Leading gay rights group are accusing Republicans of trying to rile up their conservative base by launching a whisper campaign against potential Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan — suggesting the current Solicitor General is a closeted lesbian, reports the Huffington Post.
In its first entree into the upcoming Supreme Court nomination process, the Human Rights Campaign blasted the increasingly public discussion of Kagan’s sexuality, calling it a play “straight out the right-wing playbook.”
“Even though the majority of Americans couldn’t care less about a nominee’s sexual orientation, the far right will continue to be shameless with their whisper campaigns to drum up their base and raise money off of prejudice,” Michael Cole, an HRC spokesperson, said in an email statement to the Huffington Post.
On Thursday, the Obama administration charged CBS News with being out of line for publishing a blog post that suggested Kagan is a lesbian.
In a post on CBS News’ website, Ben Domenech, a former Bush administration aide and Republican Senate staffer, wrote that President Obama would “please” much of his base by picking (Kagen) the “first openly gay justice.”
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CBS eventually pulled the article, and posted an apology, dismissing the original reporting as being sourced in “a Harvard rumor.”
