a 35-23 vote by a joint session of the House and Senate. Ross had been criticized for, among other things, refusing to disavow his past characterization of gays as “immoral” and “degenerate.”“The governor honored me by choosing me and I would have done a good job, and I would have enjoyed representing the people of the state of Alaska,” Ross said following the vote. Ross, a current director of the National Rifle Association, said he planned to return to private practice.
Palin was traveling and was not present for the vote. She was the headliner at a Thursday fundraising dinner in Indiana for an anti-abortion group.
“I believed I knew what Alaskans wanted when I selected an individual who is a strong backer of Second Amendment rights, a staunch supporter of the state Constitution and a defender of life,” Palin said in a statement.
“I’m surprised that legislators in this case really did not seem to represent their constituents and allowed themselves to be swayed by side issues,” she said.
Ross, a former two-time candidate for governor, served as an honorary co-chairman of Palin’s successful 2006 gubernatorial bid.
He ran into trouble with some lawmakers when he waded into the ongoing fray between Palin and Senate Democrats over filling Juneau’s vacant state Senate seat. She must choose a Democrat to replace the incumbent, but she refused to pick the choice of local party leaders and Senate Democrats have rejected her first two selections.
Ross said Democrats should fill the seat without arguing about whether the process was legal or illegal, drawing criticism that he was advising legislators to ignore the law.
Ross refused to say at his confirmation hearings whether his earlier opinions about gays and lesbians have changed.
“My job is to represent all Alaskans. My personal opinions have no place,” he said to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Many Alaska Native groups also opposed him because he opposes the federal law granting a rural preference for subsistence hunting and fishing.
Palin was once praised for her ability to work with Alaska Democrats to push through major initiatives, but since the bruising presidential campaign she has clashed with legislative Democrats and some Republicans over issues including her stance on accepting federal stimulus funds. Polls show she remains popular among Alaska voters.
Maybe Alaska does have some sense after all.
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May we say good riddance, or avoidance, in this case. And AG’s need to know how to uphold the rights of all the citizens of the state.
Let’s ignore Palin and the media that keeps her in the spotlight. She is a S$$T stain on the panties of life and the more we ignore her, maybe she will go away. Too bad her mother was pro-life.
New LGBT rights group, Alaskans Together for Equality helped make Alaska history as Sarah Palin’s anti-gay Attorney General pick is rejected. This was the first time in Alaska’s 50 years as a state that the Alaska Legislature rejected a cabinet nominee by the Governor.
LGBT Alaskans were among the first to raise the alarm about Ross due to his extreme homophobic remarks. In a 1993 letter to the Alaska Bar Association writing against Anchorage’s new anti-discrimination protections for gays and lesbians, Ross called gays ‘degenerates’ and homosexuality a ‘perversion.’ Given the chance to explain these and other anti-gay slurs in a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Ross said that, ‘I hate lima beans, but I could still represent them.’
I’m affraid that I’ve heard enough about Palin and her pitchfork. It’s time to rid her out of Alaska’s government.
I hope she succeeds in ambition of running against Obama in 2012. Jindal would be serious competition. But Obama can snooze his way to re-election against Palin.
Poor Palin…she is just a complete moron.
What a nasty excuse for a human being — but thank god she’s out in the tundra. IMHO, it’s degenerate and immoral to knowingly give birth to a child with Downs Syndrome.
I admit I am frustrated with the slow pace of “change” we’ve seen from Obama re: LGBT equality. However, this is a taste of what we could have expected if we’d elected the Republican ticket. That’s no excuse for the Dems, just a little context.
Yes, too bad her mother was pro-life. Too bad we couldn’t have known what a rotten opportunist she would be, and have had mommy have an abortion.
McBitch is my term for her, although while I have great disagreement with Sen McCain – re how he divorced his wife who waited 7 years for him (moral values, Huh), and accepted the republican nomination, maybe the word is too harsh, because it drags him over the coals of this mental whore, who sold her soul to the repubs. Or maybe, for accepting her as the vp candidate, he deserves absolutely no sympathy. sorry JOhn – wonder if you get it now. There is still time to repent, and maybe become a leader of the republican party and take it back from the nazi like abyss it is jumping into with the likes of RadioFuhrer Limbaugh and the others like him