g********d
发帖数: 4174 | 1 Posted on Advocate.com October 02, 2011 11:40:00 AM ET
GOP Lobbyist Joins Strategy to Repeal DOMA
By Andrew Harmon
Jo Deutsch and Kathryn Lehman When Jo Deutsch and Kathryn Lehman are en
route to Capitol Hill for meetings with Republicans, they find it best to
avoid certain conversations. The debt ceiling is off the table. So are their
respective political resumes — one has worked for Barbara Boxer, the other
Newt Gingrich. The two lobbyists could not be more divergent on most issues
— except repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.
DOMA, which House Republican leadership is defending from several legal
challenges, is a deeply personal and sensitive issue for Lehman because, 15
years ago, she helped to write it.
“We’re not here to agree on everything. Just one thing,” said Lehman,
sitting at a massive circular conference table during a recent interview at
lobbying firm Holland & Knight’s Washington D.C. office on Pennsylvania
Avenue.
“Though, I found out over the weekend that you like Harry Potter books,”
Deutsch points out with a broad smile. “So there are two things we have in
common.” Deutsch is a liberal Democrat and earlier this year became the
federal director of Freedom to Marry, the organization founded by marriage
equality movement “godfather” Evan Wolfson. A Smith College graduate,
Deutsch has been a supporter of the National Organization for Women since
junior high and has devoted decades of her career to lobbying for unions.
Deutsch and her partner, Teresa Williams, have been together for 28 years
and have three children. However improbable legislative repeal of DOMA is in
the near future, Deutsch’s professional raison d’etre, asFreedom to Marry
national campaign director Marc Solomon sees it, “is to make our strongest
case in D.C. with every influential player. Members of Congress, political
operatives, the press corps — you name it.”
And by hiring Lehman, the organization is taking a page out of the playbook
from Proposition 8 opponents, who hired polar opposites Ted Olsen and David
Boies to make a court win happen. Olsen represented George W. Bush, and
Boies represented Al Gore, during their fight through the justice system in
2000’s disputed election. The duo set a precedent for the type of alliance
happening between Deutsch and Lehman.
Lehman, who has a law degree from the Catholic University of America, joined
Holland & Knight in 2005 after working for a who’s-who of GOP lawmakers —
Gingrich, Tom “The Hammer” DeLay, Dennis Hastert, and Deborah Pryce among
them. As The Hill noted in November, the Republicans’ takeover of the
House in the 2010 midterm elections has only raised her lobbying profile in
Washington.
When DOMA was being written in 1996, Lehman was chief counsel for the House
Subcommittee on the Constitution for former chairman Rep. Henry Hyde of
Illinois. She oversaw the execution of all the subcommittee’s work,
including the drafting and passage of DOMA. At the time, the right to marry
for gay people existed nowhere on Earth, yet a court case in Hawaii was
stoking both homophobia and fear that states could be forced to recognize
same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
When the legislation was drafted and debated in committee, Lehman was not
out of the closet (not out to even herself, she said). “I have to say I do
recall vividly sitting there, and listening to Barney Frank, who was the
ranking member of the subcommittee during the hearings. And Barney’s saying
, I just don’t understand how if I’m in a loving, committed relationship
with my partner, how it hurts somebody else’s marriage,” she said. “I
remember thinking at the time, Yeah, I’m not sure about that, either.”
Lehman isn’t the only one involved at the time who’s had a change of heart
. Rep. Bob Barr, the bill’s original sponsor, now supports its repeal,
arguing that the DOMA is “neither meeting the principles of federalism it
was supposed to, nor is its impact limited to federal law,” as he wrote in
a 2009 op-ed for the Los Angeles Times.
“I’m not an activist personality. I’ve been a staffer my whole career,”
Lehman explained of her new involvement in lobbying for the Respect for
Marriage Act, which would repeal DOMA. “It’s not a secret that I’m gay,
it’s not a secret that [Lehman’s partner] Julie [Conway] and I have been
together for seven years. … But I really felt like it was time to step up,
to step out. And I’ve recognized the work of people who I don’t really
agree with politically in the gay and lesbian community, but who have done a
lot of work to make my life better.”
This spring, Lehman joined forces with Freedom to Marry’s Deutsch on the
recommendation of Campbell Spencer, a lobbyist with DCI group who previously
worked as Midwest regional director in the Obama White House’s Office of
Political Affairs. Spencer describes Lehman as a well-respected lobbyist
with the key Hill relationships needed to get in the door. What’s more, “
She has this transformational narrative,” Spencer said. “She can tell a
story of growth and evolution, which is a story a lot of folks can relate to
and understand.”
Deutsch covers Freedom to Marry’s lobbying efforts alone when it’s time to
talk with Democratic lawmakers. But she and Lehman work together on the GOP
side and are usually joined by Log Cabin Republicans executive director R.
Clarke Cooper in meetings. |
|
