By Jonathan Miller, on Mon May 16, 2011 at 5:00 PM ET
I am very grateful to all of you that shared your kind words about my gay marriage piece this morning. I am also very grateful to those of you who disagreed with me, but responded civilly to my piece.
That’s what The Recovering Politician is all about.
I want to assure my more conservative readers that this Web site is very much an open forum for all points of view on this and other issues. I’ve asked a few contributing RPs who oppose marriage equality to share their thoughts in the next few days.
Also, another sign of our bipartisanship — tomorrow’s guest on RPTV is Mark McKinnon, George W. Bush’s former campaign manager. He will talk about developments in the 2012 GOP primary, and his helping found an organization dedicated to encouraging more Democrats and Republican to work together to solve this nation’s problems.
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon May 16, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET
Today, I’m thrilled to announce that I have joined the contributing team of writers at one of the most popular and prominent Web sites in the country — The Huffington Post.
I will write regularly on national issues for their site and cross-post those pieces here at The Recovering Politician.
My first piece is a big one: I’m coming out of the closet to support gay marriage. As you will read, it is a very important personal moment for me, but also a challenge to others to make the same admission, or to consider changing their mind on the issue.
I conclude by urging the nation’s most prominent fence-sitter to join me publicly on the side of marriage equality.
Here is an excerpt from my essay:
Yep, I’m for gay marriage.
I’ve lived a lie for most of my adult life. As a statewide elected official in Kentucky — an inner notch of the Bible Belt — I understood that coming out of the closet for gay marriage was tantamount to political suicide: an overwhelming majority of my constituents opposed it.
But now as a recovering politician, I feel both liberated and morally compelled to holler from the cyber-rooftops: I’m proud as hell, and I’m not going to fake it any more!
Growing up in Kentucky, gay marriage was never a topic of discussion.
But late nights of philosophical experimentation in college helped me discover that I’d been for marriage equality all my life. With a father who’d marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., and a mother who’d been a statewide force for women’s rights, the notion that we were all created equal was absurdly obvious. As a Jew growing up in the South, I knew what it was like to feel discriminated, to be other. And that same faith taught me to “love your neighbor as yourself” and to “judge not, lest you be judged,” making marriage equality a natural extension of my core beliefs.
Of course, as always, I would like to hear your comments, particularly if you disagree with my position and/or you wish to critique the timing or substance of my admission.
Please use the comments section below to share your opinions and stories.
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon May 16, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET
As evidenced by my very first post on this site, I am a passionate and often times irrational fan of the University of Kentucky Wildcat basketball team.
One of my favorite all-time players was a rural Eastern Kentucky-reared shooting guard named Richie Farmer. Farmer played during a pivotal Wildcat era: the first four years of Coach Rick Pitino’s rebulding mission, which followed a series of recruiting scandals that had brought the team to the brink of an NCAA-imposed death penalty. The ragtag squad of lesser talents –through unselfish, gritty play — over-achieved to the point of almost scoring one of the biggest upsets in college basketball lore. (Ugh — yes, this was the 1992 regional final against Duke University that provided the worst moment in world history.) The squad is still known popularly as “The Unforgettables.”
Indeed, Farmer was the most popular player on the team, and one of the most-beloved Wildcats of all time. His country roots, his trademark mustache, and his history as a prolific scoring, home-grown high school “Mr. Basketball,” made him into a living legend, particularly among those extraordinarily passionate rural fans who live to the far west and far east of Central Kentucky’s “Golden Triangle” that extends between Lexington, Louisville and the southern suburbs of Cincinnati.
Frankly, after Richie was overwhelmingly elected the state’s Agriculture Commissioner and occupied an office directly across the hall of mine in the State Capitol Annex when I was State Treasurer, I was a bit starstruck. While famously oratorically challenged, Richie turned out to be a decent, kind, friendly neighbor.
And while Richie endured a little negative press when first entering office — the new fellow-GOP Governor had hired Farmer’s relatives to state jobs — the press mostly treated Farmer with kid gloves. Farmer got away with things for which other state officials would have been crucified: such as spending thousands of taxpayer dollars in 2006 to distribute Richie Farmer bobbleheads at the state high school tournamen; or running a seemingly endless loop of state-financed television ads promoting Kentucky produce, starring himself and his Unforgettable teammates.
But when State Senate President David Williams chose Farmer to serve as his running mate in his 2011 gubernatorial campaign, the scrutiny became considerably more intense. And in recent months, a steady stream of articles have revealed Farmer’s ultra-liberal spending practices during an unprecedented state fiscal crisis:
Read Farmer’s responses (usually through a spokeman) in each of the links. An obvious sense of entitlement resonates: He deserves special treament, doesn’t he?
And who could blame him for feeling this way? Since a young high school student, Farmer has been treated as something of a demi-god. UK basketball players are our local royalty: They live in a specially equipped luxury dormitory; They are coddled by administrators and boosters; They are literally the biggest men on campus.
For nearly his entire life, Farmer’s been told that he’s special, he’s different. Why wouldn’t he think that he’d be exempt from the same budget slashing that the faceless, nameless bureaucrats have to endure? This is perhaps why David Williams, a bit inartfully, excused Farmer’s luxury expenditures on his “celebrity status.”
But a more careful argument might focus on Richie Farmer’s four-year period of indentured servitude to the University of Kentucky and the general fan population. For four years, Farmer provided enjoyment to millions of Kentuckians, as a teenager and young adult, with no pay, and with all of the privacy complications that much older celebrities have to endure.
So readers, I ask you to weigh in. Do we owe our former athletes a special compensation for the joy they brought us for free and the inconveniences they must endure? Or once you enter politics are you held to the same rigorous standards that we apply to everyone else in the arena?
Do you find Farmer’s conduct par for the court? Or is Richie’s behavior unforgiveable and unforgettable?
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri May 13, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET
Our newest Friend of RP, Abigail Miller, made quite an impression when she made her TV debut at the ripe old age of 22 months. As you will see at the very end of the Friday Video Flashback below, Abby sits quietly as her older sister — then 4 year old, Emily — steals the spotlight with her adorable bravado, yelling “I’m for Daddy!”
Abigail actually had a unexpected speaking role that wound up on the editing room floor. After about the seventh take, Abby started to mimic her sister. Unfortunately, with the pacifier in her mouth, all that came out was “Mmm mmm mmm m!”
Abigail also appeared in an earlier commercial. Sitting in her high chair while her father recited his lines, Abby went to work on a chocolate popsicle for about 20 minutes. After the tenth take, popsicle fully ingested, Abby lifted her arms and yelled: “All done!” The director knew better than to rebuf his star, so shooting was shut down for the day.
Another cute aside: In the following ad, the little “future Democrat” holding the Miller for Congress sign about 5 seconds into the video is Conrad Bandaroff, son of the RP’s good friends, Holly and Craig Bandaroff, thoroughbred horse farmers who bred and co-owned Animal Kingdom, winner of last weekend’s Kentucky Derby. Unfortunately, the RP didn’t learn this fact until after he placed his wager on Derby Day.
Another great day tomorrow includes a Friday Video Flashback, and the debut of our 18th and final member of our inaugural class of contributing recovering politicians. A former U.S. Congressman, he shares his fascinating story of recovery and rebound.
TGTF (Thank Goodness Tomorrow’s Friday). See you then!
By Jonathan Miller, on Thu May 12, 2011 at 2:15 PM ET
The political blogosphere is abuzz with the news of family strife within a bi-partisan family dynasty: the separation of former California Governator Arnold Schwartzenegger and Kennedy scion Maria Shriver.
The mainstream news and political media want to know why, and they’re making their best guesses: Read here and here and here and here.
My response?
It’s None of Your Freaking Business!
Yes, he’s an international movie star who served two terms as Governor of our nation’s most populous state. Sure, she was a national news broadcaster, and a member of the most influential and popular modern American political dynasty. Of course, a long time ago, they both voluntarily submitted themselves to public scrutiny.
But as I argued a few weeks ago concerning three-year-old Trigg Palin, I believe that every one of us — even the richest, most powerful, and most famous — have a discrete zone of privacy which the responsible press should not disturb. And as long as their separation did not involve actions that were criminal or a violation of the public trust while Arnold was in office, the mainstream media should leave them and their family alone.
Of course, I am a passionate First Amendment advocate, and I certainly don’t believe in laws to restrict such reporting. But I believe that the Fourth Estate bears a special responsibility to the public to draw ethical lines every so often and not cross them. This is one of those occasions.
The RP swore that he wasn’t going to run for office again any time soon. But it looks like he’s falling off the wagon after only a month of political sobriety.
Of course, he has a helluvan excuse: The Ultimate Authority has pushed him into a race for the U.S. Congress. As Alison Knezevich of the Charleston Gazette reports (h/t Aaron Ament):
Jonathan Miller, a Berkeley County Republican, announced online today that he plans to run for Congress in 2012.
Miller told me he would run in the 2nd District, for the seat now held by Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito.”I firmly believe that God has called me to run for this office now,” he said when asked why he made the announcement today. “The reason I’m running is because I’m tired of seeing Washington politicians put themselves before you.”
He wants to cut federal lawmakers’ pay in half, eliminate their benefits, and enact term limits.
Miller, first elected in 2006, said he rededicated his life to Christ in 2009, and prayed about whether to stay in politics. He said he received his answer in May 2010 and is responding now by announcing his future candidacy.
UPDATE: An alert reader noticed that Congressowman Capito represents a district in West Virginia, and the RP hails from Kentucky. The RP Staff understands, obviously the reporter made a small mistake. The two states are contiguous.
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UPDATE 2: Another reader commented: “The article says that Jonathan Miller ‘rededicated his life to Christ.’ I’m pretty sure the RP is Jewish. Otherwise, this post about Jew-ish Gentiles is pretty offensive.” The RP Staff agrees: the RP is pretty offensive.
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UPDATE 3: Um…It turns out that there are actually two Jonathan Millers. The new candidate for Congress and the RP. The RP obviously is too busy to run for Congress: He blogs at The Recovering Politician; serves as Senior Advisor to Wellford Energy; practices law at Frost Brown Todd; has been a British theater and opera director; has served 20 years as Senior Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham; has been President and CEO of Miller Samuel Inc., a leading real estate appraisal and consulting firm; is a photographer; has gone to prison due to misdeeds during Iran-Contra, and runs a ministry where he “miraculously” has healed “countless” people.
We have a lot in store for you on Thursday at The Recovering Politician.
We lead off with a Friend of RP whose first piece actually made the RP cry. Hint: He’s been kvelling with pride about this 15-year-old writer.
You’ll also hear from the RP about his opinion of the media’s coverage of the Schwartzenegger/Shriver divorce. For a spoiler clue, read this.
And we’ll also debut the stylings of one of our outstanding young RP Staff, Robert Kahne, who has been writing Weekly Web Gems on Tunes, the Screen, the Diamond and Hoops, and will share tomorrow his first full length piece.
Speaking of WWGs — plenty of them to go around, sharing with you the best of civil discourse from the Web.
By Jonathan Miller, on Wed May 11, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
My piece yesterday about Jew-ish Gentiles in pop culture (The most popular non-Jeff Smith post our site’s long, storied history!) sparked considerable discussion.
My challenge to identify a “should-be-Chosen-person that I failed to choose” was met ably by John Newton who suggested Anne Bancroft, who was raised Catholic, but who brilliantly and realistically played Jewish characters (such as in Keeping the Faith) on screen. But as Diane Hertz Warsoff noted, Bancroft ultimately converted to Judaism when she married Mel Brooks. (Who’d have thunk he was Jewish?!?)
Another reader, Mark Schneider, made a terrific discovery. Apparently, I am not the only person who has theorized that Batman/Bruce Wayne is a Jew-ish character.
Check out this 2005 piece, “Bat-Mentsch” by Alan Oirich in the Jewish World Review:
The Dark Knight, as he has come to be called, is not generally considered to have such transparently Jewish beginnings as, say, Superman whose escape from Krypton was based on the story of Moses in exodus, or Fantastic Four’s The Thing, who was officially outed as a member of the Jewish people in a comic book a couple of years ago.
But there have always been some Jewish underpinnings to Batman, and the newly released origin film “Batman Begins” addresses some of them in a way that previous films about the character never came near. If Superman is a Moses, a Samson, then the newly begun Batman is An Abraham, A Pinchas, a Maccabee…
Our newest contributing RP, Sherwood Boehlert, served in the U.S. Congress from 1983-2007. A proud Republican, Boehlert was a staunch environmentalist and a passionate advocate for measures to battle climate change. While that may seem incongruous today, Boehlert suggests that supporting science is very consistent with the legacy of President Reagan.
Read Boehlert’s recent op-ed on this issue from The Washington Post:
Watching the raft of newly elected GOP lawmakers converge on Washington, I couldn’t help thinking about an issue I hope our party will better address. I call on my fellow Republicans to open their minds to rethinking what has largely become our party’s line: denying that climate change and global warming are occurring and that they are largely due to human activities.
Why do so many Republican senators and representatives think they are right and the world’s top scientific academies and scientists are wrong? I would like to be able to chalk it up to lack of information or misinformation.
