David Dreier, “Moderate”?

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Like Kevin Drum, I don’t much care whether David Dreier, the GOP’s “interim” House Majority Leader, is gay or not, but I do take exception to this profile of the guy from the Washington Post:

Dreier has a more moderate voting record on some social issues than DeLay, for example opposing a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage that DeLay supported.

That’s what passes for moderate these days? Here’s some better reporting, from the LA Weekly:

[Dreier’s] voting record is strewn with anti-gay positions. To cite just a few: He opposed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would have banned discrimination against gay people in hiring; voted for the gay-bashing Defense of Marriage Act; voted for banning adoption by gay and lesbian couples in the District of Columbia (3,000 miles away from Dreier’s district); voted to allow federally funded charities to discriminate against gays in employment, even where local laws prohibit such bias; and voted against the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

To be clear, I don’t think that justifies digging into Dreier’s personal life, or outing him. But it would be nice if the major papers didn’t have to pretend he was a moderate guy on social issues. Here’s more of his record—the guy’s as conservative as they come.

UPDATE: Ah, now it looks like Dreier will just be sharing duties with GOP whip Roy Blunt and deputy whip Eric Cantor while DeLay’s under indictment.

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