We don't know who Citizens Opposed to Politicians Who Pander to Perverts are yet, but whoever they are could be in a bit of trouble.
Sources say that this group is not registered as an election committee, but that didn't stop them from sticking fliers denouncing City Councilman Jack Kelly on car windshields in church parking lots on Sundays leading up to the Nov. 6 election.
Somebody didn't like the fact that Kelly voted May 31 with 15 other council members (Councilman Brian O'Neill voted against) to break the $1 a year lease with the Boy Scouts, based on a legal opinion that the city couldn't rent to an organization that discriminated against gays. The city last month upped the Scouts rent to $199,999 annually as a "fair market" price. Kelly offered a resolution that would compensate the Boy Scouts for improvements to the building, but he withdrew it so as not to complicate ongoing negotiations.
The "VOTER ALERT," printed on a yellow index card, reads: "Councilman Jack Kelly voted with the homosexual lobby to remove the Boy Scouts from their city rent-free headquarters. The Scouts can remain only if they agree with the homosexual agenda which would promote sodomy to our youth. Not too long ago this would have caused Jack Kelly to be tarred and feathered for contributing to the delinquency of minors. Today, all we can do is to retire him from City Council. Distributed by COPPP - Citizens Opposed to Politicians Who Pander to Perverts, P.O. Box 57040, Philadelphia, PA 19111. ANYONE BUT KELLY."
An Alexander Pope poem, "Vice," graces the other side.
Republican City Council candidate and ward leader Phil Kerwick says GOP officials and others have been blaming him, but he says he didn't do it. Kerwick, who supported Kelly's chief rival, David Oh (the two are locked in a dead heat with 3900 ballots being counted) says he has a letter from the person responsible (Heard in the Hall should have it tomorrow), and that he warned the party that this was coming. Kerwick would not divulge the name.
To avoid any appearance that GOP party funds were being used for the fliers, Republican City Committee Chief Counsel Michael Meehan said that he redirected election-day payment for poll workers for Kerwick's ward -- which would normally go to Kerwick -- to the ward chairwoman.
"The only candidate this year who ran on the issue of the boy scouts lease-hold was Phil," Meehan said.
And how did Meehan find out about this? The anti-perverts group slapped one on his car while he was attending mass at St. Christopher Roman Catholic Church on Proctor Road in the far Northeast. Kelly, a fellow parishioner, got one also, Meehan said. The Monsignor even felt obliged to warn people about it during Mass.
One thing is certain: It's agin' the law to bad-mouth a candidate using a fake organization that doesn't report its spending. Pervert persecutors be warned.
Meehan is not happy with such flagrant violations of the 11th Commandment, loosely translated as "Thou Shalt Not Call a Fellow Republican a Pervert."
"It’s amazing that Republicans are fighting like this," he said.
Comments (4)
It's impossible to be a moderate conservative these days. The nuts come after you if you are making the case to teach evolution over intelligent design; the nuts come after you if you vote to uphold the law against discrimination.
The Boy Scouts have overreached and can't be supported. It's the law. They chose to forfeit their base of traditional financial support.
That doesn't mean that I'm not a conservative because I can see this is fact.
It's a shame that it was the Philly GOP that embarrassed itself in this local election, while the Democrats conducted themselves like adults.
Posted by Anonymous | November 14, 2007 3:38 AM
Posted on November 14, 2007 03:38
I am confused. I thought that Kelly supported funding the boy scouts despite their homophobic stance. Could you please point to an actual article that shows his efforts pro or con rather than a flyer which may be ill informed?
Posted by Anonymous | November 14, 2007 10:23 AM
Posted on November 14, 2007 10:23
The Boy Scouts are entitled to discriminate according to the Supreme Court in the Dale case. Of course, each city or municipality is entitled to place their own financial limitations on the group, which is what Philadelphia is now doing. But I would like to see City Council go after other groups that they believe have violated the city charter with the same avid pleasure as they have gone after the Boy Scouts. The actions of City Council smack of vendetta, not 'non-discriminatory' policy.
Posted by Christine | November 14, 2007 12:00 PM
Posted on November 14, 2007 12:00
While I doubt she was the writer of the flier, Christine, a previous poster, is clearly an apologist for the Boy Scouts. The city isn't placing financial limitations on the Boy Scouts, they are putting financial limitations on the use of our tax dollars. The scouts can stay in the building and gleefully continue to discriminate if they pay a fair market rent.
The Boy Scouts want to have it both ways -- they want to discriminate against me as a gay man but take my tax dollars while doing it. The irony in this tale is that the particular Boy Scout chapter in Philadelphia that is being evicted tried unsuccessfully to get the national organization to drop its homophobic stance. Also ironic that the Girl Scouts aren't homophobic -- they have no such anti-gay policy. Maybe we should instead give them the free rental use of that city building and have a real teachable moment.
Christine tries to dismiss the Scout's anti-gay policy by the old canard "well, doesn't City Council have other (better?) people to go after?" She calls it a vandetta. The city took years to get to this point with the scouts, giving them ample opportunity to change their policies before the eviction.
Of course, the right-wing nut jobs who, like Turkey Hill ice cream, have to be imported from Lancaster County (or even out-of-state) want to interject. That's the real vendetta.
Posted by Mark | November 15, 2007 9:40 AM
Posted on November 15, 2007 09:40