My colleague Josh Voorhees has done a fine and sober job on Jack Burkman, the man now known as the “Washington lobbyist trying to keep gays out of the NFL.” It’s easy to portray Burkman as some sort of super-lobbyist, with clout. But if you dig for five seconds, you find that the guy’s a blowhard pundit who’ll sprain an ankle to sprint onto a TV set (usually Fox). Burkman records a politics podcast and catalogs his many statements to the people at a website that doesn’t say much much about his lobbying. Short version: This guy’s not going to succeed in getting an anti-gay bill through Congress.
Maybe that wasn’t his goal. Maybe he wanted to become famous. He’s certainly pulled that off, becoming Michael Sam’s own personal Ben Chapman—not as athletic, obviously, but ready with an opinion about anything! Here he is on Muslims.
“I would rest my case,” says Chapman, “that Muslims are savages simply on this point—simply on the point that the religion requires women and very young girls to cover their face with a veil. Where are the feminists on this question?”
Where, indeed? Probably not calling people “savages,” but probably not in much demand for interviews, either.
