Schuette ducks when asked about Agema

UPDATE: Democratic National Committeewoman has jumped into the fray, calling on Terri Lynn Land to call for the resignation of her RNC colleague, Dave Agema.
Here's a statement Dingell put out earlier this afternoon:

“The Republican State Central Committee meets this weekend, and it will be interesting to see if Terri Lynn Land will stand up against the recent unacceptable remarks from RNC Committeeman David Agema that were offensive as much in their bigotry as in their ignorance.

“I hope she will use this meeting as an opportunity to show leadership in condemning his remarks and calling for his resignation. I believe as women leaders we have a responsibility to stand up against hatred and bigotry in any form....and that doing so is not a partisan issue.

“Of course, we should be (willing) to engage in heated and passionate discussion and we don't always have to agree. But neither should we engage in name-calling."

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While words of condemnation start to rain down upon the Michigan Republican Party’s Dave Agema for his gay-bashing, Attorney General Bill Schuette seems determined to avoid the issue.

In an interview with The Macomb Daily the other day, Schuette was asked three times if he is disturbed by the recent bigoted remarks by Agema – or the Republican National Committeeman’s homophobic online post in March -- and three times Schuette dodged the question.

Without mentioning the tea party, Schuette said the Michigan GOP has had its “family skirmishes” over the years, going back to Gerry Ford vs. Ronald Reagan in ’76. But the AG said his job is to defend the state Constitution and the marriage amendment, which says that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Guns, abortion and same-sex marriage are divisive issues within the party, he added, but they should be debated within civil dialog.

He offered two other comments:

“We ought to be able to disagree without being disagreeable. We ought to be able to have discourse and discussion.”

And: “The discussion ought to be about the strength of our persuasiveness, not the shrillness of our voice.”

I’m not sure how that fits in with a discussion about whether gays live a “filthy lifestyle” and are responsible for half the murders in big cities, as Agema posted on Facebook last spring, but that was the AG’s response.

In his latest controversial remarks, made before a group of Berrien County Republicans last week, Agema claimed that gays are trying to get free health care because many of them die of AIDS at a relatively young age.

On Facebook, the immediate reaction was outrage. Now that the buzz has moved along, evolving into snarky jokes, the politicians are trying to catch up. Over the last few days, Gov. Snyder, state Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville and Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land (also an RNC member) have publicly and strongly denounced Agema’s homophobic rhetoric.

A fellow conservative Republican from west Michigan, state Rep. Joe Haveman of Holland, took on Agema’s habit of talking about gay rights in a Biblical context.

“As a Christian man who seeks to walk as Christ taught, I believe differences of opinion should come from a place of love, not a place of hatred and disgust for people who may differ from us,” Haveman said.

For his part, Agema, a tea party favorite, has refused to take back his words. He has pointed out that he was denouncing same-sex benefits, not speaking about broader issues.

But the former state House member foolishly claimed that the Herald-Palladium reporter who broke the story had “twisted" his words. The editors at the Herald-Palladium, based in southwest Michigan, responded by publishing a transcript of Agema’s remarks and a matching audio recording of his comments was posted on the newspaper’s website.

That old “out of context” canard just doesn’t fly anymore.

The Michigan Republican State Central Committee meets tomorrow and Agema’s homophobia is sure to be a hot topic. But the central committee cannot oust Agema from his RNC seat and it appears that he will not face censure.

Instead, the committee is reportedly ready to pass a motion that’s designed to diffuse the issue with a two-step approach: it would reaffirm the GOP’s support only for traditional marriage, and it would denounce political rhetoric that is “incendiary and unbecoming of civil discourse."

Sounds like the GOP leadership has Schuette writing their script.