decombei 15.2000 •
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SHTIL,
MAYN CORAZON
T he P arty ’ s O ver
Now that Bush has claimed victory, pundits reassess Washington's political outlook
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by Bob Roehr
D E C 13
' | he fear and loathing many gay push Bush to make centrist nominations, which
political organizations expressed
would not he out of character.
during the fall election campaign
As the New York Times noted in an article
have mellowed into a cautiously
last summer, the appointments he made to fill
optimistic view of what might
vacancies in the Texas judiciary brought that
occur in Washington during the next two years.
body back toward the political center. Buermey­
Rich Tafel, executive director of the Log er is taking a wait-and-see attitude.
Cabin Republicans, which endorsed Texas Gov.
“The real unknown is what the administra­
George W. Bush, wants to “downplay any
tion will look like,” says Christopher Anders, a
expectations” and fears of a Bush administra­ lobbyist on gay and lesbian issues with the Amer­
tion. He thinks that conservatives are going to
ican Civil Liberties Union, who notices a hit of
put a lot of demands on the president-elect but a split among those close to Bush. “Ironically, it
that “his instinct is not to go in that direction.” is the Austin people who are the moderates, and
The thin Republican edge in the House and
the Washington people are the hard-liners.”
virtual power sharing in the Senate will rein­
Anders does not anticipate a rollback of the
force that, Tafel adds. “The message from the
1998 presidential executive order on sexual ori­
election is that moderation works.”
entation in federal employment. The fact that
Tafel says perhaps the most encouraging sign conservatives tried to overturn it in the House
in this delayed transition is that Andrew Card
and lost by a margin of 76 votes “basically put a
has been appointed W hite House chief of staff.
little bit of Congress’ imprimatur on it.”
He is a Massachusetts Republican in the mold of
Bush told a group of gay Republicans at an
gay-friendly former Gov. William Weld.
April meeting in Austin that he would not seek
Dick Cheney has “a sensibility about homo­ to change the executive order, Tafel says. Accord­
sexuality,” Tafel says. That was evident in his ing to Anders, the president-elect does not want
support of his congressional aide and later
to be seen as anti-gay “out of concern of losing
Defense Department spokesman, Pete Williams,
the votes of our parents and family and friends.”
who was outed by the Advocate. He also told
Congress that being gay did not make one a
security risk.
S enate
The fact that his daughter, Mary, since has
come out as a lesbian only has deepened that
lthough HRC "had hoped for different
sensibility. “It is not something that he is ever
leadership in the House and Senate,”
going to wear on his sleeve, but he isn’t going to
Buermeyer says the defeat of four conservative
take kindly to any kind of anti-gay anything,” Republican senators will make it “much easier
said Tafel, who cited Cheneys linking of reli­ for us to move a proactive agenda and fight the
gious right icon Gary Bauer and the Human
kind of anti-gay stuff that we anticipate seeing.”
Rights Campaign as both attacking his daughter
Anders notes that Jim Jeffords, R-Vt., was
one
vote shy of getting the Employment
this summer.
Nondiscrimination Act out of committee. The
HRC lobbyist Nancy Buermeyer says, “There
is an enormous amount that a president can do changing composition of that panel should
that doesn’t necessarily make the headlines.” make it easier to move the legislation to the
floor of the Senate for a vote.
This includes executive orders, regulations and
Tafel “expects no huge surprises” in the Sen­
inclusive interpretations of existing procedures.
Lower-level political appointees can be cru­ ate. He sees Republican moderates gaining
cial in making these types of decisions. Buer­ influence, and Maine’s Olympia Snow is poised
to play an increasing role.
meyer says that activists will not have the same
access to these people to educate them on gay
issues in a Bush administration and fears that
H ouse
some of the appointees will have strong ties to
the religious right.
he House has its own set of uncertainties as
judicial appointments are a continuing con­
the Republican leadership seems intent
cern. The closeness of the election results might
upon enforcing its rule of allow­
ing people to serve only six years
as chair of a particular commit­
tee. That leaves “a lot of unan­
swered questions,” Anders says.
The Judiciary Committee is
the most ideologically polarized
in the House, with members
drawn mainly from the left and
the right extremes of their
respective parties. “It is a sad
commentary that most of us
who work on civil rights issues
are really cheering on Henry
Hyde” in his efforts to retain
the chairmanship, Anders says.
The Illinois Republican
“has been able to hold it
together” and generally has
been protective of civil rights
issues, with the exception of his
strong pro-life stance. His pos­
sible successor does not have
Nancy Buermeyer
such strengths.
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Christopher Anders
The Commerce Committee has jurisdiction
over AIDS legislation. Tom Bliley, R-Va., “did
keep a lot of bad things from getting through,”
Anders says.
The Ryan W hite CARE Act also was reau­
thorized in 2000 for another five years. It is
unclear who will succeed Bliley.
Buermeyer says they are going to have to find
“creative ways” to get the Republican leadership
to move legislation such as hate crimes and the
Employment Nondiscrimination Act. “But once
those issues reach the floor, I think that we will
do very, very well.”
Counterbalancing that, she says that lack of
visible presidential support for legislation, or the
possibility of a veto, makes it more difficult to
ask members of Congress for a vote “that may be
a little bit hard back home.”
Buermeyer acknowledges the common wisdom
that redistricting following the 2000 census will
make it difficult for Democrats to gain seats in the
House in 2002. Both redistricting and the contin­
ued likelihood of minority status will contribute to
a number of Democrats choosing to retire.
“We as a community have to be really smart
about how we do this," Buermeyer says. “We
have to be willing to reach across the aisle and
work with both parties. We will never pass any­
thing with only one party.” She lays most of the
blame for inaction at the feet of the Republican
leadership in the House and Senate.
Tafel anticipates “there will be an effort by
Democrats, and I include HRC in that, to try to
embarrass Bush,” quite possibly on gay issues.
“The goal will be to label him as an extremist.”
Sloan Weisen, spokesman for the Gay and
Lesbian Victory Fund, says the gay and lesbian
community saw the 1992 election of President
Clinton as a solution to their problems. The far
right took it as a reason to mobilize.
“A lot depends on what you make of things,"
says Weisen, who urged the community to see
this change of administrations as “an opportuni­
ty to make good things happen. It is a beginning
rather than an end point.
"in
B ob R oehr is a free-lance
W ashington, D . C .
reporter based
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