More of Mel's delicious irony

When I wrote earlier about the irony of Mel Martinez being the White House pick for Florida Senate candidate and the fact that he was a trial lawyer, I thought that would be the end. This morning I stumbled across this:

Formerly the executive director of the Christian Coalition of Florida, [John] Dowless is now a private political consultant in Orlando.

Because of Dowless' strong connections to the state's conservative religious groups, Martinez hired him several months ago to help the campaign reach out to conservative Christians.

"My role is organizing grassroots stuff for them," particularly among conservative Christians, Dowless said.

In a crowded primary field, many Republican candidates in Florida, including Martinez, are angling to get voter attention by running as far as possible to the right.

Martinez in particular has sought to distinguish himself as the candidate perhaps most vocal against gay rights, including running a statewide radio ad encouraging the Senate to pass the Federal Marriage Amendment, and attacking one of his opponents for supporting hate crimes laws that would include protections based on sexual orientation.

Ironically, at least two powerful men working for the Martinez campaign are gay.

One of them is John Dowless, the political consultant. The other is Kirk Fordham, who is employed as Martinez’s finance director.

Martinez is a guy who has likened a country with same-sex marriage to life under Fidel Castro, clearly in an attempt to win the Cuban American vote in Florida as well.

A Christian activist was similarly surprised that the former head of the Christian Coalition of Florida could be a gay man and be working for the Martinez campaign.

Bill Stephens, the current executive director of the Christian Coalition of Florida, confirmed that John Dowless had been the organization's head for about five years in the mid to late 90s.

"Wow, that's shocking and that's news to me," said Stephens when asked if he knew Dowless was gay. "I didn't know anything about that."

When asked if it might affect Dowless' work among Christian conservatives, Stephens replied, "Of course it would, of course. But I don't think I want to say anything else about that right now."

Stephens made a point to say that Dowless was no longer affiliated in any way with the Christian Coalition. "He does not do any work for us anymore, and hasn't for some time."

"Now I have to get back to reading about Judas"

Seriously, I wonder what questions were asked of Bill Stephens to illicit such a response from him. This man helps push forward whatever agenda is asked of him and he does it happily. However once word is out he may be gay, we need to hold him at arms length and disavow our connections with him. It's the kind of thing that draws my ire for the CC.