Even though Indiana Gov. Mike Pence at first said Republicans would "fix" their law authorizing discrimination but they wouldn't provide any legal protections for LGBTs, it's starting to sound as if they may be forced to do exactly the opposite of what they set out to do -- allow their state into the 21st century, kicking and screaming.
There have even been reports that Pence thought his big anti-gay law would catapult him into a presidential campaign. Where are voters finding these people?
Frank Rich of New York Magazine commented about the guv: "You have to wonder how stupid he thinks people are. Pence has a consistent record of supporting anti-gay discrimination, from speaking against the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell' in 2010 to opposing state laws that protect the rights of gays and lesbians."
It's one thing to be a bigot. America seems to be full of them again, just like old times, and Pence certainly distinguished himself in that arena in his earlier elected capacity.
Still, it's another thing to lie over and over trying to cover up the fact that you've exposed yourself to the world as a bigot, and that seems to be Pence's main preoccupation since he signed his pet "religious freedom" religious discrimination bill.
Why do I say that? Follow me below.
Pence has spent a lot of time on TV and in the Indianapolis Star denying that this bill had anything to do with anti-LGBT discrimination even though it crawled out from under a rock just as marriage equality was coming to Indiana.
He says the ruckus is all about misinformation.
If what he's saying is true, why did the promoters of the bill spend their time trumpeting that it was aimed squarely at LGBT civil rights? And why did Pence sign it in a closed-door ceremony with the three most notoriously anti-gay lobbyists in Indiana standing behind him?
It's just coincidence (we're supposed to believe) that those three guys were picked to witness the private signing.
Marriage equality may be supported by only about 55 percent of Americans in polls, but outright anti-LGBT discrimination in other areas is opposed at 75 percent, according to those same polls.
As has been made clear in the people speaking out about Indiana, the divide on this is not between Republicans and Democrats. It's between pro-business Republicans AND Democrats on one side and social-reactionary Republicans on the other side.
Politically, the side Pence chose is a mega-loser. Even Arizona's Gov. Jan Brewer, who could be as tone-deaf as a rock, heard the melody in that tune and vetoed the same kind of bill last year when the Legislature foisted it off on her.
And it's not like Pence wasn't warned this time. Plenty of people suggested amendments to his bill to make it clear that this law didn't erase civil-rights and anti-discrimination laws. Reportedly, 30 law experts sent him a letter warning him. He was having none of it.
Pence thinks his voters are the dunces here, but it doesn't take a lot of brain power to see that the dunce cap belongs right where it's been sitting for the past couple of weeks.
This is the kind of charlatan that a certain percentage of our population has insisted on electing in recent years ... and then re-electing, and re-electing even after the charlatan proves he or she has no concept of democracy or fair play.
I lived my entire adult life as an openly gay man without any legal protections. I didn't care what the neighbors thought as long as they didn't burn our house down or murder us or harass our kids.
Even now, I don't care much whether politicians are personally anti-LGBT or not as long as they grasp the idea that people they don't approve of have constitutional rights just the same as their campaign contributors have, and those rights need to be respected.
In other words, Gov. Pence, consider everybody in your decisions or get the hell out and go chop cotton somewhere.
On the other hand, it's kinda nice to see a schmuck of this magnitude make a complete asshat of himself before the entire world.
Maybe there's (occasionally ) justice in the world after all.