Rick Santorum: I Regret That I Ever Said That "Man On Dog" Thing About Gays

Last night Rick Santorum sat down for a rare and lengthy interview with Rachel Maddow. Raw Story zeroes in on the SCOTUS portion:

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow shot down Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum on Wednesday when he tried to argue that Congress could overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing marriage equality. “You’re fundamentally wrong on civics,” Maddow said. “If there is a question as to the constitutionality of a law, it gets adjudicated. The second syllable in that word means it gets decided in the judiciary. The Supreme Court decides whether or not a law is constitutional. So you could not now pass a law that said, ‘We’re banning same-sex marriage.'” Santorum then argued that “Congress can pass anything it wants to pass,” regardless of the high court’s decisions to justify passing a new ban on same-sex marriages. “So you want them to pass a moot bill?” Maddow asked. “It wouldn’t be moot,” he insisted, saying that the court could find it “misread the tea leaves” between its ruling last month and a possible new bill.

After the above exchange, Maddow asks if Santorum believes that people choose to be gay. Minutes later Santorum said that he now regrets his "flippant" 2003 comment that decriminalizing homosexuality will lead to legalizing "man on dog" sex. He added, however, that he stands by his overall "slippery slope" contention about LGBT rights.

Rachel Maddow Mocks Franklin Graham

"I love this story so much I want to take it to Franklin Graham's new bank and marry it. If it's a lady."

Apple's Tim Cook Tops Out's Power 50 List

Out Magazine today published its ninth annual ranking of the 50 most powerful LGBT people in the United States.  Taking the top spot from last year's list leader, Ellen DeGeneres, is Apple CEO Tim Cook, who formally came out six months ago. Here is this year's top ten:

1. Tim Cook
2. Ellen DeGeneres
3. Rachel Maddow
4. Sen. Tammy Baldwin
5. Anderson Cooper
6. Anthony Romero 
7. Chad Griffin
8. Mary Kay Henry
9. Laverne Cox
10. Andy Cohen

Romero is the executive director of the ACLU and Henry is the head of the SEIU. Missing from the list for the second year is closeted homocon blogger Matt Drudge, who ranked at #21 in 2013 and at #16 in 2012. Fellow homocons Peter Thiel and Ken Mehlman appear on this year's ranking at #13 and #41 respectively, with closeted Fox anchor Shepard Smith coming at #20. Also gone this year is recently retired blogger Andrew Sullivan, who ranked at #26 last year. Hit the top link for the full 2015 list.

Maddow On The Fall Of Aaron Schock

Like many, Maddow doesn't think we've heard the full story.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg To MSNBC: I'll Only Step Down When It Feels Like I'm Slipping

Rachel Maddow Interviews "High-Tech Bears" Who Own Jeb Bush Web Domain

Rachel Maddow Explains What Bears Are: America's Happiest Gay Subculture

At the 11:00 mark. If you can't get the MSNBC clip to play there's a low-rez version on YouTube.

(Tipped by JMG reader Robbie)

Maddow Follows Up On Fischer Story

There's A Moon In The Sky

Via Wonkette:

This may be the goofiest thing the Maddow Show has ever run. On the QVC shopping channel, host Shawn Killinger and designer Isaac Mizrahi got into a debate over the true nature of the moon, after Killinger remarked that the swirly pattern on a cardigan looked like the view of Earth from zillions of miles away, like “from planet Moon.” Planet? No, that’s not right. The moon’s a star, isn’t it? And so a shopping channel became the forum for a debate over whether the moon is a planet or a star, or maybe something else. When someone off set finally looked it up on Wikipedia and said it was a “natural satellite,” neither Killinger nor Mizrahi were ready to buy that.

Mizrahi: "Things live on it, I think it’s a planet."

JMG On Maddow

Lots of you emailed to point out that this here website thingy made a fleeting appearance on last night's Rachel Maddow Show. The highlighted post was the one about the anti-gay Norfolk County clerk being forced to sign the marriage license of the plaintiffs in Bostic. 

Out Issues Power 50 Ranking

Out Magazine today published its eighth annual ranking of the 50 most powerful LGBT people in the United States.  Here's a bit of the list.

1. Ellen DeGeneres
2. Tim Cook
3. Rachel Maddow
4. Sen. Tammy Baldwin
5. Glenn Greenwald
6. Ryan Murphy
7. Neil Patrick Harris
8. Andy Cohen
9. Michael Sam
10. Robin Roberts

Homocon billionaire Peter Thiel is #13. Former RNC chairman Ken Mehlman is #18. Andrew Sullivan is #26. New to the list is DOMA attorney Roberta Kaplan at #47. Curiously missing from this year's ranking is closeted homocon blogger Matt Drudge, who ranked at #21 last year and at #16 in 2012. Since there's no obvious reason for Drudge to completely fall off the list in one year, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody got a cease-and-desist letter.

Rachel Maddow: Westboro Baptist Church Brought Out The Best In Americans

RELATED: As an underscore to Maddow's point, counter-protesters displayed the below banners at Westboro's first post-Fred Phelps picket, which was held outside a concert for teenage pop star Lorde.

Maddow Rips Wingnut Claims About Presidents Appearing On Comedy Shows

Clip recap via Noah Rothman:

On Thursday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow took aim at ABC News reporter Jim Avila, CNN political analyst David Gergen, and a number of conservative political commentators who asserted that President Barack Obama’s appearance on a Funny or Die web video debased the office of the presidency. Maddow took the opportunity to play clips of all the times when American presidents made light of themselves by appearing with comedians. Maddow featured presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush who appeared with popular comedians at some point in their presidency.

Rachel Maddow Vs. Rep. Tim Huelskamp

If you didn't catch this craziness last night:

A question over the inclusion of Army Sgt. 1st Class Cory Remsburg at Tuesday’s State of the Union address spiraled into a policy-spanning battle between MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), who accused her of hiding from what his party calls the truth about the Benghazi attack. “This administration promised to be the most transparent in history, Rachel,” an animated Huelskamp told Maddow. “And if you would stop being a cheerleader and be a journalist, you’d recognize that we’re not getting those answers.” “Did you just call me a cheerleader?” Maddow asked. “I don’t know, maybe you have that history,” Huelskamp scoffed, before saying, “If it was [George W.] Bush, you would be jumping and screaming.” “You’re amazing,” a visibly perturbed Maddow said.

Things get going around the 5:00 mark. If case you're unaware, Huelskamp is among the most virulently anti-gay teabaggers in the House.

Maddow & Letterman Talk Sochi

Rachel Maddow appeared on Late Night With David Letterman last night to talk about Chris Christie and the Sochi Olympics. Towleroad quotes Letterman lamenting the lack of a Sochi boycott: "I was hoping that everybody would pull out and everybody would say 'This is not right. This is medieval times. We're not going.' Vladimir Putin said they would not be targeted. Which to me was like, 'Oh, thanks'."

Fox News Defends Chris Christie

Josh Feldman recaps:

Bill O’Reilly finally tackled the Chris Christie “Bridgegate” scandal on Thursday night, and he mostly defended Christie against the criticisms lobbed against him, especially the “bully” label. Laura Ingraham joined O’Reilly and pointed out that Republicans will also be gunning for Christie too, because for years now conservatives have been unhappy with the moderate Christie and his embrace of President Obama during Hurricane Sandy. Ingraham said Christie’s press conference was “as best as you can do in these circumstances,” reminding O’Reilly that a lot of Republicans just outright hate Christie, so he has to decide if he’s going to be a “punching bag” going forward.

Rachel Maddow On Utah's Marriage Battle

"It turns out, Utah screwed it up." Great recap.

Another Anti-Gay Slur From Alex Baldwin, Wingnuts Pounce On Social Media

GLAAD's Ross Murray reacts: "I don’t know what he’s thinking when he says what he says. I know he’s someone who has worked with us in the past. That’s why it gets hard when he comes back and does the same thing over and over again. We will have to take some time and think about how to respond." TMZ has the video.

UPDATE: Baldwin is denying he said "fag."

UPDATE II: We have another comment from GLAAD. "Mr. Baldwin can’t lend his support for equality on paper, while degrading gay people in practice. It's clearly time he listens to the calls from so many LGBT people and allies to end this pattern of anti-gay slurs." - Rich Ferraro, vice president of communications for GLAAD.

Maddow BUSTS E.W. Jackson

Maddow: The GOP Got Exactly Nothing

Josh Feldman recaps:

Maddow explained how “the Republicans thought for sure the Democrats would cave” on Obamacare, and the fact that they didn’t threw them for a loop and so they had “no idea what to do next.” She went down the list of all their “weird, specific demands” about Obamacare and a list of other issues, from birth control to Paul Ryan‘s tax code on their “constantly-changing list of demands.” And “of their entire list,” Maddow said, “they are going to get nothing. Nothing.” She added, “It may be true that nobody won, but someone definitely lost here.”

Definitely worth watching.