Jody Bottum has more on Md. Gov. Ehrlich's firing of Robert K. Smith (I posted here previously) for objecting to homosexuality while speaking on his own time as a private citizen.
One of Smith’s fellow board members, however, said it most succinctly, asserting, “To defend this point of view is beyond the pale.” That last phrase arrests the attention. What Governor Ehrlich and Smith’s colleagues on the WMATA board were saying is not just that they disagree with Smith about the moral quality of homosexual conduct, not just that Smith’s views are in error, not just that his views are unreasonable, but that they are immoral. Indeed, nothing less would justify Ehrlich’s decision to remove Smith. Ehrlich could hardly admit that Smith’s views were reasonable, the kind of thing that a person may in good faith believe even if Ehrlich himself disagreed, and yet nevertheless justify removing Smith from an office that has no significant connection to gay rights on the basis of those beliefs. No, what is being said here is that Smith’s views on homosexual conduct, which are the views of the Catholic religion and of a great many Americans (both religious and nonreligious), are, in the words of Smith’s former colleague, “beyond the pale”—beyond, that is to say, the range of beliefs that moral people might hold in just the same way that, say, racist beliefs are beyond the pale. Only bigots think that way.
Frankly, I think what caused people to come unglued was the use of the word "deviant," which for some reason has come to seem perjorative, although I don't see how it's any different from the Catechism's use of the word "disordered." And Ehrlich, running for re-election, is absolutely desperate to be portrayed as a "moderate" (as opposed to a Conservative). I took part in what turned out to be a push-poll run by the Gov.'s re-election campaign, and the obvious right answer to every question was, "Gov. Bob Ehrlich's moderate position. . . ." The extremist, liberal or out-of-the-mainstream views of his potential opponents came up, but in a long poll, the word "Conservative" never came up.
Be that as it may, a commenter over at No Left Turns raises an interesting question about the effect the Gov.'s precipitous move will have on the Senate campaign of Ehrlich's Lt. Gov., Michael Steele -- a devout RC who presumably shares the "unacceptable" position of Robert K. Smith. Ehrlich may have cost Steele the election, because surely some reporter will ask him to characterize the Gov's move (it's the first question I'd ask).
UPDATE: Yup. It wuz "deviant" what done it; and Steele's already been asked to comment.
