Saturday, January 09, 2010

The War on Kevin Jennings - Chronology of a Failed Smear Campaign

When President Obama appointed Kevin Jennings to be he Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education, I doubt he realized that his political enemies would attack Jennings with the unrelenting stridency of the Greeks attacking the city of Troy.

But they did and it made for an interesting latter part of 2009 as the religious right and their cohorts pored  through Jennings' past and pulled out almost everything they could find to use against him.

And when they couldn't find anything of use, they made things up.

I covered the entire incident and have provided a chronology of posts detailing each smear .

Part 1 - The initial attacks began in June and culminated with the "Brewster incident," when Jennings was accused allowing (and encouraging) the statutory rape of a child. After this charge was found to be incorrect, the attacks tapered off until December. 

'Fistgate' and President Obama - religious right pushes a pitiful attempt of guilt by association

More attacks on GLSEN'S Kevin Jennings - Now the Family Research Council gets in the act 

More right wing lunacy on Kevin Jennings courtesy of Kevin McCullough 

Attacks on Kevin Jennings sleazy, un-Christian 

The war against Kevin Jennings - now it's getting pathetic  

The religious right thinks that character assasination is a Christian virtue  

Support Sean's Last Wish and Kevin Jennings  

Traditional Values Coalition attacks Kevin Jennings and . . . Tom Cruise? 

The tea party idiots - will they go after the lgbt community next?

 
The possible attack on the President's lgbt appointees 


The continuing attacks on Kevin Jennings - now Fox News gets involved 

The new attack on Kevin Jennings - he said something ugly about God 

Washington Times publishes ugly hit piece on Kevin Jennings 

Let's not be so quick to blame Obama if Kevin Jennings is dismissed 

New facts vindicate Kevin Jennings - the young man he counseled was of legal age 

Religious right owes Kevin Jennings an apology 

New attack against Kevin Jennings - the 'NAMBLA' connection 

Smart answers to lies about Kevin Jennings - a list of talking points 

Fox News corrects inaccurate Jennings article. Politico does the same 

Join the Support Kevin Jennings Facebook group 

How Fox News tried to help bring down Kevin Jennings

Who knew the American Family Association could moonwalk?

Religious right continues to attack Kevin Jennings, lgbt community with proven lies 

Will it be 'death of a thousand cuts' for Kevin Jennings?  

New lie lodged against Kevin Jennings - he 'advocates' murder  

Kevin Jennings receives an 'apology' for inaccurate murder claim 

House Reps have a problem with gay appointees but not with anti-gay hate groups 

Rep. King's office knew charges against Jennings were false BEFORE sending out letter    

King's anti-Kevin Jennings letter creates backlash 

Sean Hannity smears Kevin Jennings, but suddenly HE is the victim?

Massachusetts hate group behind attack on Kevin Jennings' character

Attacks on Kevin Jennings get uglier

The increasingly rude attacks on Kevin Jennings' character and James Dobson gets involved


Part 2 -  Believe it or not, all of the above was just a minor prelude to what came in December - a huge rush of blatantly inaccurate lies courtesy of Gateway Pundit, Big Government.com and others.

New smear launched against Kevin Jennings using old tactics of omission

Right-wing plan against Kevin Jennings: Tell a lie, let it get refuted, wait a while, repeat lie again

When fisting and oral sex are the same: The latest smear against Kevin Jennings

While they lie about Kevin Jennings, Michelle Malkin attacks GLSEN's funders


Latest smear against Kevin Jennings revists familiar lie - 'Little Black Book'

Right-wing site removes post calling Kevin Jennings a pedophile

Fox News cites me in article about Kevin Jennings . . . and almost gets it right

Uh oh! Peter LaBarbera and Americans for Truth tries to call out my blog

New low: Exploiting the voices of lgbt youth to attack Kevin Jennings

Attacks against Kevin Jennings becoming sad parodies

Fox News lies about Kevin Jennings coverage
  
Cliff Kincaid: Outcry against Ugandan bill a conspiracy to save Kevin Jennings

From 'Fistgate' to 'NAMBLA-gate' - The attacks on Kevin Jennings get stranger and stranger

These folks were going for the jugular, but in their stridency, the only throat they cut was their own. Their charges got wilder, more unbelievable and more unpalatable for the mainstream media to cover. To date, the only place were the charges against Jennings register are the "Obama should his birth certificate" sites and other webpages which claim to show proof that Jesus is coming back next week.

But don't let anyone fool you. The attacks on Jennings were about his sexual orientation and no dodge can obscure that. However when it's all said and done, Jennings' supporters weren't his biggest asset. His enemies were.

They were people with too much money, no common sense, and even less integrity.

And in the end, they showed their ignorance and hatred for the world to see.



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