Dan Savage Vs Sen. Tom Cotton

Dan Savage appeared on MSNBC yesterday to respond to Sen. Tom Cotton, who dismissed anti-gay legislation in the United States as unimportant because gay people are being executed in Iran. Savage: "The hypocrisy of people like Tom Cotton, who wants America to get credit for being better on gay issues but will point to how bad it is elsewhere to justify making it worse here, how do you rationalize that except through some bigot blender brain?"

Sen. Tom Cotton On RFRA: At Least The GOP Isn't Hanging Gay Americans

Today's New York Daily News

Via Talking Point Memo:

The New York Daily News on Tuesday used its front page to condemn Republican senators for signing an open letter to Iran warning that a potential nuclear deal could be null once President Barack Obama is out of office. The tabloid's front page prominently featured Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rand Paul (R-KY). It also branded the 47 senators who signed the letter as "traitors" who tried to "sabotage" the President's nuclear negotiations.

Twitchy is very upset about this.

UPDATE: JMG reader Chris sends us an interesting post from The Week:

The next time Republicans in the Senate try to explain treaties and the U.S. Constitution to Iranian officials, they may want to pick someone other than a foreign minister with a masters and PhD in international relations from the University of Denver, plus two degrees from San Francisco State University. Javad Zarif, who is also Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, responded to a letter from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and 46 other GOP senators with an explainer of his own. Not only are the senators shaky on their own Constitution's separation of powers, Zarif wrote, according to Iran's Tasnim News Agency, but "the authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfill the obligations they undertake with other states, and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations." That's important, Zarif added, because "the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by U.S. domestic law."

Brian Brown: GOP Won Because Of NOM

"Our two most prominent efforts to influence Senate contests were in North Carolina and Arkansas. The NOM Victory Fund spent over $200,000 in these races on television ads, direct mail and grassroots outreach to mobilize marriage supporters. When our TV ad and mailer hit in North Carolina, Thom Tillis trailed Kay Hagan by 2-3 points. Within days, we helped bring the race into a tie, and then working along with NC Values Coalition (which co-sponsored the ads and with whom we worked to pass the state’s marriage amendment in 2012) we helped mobilize grassroots marriage supporters to get to the polls. In what many consider the biggest upset of the night, Thom Tillis defeated Kay Hagan by two points, and marriage helped make the difference.

"Arkansas was also a race where marriage made a difference. When our TV ad began airing, marriage champion Tom Cotton led incumbent Mark Pryor by 7 points. Cotton ended up winning by seventeen points! Clearly, our advertising and grassroots efforts in that state helped to boost his margin of victory. We were able to mount very strong grassroots efforts that helped make a difference in a number of other races. For example, we helped sponsor (along with FRC Action and others) a multi-state bus tour to energize marriage supporters who went to the polls to elect Joni Ernst to the Senate in Iowa and Ben Sasse in Nebraska, as well as turnout supporters to help Gov. Sam Brownback and Sen. Pat Roberts win reelection in Kansas." - Hate group leader Brian Brown, writing for the Heritage Foundation's blog, Daily Signal.

ARKANSAS: Anti-Gay Rep. Tom Cotton Unseats Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor

Cotton is a darling of the Tea Party and was first elected to the House in 2012.

Anonymous: We Spotted Very Anti-Gay Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR) At DC Gay Bar

The above Anonymous Twitter account with 1.3 million followers claims to have spotted Tea Party hero and US Senate candidate Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR) in the crowd at the popular DC gay bar JR's. I've looked at the photos of Cotton that come up on Google Image and just can't tell from the shot posted to Foursquare. According to Wikipedia, Cotton married a woman early this year and is expecting his first child in the spring.

Earlier this week an NRA endorsement of Cotton appeared on Grindr, but the NRA claims that the ad is fake, so perhaps this Anonymous claim is part of some bizarre campaign to malign Cotton, who has all of the usual far-right Tea Party positions and strongly opposes same-sex marriage. He is considered likely to unseat Sen. Mark Pryor and currently leads in the polls by seven points. (Tipped by JMG reader Brandon)