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Anti-Gay Black Republican Rep. Tim Scott to Replace SC Sen. DeMint?

Two interesting political developments from South Carolina. Anti-gay social conservative Sen. Jim DeMint, described as a "favorite of the 'tea party' and Fox News", has announced that he will resign in January to head the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Sen. DeMint was reelected to a second term in 2010. The 61-year-old senator had announced earlier that he would not seek a third term. DeMint said he is taking the Heritage job because he sees it as a vehicle to popularize conservative ideas in a way that connects with a broader public. "This is an urgent time," the senator said, "because we saw in the last election we were not able to communicate conservative ideas that win elections."

DeMint––who infamously has said that same-sex marriage is "destructive" to society and gays are "immoral"––led the opposition against  Mari Carmen Aponte, the Obama Administration's pro-LGBT ambassador to El Salvador. DeMint also vocally opposed Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor' confirmation––as well as that of Washington D.C. Superior Court. Judge Marisa Demeo, one of President Obama’s first openly LGBT appointees.

DeMint's resignation means that South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley will appoint a replacement to "serve until a 2014 special election," adds The Washington Post.

DeMint "has made it known" that he wants to be replaced by Rep. Tim Scott, reports The Hill. Scott made history in 2010 as the first Black Republican elected to Congress from South Carolina in more than a century. Scott is an anti-gay Tea Party favorite.

Haley and Scott have a good relationship, according to sources, though it's unclear how willing she would be to listen to DeMint, who officially stayed neutral during her gubernatorial primary but quietly supported then-Rep. Gresham Barrett (R-S.C.) in the race. A spokesman for DeMint denied that the senator has pushed Scott.

Scott is stridently anti-gay and opposes a woman's right to choose, the labor movement and other progressive causes.  Scott  opposes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

The former state representative also supported the GOP-dominated state legislature's proposal to slash the state's entire HIV/AIDS budget, including funding to the critical AIDS Drug Assistance Program. South Carolina has the 8th highest HIV rate in the nation. New seroconversions in the Carolinas are disproportionately black and young black gay/bisexual men. With friends like these ...

Scott was named to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee last week. Scott represents the 1st District along the state's southern coast.  If appointed he would become the first  Black Republican senator since Massachusetts' Sen. Edward Brooke retired in the late 1970s. Scott would also become the only African-American in the next Senate.

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DeMint: Soldiers "Fight" for Right to Hate Crimes

Senate Confirms Pro-LGBT Ambassador to El Salvador

The Senate has finally confirmed Mari Carmen Aponte as Ambassador to El Salvador after a stalemate that lasted more than a year and a half. Republicans filibustered the pro-LGBT interim ambassador's confirmation only six months ago. But the nomination finally moved forward Thursday in a 62-to-37 vote.

Aponte had served as ambassador in San Salvador from September 2010 to December 2011. President Obama made her a recess appointee after she was unable to win Senate confirmation. But her temporary tenure ran out at year's end,  reports the New York Times.

In December, the same nominee got just 49 votes. Republicans had raised questions about whether her former boyfriend was a spy for Cuba and said an opinion piece she wrote for a Salvadoran newspaper had offended the people of El Salvador by praising President Mauricio Funes for banning discriminating against gay men and lesbians.

"The op-ed upset a large number of community and pro-family groups in El Salvador who were insulted by Ms. Aponte’s attempt to impose a pro-gay agenda in their country," Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, said during a confirmation hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at that time.

This time there was hardly a peep. Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, was the only lawmaker to speak before the vote, and he spoke on behalf of Ms. Aponte’s Puerto Rican heritage. Nine Republicans voted to confirm.

Latino activists are credited with pressuring the Republicans to move forward. The activists targeted Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, notes the AP.

Hispanic groups had pressed Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to break ranks with conservative Republicans to ensure Aponte's confirmation. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus urged him to follow through on a promise to secure the votes for Aponte. Puerto Rico Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock, a Democrat, questioned whether Rubio would stop a qualified Puerto Rican woman from representing the United States.

DeMint––who has said that same-sex marriage is "destructive" to society and gays are "immoral"––led the opposition against Aponte. DeMint also vocally opposed Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor' confirmation––as well as that of Washington D.C. Superior Court. Judge Marisa Demeo, one of President Obama’s first openly LGBT appointees.

Aponte becomes the first Puerto Rican-American woman to serve as a U.S. ambassador. All Democrats and Independents supported the vote. The nine Republican senators voting "yes" were Rubio, Collins and Snowe of Maine, McCain of Arizona, Graham of South Carolina, Murkowski of Alaska, Lugar of Indiana, Ayotte of New Hampshire and Scott Brown of Massachusetts.

Some Background ...
GOP Senators Block Ambassador to El Salvador
Senate Confirms Lesbian Judge Marisa Demeo
DeMint: Gays Are "Immoral"

GOP Senators Cite Pro-LGBT Stance to Block Ambassador to El Salvador

Republican senators have successfully filibustered the confirmation of President Barack Obama’s ambassador to El Salvador. The Republican opposition cited a pro-LGBT Pride op-ed that she wrote as among their objections, reports AP.

On a vote of 49-37, the Senate refused to move ahead with the nomination of Mari Carmen Aponte, a Washington lawyer and Hispanic activist. She has served as ambassador in San Salvador since September 2010 after the president, facing GOP opposition, made her a recess appointee. Her temporary tenure is to run out at the end of the year. ...

Conservative anger toward Aponte is based, in part, on an op-ed she wrote June 28 in La Prensa Grafica, a daily newspaper in El Salvador, The essay was in response to a State Department cable to ambassadors worldwide urging them to recognize gay pride month.

In a Spanish-language piece titled "For the Elimination of Prejudices Wherever They Exist," Aponte wrote: "No one should be subjected to aggression because of who he is or who he loves. Homophobia and brutal hostility are often based on lack of understanding about what it truly means to be gay or transgender. To avoid negative perceptions, we must work together with education and support for those facing those who promote hatred."

South Carolina conservative GOP Sen. Sen. Jim DeMint––who has said that same-sex marriage is "destructive" to society and gays are so "immoral"––led the opposition against Aponte. The ambassador "has inflamed tensions in the very country where she should be improving diplomatic relations," claimed the notoriously anti-gay senator, reported the Washington Blade. "Her decision to publish an opinion piece hostile to the culture of El Salvadorans presents even more doubts about her fitness for the job."

DeMint also vocally opposed Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor' confirmation––as well as that of Washington D.C. Superior Court. Judge Marisa Demeo, one of President Obama’s first openly LGBT appointees.

Aponte is the first Puerto Rican-American woman to serve as a US ambassador. The filibuster by GOP senators––including Florida's Marco Rubio––has been sharply criticized by Latino leaders and politicians.

Some Background ...
Senate Confirms Lesbian Judge Marisa Demeo
DeMint: Gays Are "Immoral"

SC Dem Senate Candidate Alvin Greene Accused of Anti-Gay Slurs

More drama for Alvin Greene, who rocketed from obscurity to become South Carolina's Democratic Senate nominee. Greene's former campaign manager now accuses the candidate of using racial and anti-gay slurs, reports Myrtle Beach's WMBF-TV.

Alvin Greene is denying using the words. Now former campaign aide Dottie Sue Maggart-Feldmen accused Greene of using the slurs in a voice mail to the York County man she says Greene was talking about. The message was left for local Democratic activist Will Bigger, who organized a forum in York Monday night in which Greene spoke and answered questions. In the message, which was obtained by WBTV news partner CN2, Dottie Sue tells Bigger she has resigned from the Greene campaign. She says on the way back from the forum in York Greene called Bigger a 'fat white f-----.' She also says he called Bigger anti-white slurs. 'That's not true,' Greene told WBTV by phone from his home in Manning, South Carolina, on Wednesday night. 'She is a troublemaker, and she is not with my campaign.' Bigger said he's not sure who he believes, but he says the whole thing is disappointing."

Also on the campaign trail: Greene was accused of showing pornography to a college student and recently indicted by a grand jury on obscenity charges. South Carolina's Jim Clyburn, the No. 3-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House, says he will not support and not vote for his party's nominee for the Senate.

Right-wing and rabidly anti-gaySen. Jim DeMint leads Greene by 44 points.

WATCH: Steele Says Afghanistan a "War of Obama's Choosing"

Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, hopes to contain a growing controversy within his party. Key Republican senators questioned his effectiveness after Steele suggested the military operation in Afghanistan—started nine years ago by President Bush—was a lost cause and "a war of Obama’s choosing."

Said Steele at a Connecticut Republican fundraiser:

"This was a war of Obama’s choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in. [...] It was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he’s such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed."

Conservative, anti-gay Republican Sens. John McCain (AZ), Lindsey Graham (SC) and Jim Demint have blasted Steele  and a number of leading conservatives, such as Bill Kristol, have once again demanded Steele's resignation.

Steele's historical revisionism seems like another example of Republicans blaming Obama for situations that he didn't create. But are the Republicans demanding Steele's ouster because of his inaccuracy .. or suggesting that we can't win the "war"? Watch it AFTER THE JUMP ...

Senate Confirms Lesbian Judge Marisa Demeo to DC Superior Court

One of President Obama’s first openly LGBT appointees was finally confirmed by the Senate last night to the Washington D.C. Superior Court. Judge Marisa Demeo has waited 13 months while her nomination was largely held up in an effort by right-wing, anti-gay Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC).

On Tuesday, ThinkProgress obtained a letter sent to senators from the far-right Traditional Values Coalition, which has been labeled a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Senators were urged to reject the "radical lesbian":

"As an open, radical lesbian, Demeo has openly condemned the effort to amend our Constitution to protect marriage as a one-man, one-woman union Demeo supports gay marriage, claiming it is a constitutional right. She also claims that LGBT individuals are equal to racial minorities and can claim protection as minorities under our civil rights laws ... Demeo’s radical lesbianism, anti-marriage, anti-national security views are dangerous to our nation. She should not be confirmed to the DC Superior Court."

Demeo, a D.C. magistrate judge since 2007 who has "advocated for Hispanic and LGBT causes'", was confirmed by a 66-32 vote that fell largely on party lines. Republicans supporting Demeo included teabag hero Scott Brown (MA), Maine's Collins and Snowe, Bond (MO), Murkowski (AK), Lagar (IN) and Gregg (NH).

Last fall, DeMint vocally opposed Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination due to the "wise Latina" remark. And a few months ago DeMint said same-sex marriage is "destructive" to society and gays are so "immoral" he could never imagine one as president.

Sen. DeMint: Gays Are "Immoral", Same Sex Marriage "Destructive"

Right-wing South Carolina social conservative Sen. Jim DeMint, described as a "favorite of the grassroots 'tea party' brigade and Fox News", tells Bloomberg News that same-sex marriage is "destructive" to our society and gays are so "immoral" he could never imagine one as president:

"He takes a hard line on social issues, passionately anti- abortion and pro-guns. He has been most outspoken as an opponent of any form of gay marriage. 'Marriage is a religious institution. The federal government has no business redefining what it is,' DeMint says. This is one issue where he doesn’t support states’ rights; state government shouldn’t have the right to permit gay marriage: 'Governments should not be in the business of promoting a behavior that’s proven to be destructive to our society.' He cringes at the notion of a gay or lesbian president: 'It would be bothersome to me just personally because I consider it immoral.'"

Speaking of marriages and morality, DeMint has been virtually silent regarding his state's governor, Mark Sanford, who abandoned his wife and children over Father's Day and flew to Argentina for a jump-off.

In October, the anti-gay conservative slammed the hate crimes bill that just passed Senate and claimed it "undermine[[d] the principles" soldiers are fighting for.

DeMint Suggests Soldiers "Fight" for Right to Commit Hate Crimes

South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint can barely contain his "hate" at the Hate Crimes Bill attached to the conference report for 2010 Department of Defense authorization.

The anti-gay conservative says: "Hate crimes legislation has nothing to do with the Defense Department or national security. It actually has nothing to do with crimes or hate. It is very cynical that this bill that funds our soldiers that are fighting for our constitution and our country undermines the principles they are fighting for."

It's standard operating procedure that conservatives deny hate crimes are happening––despite what the headlines and facts say––but is DeMint suggesting our soldiers are "fighting" for the right to gay-bash?

Watch the crazy ON THE JUMP.