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Anti-Gay Sen. Mel Martinez to Resign "By End of the Month"

The hits keep coming for the scandal-plagued, increasingly irrelevant Republican Party. Mel Martinez—Flordia's rabidly right-wing anti-gay senator, Bush clone and the former RNC chairman—is resigning his Senate seat "at the end of August, a year and a half before his term expires in January 2011," reports The Hill.

Martinez previously announced he would not seek re-election in 2010 and his resignation "throws a fascinating wrinkle into the open seat race to replace Martinez," writes WashingtonPost.com's Chris Cillizza at The Fix.

Charlie Crist, as the sitting governor, has the power to appoint a replacement for Martinez -- a task complicated by the fact that he is seeking the same Senate seat in 2010. Crist could, theoretically, appoint himself but that seems unlikely as it could spark a voter backlash in a race that Crist is strongly favored to win. Assuming Crist does not name himself, he is likely to appoint a caretaker who will hold the seat until January 2011 but will not seek the full term.

Martinez has a zero rating from the Human Rights Campaign. The St. Petersburg Times revoked their endorsement after he relentlessly gay-baited his anti-gay Republican challenger. Martinez has opposed even basic equality legislation such as ENDA and bullying laws that would protect both gay and straight youth.

Former Republican Vice Presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin also recently resigned fom office. Must be a new Republican "strategy".

UPDATE: Crist says he won’t appoint himself to replace Martinez.

Graham Supports Sotomayor

Although he was one of her "toughest questioners during her four-day Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing last week,"—especially around gay rights and same-sex marriage—Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announces his support of the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

Graham’s support is not entirely unexpected—during her final round of questions to Sotomayor, he all but endorsed her nomination. ... Graham, in a floor speech, said he believes Sotomayor is a "mainstream" jurist who "is bound by the law." He said he was "voting for her because I find her to be well-qualified. Elections matter and those that have served beside her for years find her to be an extraordinary woman."

Graham's support is more or less consistent with his deferential approach toward a president's judiccial nominations. The anti-gay social conservative South Carolina Republican—who boasts a 0% score from the Human Rights Campaign—becomes the fifth GOP Senator to formally endorse the SCOTUS nominee. The others include Maine's moderate Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, as well as Dick Lugar (IN) and Mel Martinez (FL).

Bravo to Graham for being consistent. Unlike his hypocritical colleague from Arizona Jon Kyl, who delivered a floor speech slash rant on Wednesday that criticized Sotomayor’s responses to questions "during the hearing and formally announcing that he would vote against her confirmation."

You go ahead and do that, Jon. Latinos make up a large percentage of Arizona’s voting population. Hopefully you will be rewarded in 2012.

(Outed) Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to Run for Senate

Florida's Republican Governor Charlie Crist, one of the central figures in a new documentary about anti-gay closeted politicians, will announce his plans to run for a U.S. Senate seat tomorrow, reports the Tallahassee Democrat.

The governor is scheduled to reveal his plans for 2010 in Tallahassee on Tuesday, but party leaders have been saying for months that he wants to be in Washington rather than running for another term as governor. Former House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, jumped into the GOP Senate race last week, casting himself as a conservative "alternative voice" to Crist's more moderate image. With the Democrats likely to attain a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate this year, keeping Florida Sen. Mel Martinez's seat in the red column has national implications. Leon County GOP Chairman Dan Abel, who is uncommitted, said a Crist-Rubio match-up will pull the national Republican Party to the right.

Crist's sexuality has long been the subject of rumors and the governor is one of the leading subjects of Outrage, the Kirby Dick documentary that debuted last week. In 2006, a 24-year-old Republican Party campaign aide claimed he had a sexual relationship with Crist and named another man as the governor's long-term boyfriend. Crist denied both claims. Crist was quickly married last year (to a woman) at the height of the vice presidential selection process for Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

Time to release another "sex tape" featuring the governor and his "wife"!

Crist to Enter Race for Senate [Tallahassee Democrat]

Let's Meet the New Chairman of the Republican National Committee

When news broke that Florida Sen. Mel Martinez was named the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, we were unaware of his history. But it makes sense: Replace Ken Mehlman—long plagued by questions about his sexuality—with someone whose anti-gay and reactionary credentials are impeccable. Here is his resume:

· Zero rating from the HRC. "Senator Martinez was elected in 2004 by taking page one out of Karl Rove’s gay baiting playbook," says HRC's Joe Solmonese. "His campaign was one of the most anti-gay, bigoted and divisive campaigns in the nation’s history."

· How divisive? In 2004, The St. Petersburg Times revoked its endorsement after Martinez sent a mailer against his opponent, Rep. Bill McCollum, calling him “the new darling of the homosexual extremists" because McCollum had the nerve to support hate crimes legislation.

There was so much anti-gay rhetoric that even the state's Republican governor, Jeb Bush, asked him to stop.

· Martinez is also a hypocrite. Americablog reports top staffers on the Martinez Senate campaign were the openly gay John Dowless and Kirk Fordham—the latter was formerly chief of staff to disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley. At the least, it calls into question the sincerity of Martinez' commitment is to the anti-gay agenda; at worst, he's an opportunist and those staffers have enabled him dangerous pandering.

· Terri Schiavo. Martinez authored the talking points memo that encouraged Republican lawmakers to speak out on the case, saying it was "a great political issue" and the "pro-life base will be excited." Media Matters reports, "Despite Sen. Tom Harkin's (D-IA) claim that Martinez had handed him the memo on the Senate floor, Martinez denied having any knowledge of it."

Let's file Martinez under ... "Some of my best friends and employees are gay."

Anti-Gay Sen. Martinez Next RNC Chair (HRC)

Fox News Ignored Schiavo Memo (Media Matters)

McCollum for GOP (St. Pete Times)

Anti-Gay Senator to Head Repub (America Blog)

More Anti-Gay Republicans:

Breaking: Ken Mehlman is Out (Rod 2.0) Bill Maher Outs Ken Mehlman on Larry King (Rod 2.0) Repub Party Accepts Money from Gay Porn (Rod 2.0) Mr. Mehlman, You've Given So Many Confusing Answers About Your Sexuality" (Rod 2.0) Parody of the Racist Bimbo Ad (Rod 2.0) Repub Party Accepts Money from Gay Porn (Rod 2.0) How Low Will They Go? (Rod 2.0) Repubs Obsessed with Gays and Sex (Rod 2.0) How Low Will They Go? (Rod 2.0) UCC Slams Fundies (Rod 2.0) Blame Gays, Clinton and the Victims (Rod 2.0) GOP "Attack Dog" Outed (Rod 2.0) Foley Latest: Blame it on the Gays (Rod 2.0) Vast "Liberal Conspiracy" (Rod 2.0) Repubs Wanted to Avoid "Gay Bashing" (Rod 2.0) GOP Leaders in Foley Cover-Up (Rod 2.0) Congressman Resigns (Rod 2.0) GOP Rep. Emails 16 YO Boy (Rod 2.0) FBI Investigating VA Republicans (Rod 2.0) Julian Bond Denounces VA Amendement (Rod 2.0) MD GOP Hires Homeless (Rod 2.0) Republican BABE of the Week! (Rod 2.0) Republican HUNK of the Week! (Rod 2.0) "I Pledge Allegiance, to the Flag" (Rod 2.0) Blackwell Compares Gays to Arsonists (Rod 2.0) Steele Uses Gay Marriage to Wedge (Rod 2.0) Spreading the Santorum (Rod 2.0) New York's Black Republicans (Rod 2.0)

Breaking: Martinez New RNC Chief

CNN's John King reports Florida Sen. Mel Martinez will become the new chairman of the Republican National Committee. Sen. Martinez will remain in office and serve as the party's primary spokesman as well as take a major role in fundraising and political outreach.

Martinez was born in Cuba and emigrated here as a child. He will be the first Hispanic chairman of the RNC and will reach out to those voters because Republican gains among Hispanics evaporated in Tuesday's elections, mostly due to harsh rhetoric on immigration. In 2004, when President Bush was at the top of the ticket, an estimated 44% of Hispanics cast Republican ballots. This years, the figure dropped to 29%.