Jane Hamsher talks to John Harwood, who explains that the "fringe" comment was directed at dissenting left-wing bloggers, not the LGBT community:
He confirmed that the quote came from “an Obama adviser.” He did say that the comments weren’t specifically directed at “the LGBT community or the marchers,” but “referred more broadly to those grumbling on the left about an array of issues including the war in Afghanistan and health care and Guantanamo.”
Okay, at this point I don't know what there is to be outraged about. If the adviser's comments, as nebulous and unverifiable as they were, had been directed at the LGBT community, at people who are merely demanding the recognition of their rights as human beings, that would be tremendously offensive. Indeed, many of us took it that way. I certainly did, and so did Hamsher, saying "[a]fter pandering to LGBT leaders last night the truth comes out. Dear gays: grow up and let us get about the serious business of governance." But Harwood clarifies that the statement was never meant to be taken that way -- which means that the folks who have spent all day explaining how this one anonymous statement proved the "truth" of the president's contempt for the LGBT community were just plain wrong.
Honestly, if the White House wasn't angry at the pushback its been receiving from the left, I'd be disappointed. White House frustration at "the left" is less an insult than a vindication of the left's intellectual honesty.
-- A. Serwer
