Pat Brady (and Rauner and Kirk) Oh My


Written by Laurie Higgins

To all those Republicans who arrogantly assert that all that matters electorally is getting anyone who claims to be a Republican into office;

To all those know-it-all Republicans who annoyingly order conservatives to set aside what “moderates” condescendingly refer to as the “social issues” in order to get any old Republicans elected;

To all those Republicans who paternalistically chastise conservative Republicans for their purported naïveté and quixotic idealism about life, marriage, family, children, and religious liberty;

To all those Republicans who call their abandonment of truth about life, marriage, children, family, and religious liberty “smart politics”;

To all those Republicans who seek to marginalize conservatives while rhetorically beating the “big tent” trope into the ground;

To all those Republicans who claim the “big tent” will strengthen the party:

Lookee, lookee what the cat is dragging in to the state capitol: Now that good ole boy Pat Brady, former Republican Party chair, has made all sorts of inroads into the Republican Party, he’s using his connections to help transgressives—I mean, “progressives”—destroy marriage. And he’s profiting from his unholy quest as well.

According to WBEZ , the ACLU has welcomed the convictionless Brady with open arms and pelf:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois has hired former state Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady to lobby for a same-sex marriage bill in Springfield, months after his own support of gay marriage sparked a controversy that led to his resignation.

The ACLU confirmed Tuesday that it has hired Next Generation Public Affairs, the lobbying and public relations firm Brady co-founded after he left his party job in May.

“I think the very core of the conservative movement, which I consider myself a part of, is application of equality under the law for all,” Brady said Tuesday in an interview with WBEZ.

Brady will focus on lobbying House Republicans in hopes of getting the same-sex marriage bill passed during this fall’s veto session, he said. He’ll also tap the political donors he cultivated during his four years as party chairman to raise money for groups that support gay marriage, and for Republican lawmakers who may be hesitant to cast a yes vote, fearing a challenge in next year’s primary.

Brady’s hiring comes after the ACLU launched a $10 million national push in June, aimed at winning support for same-sex marriage from Republican lawmakers and voters in a handful of states, including Illinois.

Steve Schmidt, a GOP strategist who was formerly a top advisor to Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, is heading up the national effort.

Brady declined to say how much the ACLU is paying him.

Despite the past controversy, Brady now says he has no problem working for the liberal ACLU, even if it means taking flak from social conservatives.

“Liberty, freedom and equality under the law are all things that Republicans and conservatives have believed in for a long, long time,” he said. “So I don’t have any qualms with that, and I really excited to help work with them and get this done right in Illinois.”

Well, perhaps I misspoke. Perhaps Brady has convictions. Perhaps he has foolish, destructive convictions that he concealed from conservative Illinoisans until late last year when he began actively working against true marriage.

It’s remarkably perverse that an attorney can with a straight face argue that gutting the legal definition of marriage is actually about “liberty, freedom, and equality.” Brady is either a lousy thinker or dishonest—or both.

I hope some intrepid, unbiased journalists will ask Brady for his opinion on the religious liberty of Christian business owners who refuse to participate in same-sex “wedding” celebrations or if polyamorists are being treated unequally when they are denied the right to marry the persons they love.

When in the past I urged conservatives to oppose Mark Kirk’s Senate bid, I was chastised by some for not understanding how desperately the country needed the open Senate seat to go to a Republican—any Republican. Recognizing that Kirk, eager supporter of the slaughter of the unborn and evolutionary flip-flopper on all things homosexual, had the best chance of getting elected, these Republicans scolded me for my views and for expressing them—all in the service of the big, ethically vacuous, purple tent.

My argument was and remains that if a purple Republican is elected, the GOP will never run a challenge to him or her, which means someone like Kirk will occupy his seat for years or (God forbid) decades.

This revelation of Brady’s exploitation of the influence gained from his leadership position should awaken Illinoisans to the danger of electing Bruce Rauner who supports legalized feticide in the first trimester and has publicly stated he will sign into law the same-sex “marriage” bill if, as governor, it should cross his desk.* And it should generate concern about the possible selection of State Representative Jim Durkin to be the GOP caucus leader in Springfield.

While occupying seats of power, privilege, and influence, people like Kirk and Brady work behind the scenes promoting their feckless policies and forging alliances that will corrupt and deform the party that has in recent history been the only party that defended life, marriage, children, and religious liberty.

Brady’s sickening moral defection on marriage and the possible GOP endorsement of Rauner are emblematic of everything that’s wrong with the Land of Lincoln.

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*Correction: Rauner did not say he would sign a same-sex marriage bill into law, he said if “the legislature passes gay marriage, I’m not gonna fight to reverse it,” which means it becomes law.