Jack Conway pushed a debate in Kentucky about religious faith squarely into the US Senate race this weekend, and the Rand Paul campaign cried foul in a testy face-to-face meeting.

In the ad above, Conway uses a series of stories about Paul’s participation in a secret society at Baylor University, which mocked religion and behaved in somewhat subversive ways. Conway connects the strange group, called the NoZe Brotherhood, to Paul’s support for ending faith-based initiatives and charitable deductions for religious entities.

Paul’s campaign spokesman called the ad “shameful and despicable,” and Paul himself confronted Conway at a scheduled debate on Sunday.

“He’s descended into the gutter,” Paul, who referred to himself as a “pro-life Christian” said. “Jack, you should be ashamed of yourself. Have you no decency? Have you no shame?” [...]

“Values matter,” Conway said. “Why did he freely join a group known for mocking or making fun of people of faith? And secondly, when is it ever a good idea to tie up a woman and ask her to kneel before a false idol called Aqua Buddha?”

Paul never once answered those two questions, and attacked Conway throughout for, it seemed, having the audacity to ask them.

“You know how we know when you’re lying?” Paul said to Conway. “Your lips are moving. You’re accusing me of crimes. Do you know nothing about the process? You’re going to stand there and accuse me of a crime from 30 years ago from some anonymous source? How ridiculous are you? You embarrass this race.”

Clearly Paul has more of a problem with the dredging up of his Baylor-era past than the associated accusation about faith-based initiatives and charities. I understand that this is Kentucky we’re talking about, but that just seems like a weak connection to make, and furthermore there’s very little justification for such giveaways to groups who already get tax-exempt status.   . . .

photo: HB Art via Flickr

4ClosureFraud published another of the depositions from the FL investigation into foreclosure mill David Stern’s office. In it, Kelly Scott, the assistant of Cheryl Salmons–the woman who oversaw the robosigner aspect of their business–included details on how Salmons appears to have created her own lost title affidavits, how they would backdate affidavits of proof of service for foreclosures when the borrower hadn’t been served properly, and reclassify files to hide them from Freddie Mac when auditors would come for a visit.

But one of tidbits that seemed to surprise the lawyers had to do with Stern moving a truck load of documents offsite to another office.

Q. Did they say anything about what’s going on with Stern or Cheryl Salmons or anybody else?

A. The only concern was that they were moving files out of the office into a different office and that Eighteen Inch Freight, I think, was picking them up. Something like that. Trailer freight, something like that.

Q. Do you know where –

MS. CLARKSON: Eighteen wheeler?

THE WITNESS: Yeah, eighteen wheeler.

BY MS. EDWARDS: Q. Do you know where they were moving them?

A. Supposedly they were being moved to Orlando’s office.

Q. And do you know why they would do that?

A. No.

Q. Do you know how long ago this was going on?

A. I think a month and a half ago.

Q. What kind of office is Orlando?

A. David Stern has another law office in Orlando, Florida.

Q. What office is that?

A. I don’t know.

Q. And was it connected with the office here in Broward County?

A. Yes.

Q. And do you know which — what the office is there or what the location is?

A. No, I just know it’s another law office for David Stern that he’s opened for foreclosures in Orlando.

Q. And did he just open it a month and a half ago?

A. No. He opened it, I think it was either sometime at the beginning of this year or the end of last year. I can’t remember.

Q. 2010?

A. Yeah.  . . .

Photo of Valerie Jarrett courtesy America.Gov

I don’t think Valerie Jarrett is a bad person for using the words “lifestyle choice” when speaking about the recent rash of gay teen suicides. The more important question always goes to intent — did Jarrett mean what Tony Perkins means when he uses those words? Did she mean to imply that the teens were responsible for their own predicament because they chose to be godless hedonists? I just don’t believe she did.

There are a lot of factors that contribute to the choices people make about language, and I don’t see any reason to think that Jarrett did anything more than use words that are atavistic and reflect cultural isolation from the LGBT movement. She put herself out there to comfort the parents of those teens and spoke out against the bullying that led to their deaths. That counts for a lot more.

The much greater problem is that the comments do reveal Jarrett to be unfamiliar with the discourse in the LGBT community for the past 40 years. Which doesn’t make her a leper either — it’s hard to be up on the crosscurrents of every community all the time. The problem is that Jarrett is ultimately in charge of LGTB relations at the White House. Brian Bond, the LGBT liaison and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, reports directly to her.

Josh Gerstein writes today that Rahm Emanuel was the one in the White House who “sought to avoid a showdown with the military over the issue.” As Obama was making critical decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan, he “didn’t want the process derailed by the culturally freighted gays-in-the-military fight.”

So when White House senior staff were discussing how to proceed on DADT, who was the one tasked with representing the concerns of the LGTB community? Who answered Rahm on their behalf? Ultimately in the White House food chain, that was Jarrett.  . . .