Revisiting the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy

On Sunday's Meet the Press, Bill Clinton told David Gregory that the "vast right-wing conspiracy" that went after him is not as strong as it was because the country's demographics have changed, but it's "as virulent as it was."

Says MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, filling in for Keith Olbermann: "Mr. Clinton, we have some 21st Century news for you here. The vast right-wing propaganda machine is not shrinking. It's growing."

Watch both segments, AFTER THE JUMP...

Bill Clinton: 'I Was Wrong' About Gay Marriage

UPDATED WITH FULL VIDEO

Anderson Cooper interviews former President Bill Clinton in a segment airing tonight (10pm ET) on AC360. Anderson asks Clinton about his recent statements about same-sex marriage, and why he changed his mind.

In Toronto in May, while on a speaking tour with George W. Bush, Clinton described his position on same-sex marriage as "evolving". More recently, speaking at the Campus Progress National Conference in Washington, D.C., Clinton said, "I'm basically in support" of it.

In his most extensive remarks to date, Clinton now says he was "wrong" about same-sex marriage and was "hung up about the word."

Towleroad has obtained an advance transcript of Anderson Cooper's interview with Clinton. You can read it below, and watch a short clip, AFTER THE JUMP...

AC: You said you recently changed your mind on same-sex marriage. I’m wondering what you mean by that. Do you now believe that gay people should have full rights to civil marriage nationwide?

CLINTON: I do. I think that, well let me get back to the last point, the last word. I believe historically, for two hundred and something years, marriage has been a question left to the states and the religious institutions. I still think that’s where it belongs.

CLINTON: That is, I was against the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage nationwide, and I still think that the American people should be able to play this side in debates.

CLINTON: But me, Bill Clinton personally, I changed my position. I am no longer opposed to that. I think if people want to make commitments that last a lifetime, they ought to be able to do it.  I have long favored the right of gay couples to adopt children.

 AC: What made you change your mind? Was there one thing?

CLINTON: I think, what made me change my mind, I looked up and said look at all of this stuff you’re for. I’ve always believed that—I’ve never supported all the moves of a few years ago to ban gay couples from adoption. Because they’re all these kids out there looking for a home. And the standard on all adoption cases is, what is the best interest of the child?

CLINTON: And there are plenty of cases where the best interest of the child is to let the gay couple take them and give them a loving home. So I said, you know, I realized that I was over 60 years old, I grew up at a different time, and I was hung up about the word.

CLINTON: I had all these gay friends, I had all these gay couple friends, and I was hung up about it. And I decided I was wrong.

CLINTON: That our society has an interest in coherence and strength and commitment and mutually reinforcing loyalties, then if gay couples want to call their union marriage and a state agrees, and several have now, or a religious body will sanction it, and I don’t think a state should be able to stop a religious body from saying it, I don’t think the rest of us should get in the way of it.

CLINTON: I think it’s a good thing not a bad thing.  And I just realized that, I was, probably for, maybe just because of my age and the way I’ve grown up, I was wrong about that. I just had too many gay friends. I saw their relationships. I just decided I couldn’t, I had an untenable position.

Watch the interview, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: Outrage, Eric Brewer, Crocs, Serbia, Mark Foley, Germany

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized, released...

Dear Harvey: Play about Harvey Milk opens at San Diego State.

Eric Brewer, Mayor of East Cleveland, Ohio, in women's lingerie photo scandal.

Kept: Reality show about NYC gays to be a reality.

Outrage (see my write-up here) is coming to HBO on October 5.

UK gay man targeted in blackmail scam: "The 49-year-old had arranged to meet a man in the town through a known gay social networking website. But when the victim arrived he was approached by men posing as police officers who demanded a 'fine' and took his bank card. It later emerged £200 in cash was taken from the man's bank account, which was used to buy a mountain bike, alcohol and cigarettes."

London, Ontario 'football hero', allegedly responsible for gay bashing of modeling agent Brandon Wright, has been arrested at the airport.

Rabbi: No Crocs on Yom Kippur.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram talks to one of the gay brothers on this season's Amazing Race, which premieres on Sunday.

Brad Pitt joins Bill Clinton's Global Initiative.

Mark Foley hits the airwaves in South Florida.

Mysterious "lump" spotted forming around nearby star.

Mother of Ryan Keith Skipper speaks at Florida Hate Crimes Awareness Summit: "You may relive your pain, but you also relive your love. It keeps Ryan's memory alive and to me, that's an important thing. I don't want his death to have been in vain."

Reese Witherspoon ring sparks whispers of Gyllenhaal engagement.

Brokeback Mountain actor arrested for skipping out on hotel bill.

Carrie Prejean: Scantily-clad Halloween costume model.

UK teacher suspended after students found photos of him posing on a gay porn website.

Openly gay man tipped to be Angela Merkel's Foreign Minister in Germany. "[Can] a gay man, who sometimes takes his partner on official overseas trips, can function as a foreign minister. Could there, for instance, be snubs from President Ahmadinejad (who, after the execution of two gay men, told a Western audience: “We don’t have homosexuals, as in your country.”). Or jokes from Silvio Berlusconi (whose supporters recently used homosexuality claims to get rid of a critical editor)?"

Serbian prosecutor calls for ban on hate groups that caused cancellation of Belgrade's Pride parade: "Serbian authorities withdrew approval for gay activists to hold a rally in central Belgrade on Saturday after soccer hooligans and the extremist groups Obraz (Face) and Association 1398 threatened to attack the parade. 'The two groups were identified as those which must be outlawed immediately,' prosecutor Slobodan Radovanovic told B92 television."

Hillary Clinton on international violence against LGBT people: "We are starting to track violence against the LGBT community, because where it happens anywhere in the world, the United States must speak out against it and work for its end. Through our annual human rights report, we are documenting human rights abuses against LGBT communities worldwide. And we are seeking out partners at the United Nations such as Brazil, France, Sweden and the Netherlands to help us address these human rights abuses."

Ted Kennedy on Clinton, Byrd, Sex Slaves, and Gays in the Military

There's a passage in Ted Kennedy's new memoir True Compass in which he talks about attending a meeting in the White House regarding gays in the military. Here it is:

“I’ll never forget one of my first meetings with Clinton in the White House. He had walked into a firestorm over the question of whether gays should be allowed to serve in the military. He’d invited all the Democratic members of the Armed Services Committee to this gathering. He went around the room, asking everyone’s opinion about gays in the military. Some senators gave long answers. Some were terse. Some were flowery and revealing, and others held their cards close to their vest. It added up to a very lengthy meeting. I remember it well partly because Vicki and I had tickets to the ballet that night. Baryshnikov was dancing at the Warner Theatre. I’d told Vicki to go ahead and that I’d meet her there when I could. But the meeting went on and on, for more than two hours – extraordinary by White House standards. Finally, my turn to speak came. I made a brief comment in support of allowing gays in the military, in which I mentioned that all the arguments against such a policy had already been made…

...Well, I was wrong about that. Almost all the arguments had been used before. The last senator to speak was Robert Byrd, and he came up with a new one on all of us…..He informed us, with many ornate flourishes, that there had been a terrible problem in ancient Rome with young military boys turned into sex slaves. I don’t remember the exact details, but I think the story involved Tiberius Julius Caesar being captured and abused and used as a sex slave. He escaped and then years later he sought vengeance and killed his captors. Anyway, it was something like that. The room fell silent. The senator continued. Then President Clinton stood up. His response was short and sweet. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘Moses went up to the mountain, and he came back with the tablets and there were ten commandments on those tablets. I’ve read those commandments. I know what they say, just like I know you do. And nowhere in those ten commandments will you find anything about homosexuality. Thank y’all for coming.’ He ended the meeting and walked out of the room.”

(via politico, which has many more excerpts)

News: Robert Novak, Guam, Celine Dion, Comet, GLSEN

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak dies at 78...

David Mixner scolds Bill Clinton on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" explanation: "President Clinton blaming us for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is simply wrong, insensitive and outrageous. He should step up to the plate, accept responsibility for this huge mistake and then he can lead with dignity the battle to repeal it."

GLSEN launches new 'Think B4 You Speak' campaign to battle "That's so gay" slurs.

Madonna swims.

Guam considering civil union bill.

A round-up of links on the health care debate.

Fort Worth changes bar inspection policy following Rainbow Lounge raid: "The report says [Police chief Jeff] Halstead has told the department to add specific guidelines for officers and supervisors to follow during bar checks. He said the policy will be implemented by Sept. 1. 'Under the new policy there will be three distinct differences between an actual bar check, bar inspection, and bar investigation,' he writes."

SALON: 'Fag hags' dying out.

Ballot battle: 77 days till marriage equality vote in Maine.  Let the money laundering begin.

Study: men with sleep apnea twice as likely to die early.

Celine Dion pregnant.

Brian Austin Green gets a kryptonite heart.

Derek Barrett, former consultant to Australia's Labour government, jailed for two and a half years for attempted rape of man: "In evidence, Barrett's victim told prosecutor Andrew Miller that he and Barrett had been at a social evening along with a number of others.  During the night bottles of Veuve Clicqueot and Bollinger had been drunk and the 25-year-old had fallen asleep fully clothed in a bed.  He told the jury he woke up naked with Barrett was touching him on the chest and kissing him."

Eric McCormack, Timothy Olyphant, Dan Futterman, Zachary Quinto and Robert Gant join all-star staged reading of Celebration: The Gay Marriage Plays, in L.A.

Thank you for being a friend: NYC homeless shelter for LGBT youth to be named for Bea Arthur.

Twilight: New Moon gets a new trailer.

Glycine, building block of life, found in comet: "The latest findings add credence to the notion that extraterrestrial objects such as meteorites and comets may have seeded ancient Earth, and other planets, with the raw materials of life that formed elsewhere in the cosmos."

Bowling Green, Ohio bans discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Sweden called on to halt deportations of gay Iraqis seeking asylum.

Swedish version of iTunes censors "gay", allows "fag".

Signature check of Washington state anti-gay Referendum 71 is half-finished: "David Ammons, secretary of state spokesman, said the latest tally shows 58,306 signatures accepted...'They need 120,577 valid Washington voter signatures to qualify,' Ammons said. 'Overall, the error rate is currently 11.03 percent, considerably lower than the 20-year average of about 18.5 percent, and still below the maximum error rate the sponsors can absorb, about 12.4 percent.'"

Bill Clinton Heckled at Netroots Nation; Answers on DADT, DOMA

Blogger/activist Lane Hudson stood up and interrupted Bill Clinton's keynote last night at the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh, asking, "Mr. President, will you call for a repeal of DOMA and Don't Ask, Don't Tell? Right now?"

Clinton responded to Hudson that he ought to go to one of the health care town halls. "You'd do really well there." But Hudson did get the answer he wanted, and more on DOMA.

Answered Clinton, when interrupted again: "You wanna talk about ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’, I’ll tell you exactly what happened. You couldn’t deliver me any support in the Congress and they voted by a veto-proof majority in both houses against my attempt to let gays serve in the military and the media supported them. They raised all kinds of devilment. And all most of you did was to attack me instead of getting some support in the congress. Now, that’s the truth."

Clinton went on to explain why he signed DOMA: "We were attempting at the time, in a very reactionary congress, to head off an attempt to send a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to the states. And if you look at the Levin referendum much later in 2004, in the election, which the Republicans put on the ballot, to try to get the base vote for President Bush up, I think it’s obvious that something had to be done to try to keep the Republican congress presenting that."

Clinton's entire answer and transcript, AFTER THE JUMP...

Hudson discusses why he stood up and interrupted Clinton on the Huffington Post. "...it became clear there would be no questions. As I sat in the audience thinking about how Netroots Nation is about celebrating the most open forum of discussion ever to exist, it occurred to me that we were nothing more than a captive audience being talked to. One way communication was NOT what we were there to celebrate and advance."