It is great that Warren T. asked and he should be commended. But, Warren is not the New York Times, ABC News or even YouTube.

We need a clear public statement and genuine transparency. Not a clandestine back-room conversation that allegedly took place. A private assurance is essentially meaningless and will do little to thwart the bill in Uganda.

Heck, even Obama and Clinton made a public statement. Is Mr. Coe so self-important and his ego so enormous, that he thinks he’s better than the President and Secretary of State?

It is important in such communication to match the emotion and the content…people overwhelmingly interpret body language over content…

In therapy, it has been established several times, that a neutral therapist is often viewed as endorsing the client’s insights and assertions.

I would opt for running around the room with my hair on fire…throwing a few “WTF” around.

It was sorta good to get Coe’s word down on this but I think the person that should have been saying those very same words was James Inhofe. The Oklahoma Senator elected on ‘god, guns and gays’ is the person most often mentioned in the Family/Fellowship to have taken Uganda under his wing. Though it appears that Inhofe was not at that October Ugandan prayer breakfast when Bahati uncovered his bill. Sharlet on Maddow’s show had earlier said he may have been, but told me over at Throckmorton’s that he was not. Even so, I can imagine Inhofe commmiserating with an early Fellowship associate like Bahati about the US no longer having sodomy laws.

However, Sharlet did say that several members of the Fellowship from America had expressed disapproval of the bill as early as that prayer breakfast (or possibly before?). Oddly, enough Bahati believes the opposite. Sharlet quoted him as saying, “I don’t know the reasons why he’s saying he told me that when he didn’t tell me that unless he says he’s telling me now.” Sharlet’s thought are that the Family member may have thought about his objections to the bill at the time but not have voiced an objection until later. Thus remembering their objections all along.

Further Sharlet had this to say about Bob Hunter’s objection:

Bob Hunter says he expressed his opposition to Bahati directly. Bahati says yes, he and Hunter talked; but Hunter only told him about how embarrassing this was for some of their American friends. ” I do not know his personal views on the bill,” Bahati said.

Both these things may be true. Having spoken to Bob several times now, I know that (when he’s not angry!) he’s a gentle speaker who tries to find common ground from which he can make his case. I have no doubt he opposes the bill, and no doubt he expressed that to Bahati in his way; at the same time, having spoken to Bahati several times, understanding a bit about his conversational style — it’s direct — I can believe that he didn’t “hear” Bob saying that.

I guess sometimes it pays to raise your voice and have a little eye twitch going to really get your objections across.