The nationwide reaction to the San Francisco's Board of Supervisors stunning decision to refuse to accept the USS Iowa as a floating memorial continues to grow, as evidenced by the fact that anti-Iowa San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi backtracked at full speed astern last night on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes" Program.
As covered in my column for HEO this week, "Liberals First, Americans Second..." the Board rejected berthing the Iowa after a bitter debate in which Supervisors cited opposition to the Iraq war, opposition to the military's Clinton-era policies on Gays, and San Francisco's historic ties to the "Peace" movement.
Last night, however, Supervisor Mirkarimi told Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes that the Board's decision wasn’t about liberal ideology at all. It was really an economic decision, designed to protect San Francisco from a "boondoggle.” This political aikido technique probably would have worked a bit better before Al Gore invented the Internet, however. Consider these quotes from the press coverage surrounding the debate:
"I am sad to say I am not proud of the history of the United States of America since the 1940s,'' -Supervisor Chris Daly, explaining his opposition to the monument.
"For Tom and I, it's very difficult to advocate for some military honor thing when people are being harassed and even killed and are unable to serve in the military because they are gay and lesbian." -Supervisor Bevan Dufty, explaining his and Supervisor Tom Ammiano’s opposition to the Iowa "military honor thing."
"Extremely Divisive." -Supervisor Jake McGoldrick on the very concept of a military memorial in San Francisco.
"[I] don't want to sink money into a war museum while we're stuck in a war I don't support." -Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, explaining his opposition to the Iowa memorial, before he appeared on Hannity and Colmes.
And what was ultra-liberal Senator Diane Feinstein's assessment of the decision?
"This isn't the San Francisco that I've known and loved and grew up in and was born in," Feinstein said. "I thought that in view of what's going on and in view of the loss of lives of our men and women, it was a very petty decision."
Note that she did not say it was a very frugal decision. Nice try, Ross.
