FLORIDA: Log Cabin Republicans Run Ad Exploiting Death Of US Ambassador

The Broward County chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans ran the above Pam Geller-esque ad this week in the Florida Agenda, drawing the fury of National Stonewall Democrats head Jerame Davis, who fired off the below press release.

"The Broward Log Cabin Republican Club of Florida has cravenly disrespected the life and legacy of a United States civil servant with this ad. Put bluntly, they have crossed the line of civil discourse and good taste by including an image of the corpse of slain US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens being carried through the streets of Benghazi, Libya. "Their shameless and callous use of the image of Ambassador Stevens' body aside, the confused hatchet men at Log Cabin are conflating a number of unrelated issues in order to attack Democrats and President Obama. First, they latch onto right-wing rumors that Ambassador Stevens was gay and then they insinuate that President Obama is responsible for the attack because he did not protect the Ambassador from 'Sharia Law'.

Then, in a very bizarre turn, they state their support for Israel as a 'beacon of hope' in the Middle East and urge voters to, 'support Israel in this hour of darkness: vote Republican!' It is simply unimaginable to me how any political message, let alone the muddy and ludicrous message of this ad, in any way justifies disgracing the memory of a man who gave his life in service to his country. This level of depravity and moral indifference must not be allowed to enter our political discourse. "We call upon the Broward Log Cabin Republican Club of Florida to retract this ad and apologize to Floridians for subjecting them to this sort of degenerate messaging. We also call upon Log Cabin Republicans national office to repudiate this ad for the partisan detritus that it is."

I'd expect something like this from GOProud, not Log Cabin.

UPDATE: Bilerico has the response from Log Cabin head R. Clark Cooper, who has forcefully denounced the action of the Florida chapter: "This ad does not represent the position of Log Cabin Republicans, and we reject it completely.  The 9-11 attack on Americans posted in Libya was a straight up act of terrorism. There are plenty of reasons to vote Republican on protecting US interests abroad, but such an ad is fallacious, simple minded and irresponsible."

UPDATE II: Cooper has emailed me a longer response: "This ad does not represent the position of Log Cabin Republicans, and we reject it completely. The 9-11 attack on Americans posted in Libya was a straight up act of terrorism.  To suggest the AQIM attack on our consular mission in Benghazi was connected to homophobia is just as ridiculous as USUN Ambassador Susan Rice claiming the attack in Benghazi was prompted by a film critical of Mohammed. There are plenty of reasons to vote Republican on protecting US interests abroad, but such an obscene ad is fallacious, simple minded and irresponsible.  I am deeply embarrassed to have to explain to strong pro-gay conservative ally, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, that an official chapter of LCR ran such an offensive and moronic ad." [Note from JMG: Ros-Lehtinen represents South Florida.]