You Say You Want a Conversation?

Truer words were never spoken. More on the dangling conversation HERE.

Bernie Sanders Looks to Capitalize on Hillary Clinton's HIV/AIDS Misstep

By now I'm sure you've heard that Hillary Clinton issued a follow-up to her Tweet apologizing for disgustingly praising the Reagans for "starting a conversation" about AIDS. (Read her post HERE.) In the midst of the initial comment, I pointed out that I found it interesting that everyone -- namely countless right-wring media outlets -- was suddenly more than willing to discuss President Reagan's indefensible record on HIV and AIDS ... now that it's a bat with which to hit Mrs. Clinton.

With that in mind, I also found it interesting that Bernie Sanders, rightfully, joined the attack on Mrs. Clinton ...

“I just don’t know what she was talking about,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “In fact, that was a very tragic moment in modern American history. There were many, many people dying of AIDS, and in fact, there was demand all over this country for President Reagan to start talking about this terrible tragedy. And yet he refused to talk about it while the AIDS epidemic was sweeping this country. So, I'm not quite sure where Secretary Clinton got her information.”  

... and then suddenly updated his website, which hitherto had nary a mention of HIV/AIDS, to include a page about -- you guessed it -- HIV and AIDS, pledging "virtually universal access to drugs" to treat the disease. Great to see him add the topic to his campaign site -- and I'm certainly not accusing him of not being a friend of the gays. (He voted against DOMA, voted to overturn DADT and Vermont was the first state to legalize civil unions for LGBT couples, after all.) But as Americablog's John Aravosis points out, it would have been nice if he had done it earlier and not merely as a political opportunity. And it's a stark reminder of the never-ending double standard Hillary faces.

Hillary has had her position online since Day 1. But I can only imagine what people would be saying about her right now if she only added it after her opponent f**ked up.  ("She's so calculated." "She's so inauthentic.") Ugh. In my three-plus decades following politics, I have never seen a candidate face such a ridiculous level of scrutiny -- and be held to such an impossibly high standard. It's truly unheard of. And the whole women saying "I'm not just going to vote for her because she's a woman" argument is such bullshit. Would any of us ever think a black person -- or any liberal, really -- voting for Obama because he was black was wrong or stupid? And show me one Evangelical Christian who doesn't latch on to whichever candidate is the biggest bible-thumper. 

UPDATE:

Just to be clear, I'm THRILLED Bernie put out an HIV/AIDS policy statement (we need all the help we can get). I'm just driving home the double-standard in that I am 100 percent sure if it were the other way around she would be lambasted as an opportunist. And imagine if she stole his verbiage! 

Hillary Clinton Sticks Foot in Mouth on Reagans and AIDS, QuicklyApologizes

I, like so many other people, was appalled when Hillary Clinton -- completely unprompted -- praised the Reagans, "particularly Nancy" for helping to "start a national conversation about HIV and AIDS." I know it was Nancy's funeral today -- not the day to pile on the woman -- but it's never the day to whitewash history. Glad Mrs. Clinton quickly apologized for her complete mischaracterization of the facts. Now let's move on.

From my friend John Perez, former California Assembly speaker:

"Women's liberation and gay liberation are part of the same thing: a weakening of the moral standards of this nation. It is appalling to see parades in San Francisco and elsewhere claiming 'gay pride' and all that. What in the world do they have to be proud of?"-- Nancy Reagan in 1981

UPDATE: Yep. And if you know anything about politics then you know this whole "calculation" theory makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Read HERE.

Broken Record

With a record like this, it's easy to see why Ronald Reagan is held in such high esteem by the right. But did you know it was Nancy's stepfather -- who took her from rags to riches -- that we really have to thank?

Nancy and Her Nancies

Got a lot of response to my piece on the passing of Nancy Reagan, in which I lament how different the AIDS crisis might have been had she had the wherewithal to rise to the occasion and push her beloved husband to do something, and offer a motherly touch to those who needed it. My pal Tim Murphy -- and pretty much every gay man of a certain age -- agrees. But today he penned an insightful piece about the topic that further examines the situation, that also manages to find the bright side in this darkest of moments:

He writes:

I don’t particularly see Nancy Reagan as a witch. I imagine she even felt affection for these [gay] men. Instead, I’d rather celebrate her death as the death of a certain era that she reflected: an ugly, closeted one in which society women in New York, DC and Hollywood used gay men as their personal prettifiers, unthreatening party escorts and gossip companions but more or less regarded them as less than fully human, as eunuchs whose lives were expendable.

Read HERE.

Tennis Whites

Via Tennis.com: Former first lady Nancy Reagan once had a tennis tournament named after her, and it was there that, circa 1990, she and former President Ronald Reagan met with an up-and-coming sister act named Venus and Serena Williams.

Did You Hear the One About the Statue of Liberty Having AIDS?

Boy Culture gets to the, um, bottom of this oft-repeated story that Ronald and Nancy Reagan died laughing when Bob Hope joked that Lady Liberty had gotten AIDS, either from the mouth of the Hudson or the Staten Island Fairy. Read HERE.

I can't tell you if it's true about her having AIDS. But I can tell you from first-hand experience that Lady Liberty is a bondage queen, as I discovered on my first visit to the Big Apple in 1985.

UPDATE:

A reader pointed me to this PSA Bob Hope made, which I'm told was an apology of sorts for that "joke" made about two years earlier.

Page 1 Roundup (03/07)

Always makes me laugh when I think that Republicans -- who use "Hollywood" as a code word for everything that's wrong in the world -- idolize a B-movie actor and his second wife, another Hollywood actor.  

Nancy Reagan Is Dead at 94

The former first lady lived a long and glamorous life, yet somehow her charms were lost on me. Perhaps President Reagan's policies poisoned the well, but it's hard for me to have respect for a woman who supposedly controlled her husband yet somehow was unable to get him to do much of anything about the AIDS crisis. That her conservative stance on stem-cell research only changed when it directly affected her further demonstrated her fickle (read: opportunistic) empathy ... and don't get me strated on the astrology crap. There's no altering history. But it will forever break my heart to imagine how different the early days of AIDS might have been if someone of Princess Diana or Michelle Obama's caliber had been our mother-in-chief instead of an extra from "Dynasty." Elizabeth Taylor was truly an angel to step into the role. But imagine how much more powerful the message would have been coming from the home of the leader of the free world. 

If only there were Terry Sweeney clips online ...

Joan Didion nailed Nance's smile when she described it as "a study in frozen insecurity." 

UPDATE: Look what I found on NBC(dot)com!

An interesting response to my post on Facebook: