http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4408613/David Catania has been one of George W. Bush's most loyal supporters. The Washington, D.C., city councilman has raised nearly $80,000 for the president's re-election. He's a Bush delegate to this summer's GOP convention and holds a seat on the platform committee, which shapes the party's official agenda. But last week Catania, like many other gay Republicans, was furious at the president's backing of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Now he's dropping his fund-raising efforts and no longer plans to vote for Bush. "You know the concept of buyer's remorse? I've got it," he says. "I want my money back." Now Catania intends to fight the amendment on the platform committee and work against a second Bush term.
Catania is a member of the "Austin 12," an informal group of gay Republicans who advised the Bush 2000 campaign, serving as a sounding board on gay issues. In April of that year, the 12 traveled to Austin to meet with the then Governor Bush, who was eager to burnish his image as a "compassionate conservative." He'd resisted meeting with the chief gay GOP group, the Log Cabin Republicans—they'd backed his presidential-primary rival John McCain—but agreed to sit down with a dozen handpicked gay supporters.Speaking as a gay man who did NOT sell out to big money right-wing asses like Bush, I say all the "Austin 12" owe ALL of us an apology.
You owe us an apology for accusing us of "demogoguery" when we noted what a far-right extremist is.
You owe us an apology for helping place in office the most dangerous ideologue in several generations.
You owe us an apology for being the "house homos" who willingly sat and pointed at Bush as "wonderful" and "totally pro-gay."
You owe us an apology for your fake "shock" over Bush's anti-gay amendment, when you, I and EVERYONE else knew he was going to back it since he became a candidate for the White House.
You owe every gay child, every gay family and every gay person who has been assaulted, rejected, fired, denied housing, or otherwise abused due to this administration's policy a big apology.
And no, "resigning" to show your disgust and pushing Democrats for an electoral cycle is not an apology. You have to not only undo the damage you've done, but also admit, publicly, that what you did was WRONG.