Good gives the credit to " Brewster," the young man in the center of the controversy:
While the fire hasn't completely died down--53 House Republicans sent a letter calling for his job last week--it has certainly lost steam. Jennings is no longer a topic du jour, mostly due to one simple fact: the boy wasn't actually underage.
. . . If the boy had been under 16, Jennings would have appeared to violate the law, and that would have placed him in a very different situation, politically. With affirmed legal high-ground, one can bet that conservative pundits, bloggers, and political groups wouldn't have backed off in the least--and that the noise surrounding Jennings wouldn't have faded as it has. And the White House would have had a much more difficult time ignoring the calls for resignation.
The boy says he had no sexual contact with the older man, after all, so it's possible the point would have been moot. But, had the "underage" label stuck, attacks on Jennings probably would have resonated louder.
Instead, criticism of Jennings has devolved into a partisan back-and-forth. Without the objective gravitas of Massachusetts law to push it beyond politics, that's where it will probably stay.
It's an excellent piece but allow me to add a coda: some people out to get Jennings fired won't leave him alone.
But I think Jennings can deal with that.
The attacks against Jennings have been reduced to silly guilt-by-association slams by Peter LaBarbera, Brian Camenker of Mass Resistance, and various right-wing blogs with their crazy William Ayers/Comrade Obama/death panels conspiracy theories.
Most likely it will be a long time before he is the victim of a huge campaign of misinformation by Fox News or negative letters by House Republicans
But here is my take on the entire thing - this controversy was never about Jennings. It was about Obama.
If Jennings had been dismissed or had to resign, it would have been another nail in the coffin of the love/hate relationship between the President and the lgbt community.
Which leads me to the following conclusion:
Those who oppose Obama can't touch his popularity so some have determined that his weakness is his relationship with supposed allies.
And in that determination, they may have hit on something.
Therefore, it would be in Obama's best interest to take the Jennings controversy as a learning experience.
By all means, have the internal discussions and the battles that are needed to forge a positive agenda.
But at the same time, don't create weaknesses your enemies can exploit by giving the impression that you have no problem deserting your friends, i.e. the people who voted you into office.
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