Yesterday Dave Agema, the RNC committeeman from Michigan who’s spent a week explaining his Facebook’d thoughts about the gay lifestyle, attempted to bring the story to an end. He spoke to WWMT Newschannel 3, defied the calls for his resignation, and explained that he didn’t believe in every word of an article he’d shared with social media pals.
They quoted as what somebody else said and attributed it to me; I didn’t say that. So, do I agree with everything that that guy [said] and the way he said it in the article, no. But he gives a lot of statistics on the results of the health and mental and physical health of the lifestyle and what it causes.As the reporter who first posted that Facebook item, I’d like to interject that I never “attributed” Frank Joseph’s article to Agema. I talked to Agema (via email) about his own thoughts, quoted him, and largely moved on. But he’s been going back and forth on Facebook – still! – with his Republican critics, and tonight he got even closer to “that guy’s” take. First he posted this:
That earned a response from Brad Fingeroot, a Republican activist in Oakland County. “Let’s keep the smut on the sidelines,” wrote Fingeroot. Agema responded:
Like he told the TV interviewer: He believes the statistics. Dennis Lennox, a young GOP precinct delegate who’s been calling for Agema to go, flagged the new Facebook exhange and added a statement:
After trying to hide his ignorance and bigotry for several days, Dave Agema has finally proven that he seeks to promote hate, viciousness and vitriol instead of the Republican Party’s traditional forward-looking message of equal opportunity for all. Dave Agema’s extremism has no place in our Republican Party.That’s a popular-seeming sentiment among conservatives who are trying to nudge the party away from its current approach to gay issues.
