Bigot backdowns, admits lack of evidence.

A couple days ago this blog reported on the absurd lies of State Rep. Nancy Elliott, a conservative Republican in New Hampshire. Elliott is one of those newfangled "libertarian" Republicans who thinks bigotry is "libertarian" and gets applauded by the Republican Liberty Caucus for doing so.

Elliott made claims in the state legislature that the Nashua school district, as a result of same-sex marriage, was given 5th grade children naked photos of gay men having anal sex—for the record, Elliott is obsessed with anal sex, it is one of her favorite topics. I presume from her conversations on it that she assumes it is not something that heterosexuals couples ever do. To top things off, she claims the school told the kiddies that they might want to try anal sex themselves.

This blog noted that Elliott had zero evidence. Her entire proof for this absurd claim was that some unnamed individual told her it had happened at some unspecified school. After being told of the story, Elliott was never curious enough to verify it. She sought no evidence to substantiate the story but then shot off her mouth making the claim public. Now she admits there is NO evidence for it.

Elliott said she wants to apologize and that if the future she "will try much harder" to "verify fully my statement." Well, that should be pretty easy since she made no effort at all to verify the first claim. She says she went back to her unnamed source and "found that I could not confirm the accuracy of the information."

Elliott, the fake libertarian, said: "I was told shortly before the hearing on HB 1590 that what I later said had happened and I firmly believe it to be so." Really? Why "firmly?" Considering that she was told an outlandish story, with zero evidence offered, exactly why was she so firm in her belief? She never says why she was so firm in her belief about this ridiculous claim.

Let me tell you why she was so firm. She was firm in her belief for precisely the same reason that any derogatory claim about a black man is considered true by the Klan. She was firm in her belief for the same reason that Julius Streicher was firm in his belief about the evil nature of Jews. Elliott was firm in her belief that the statement was true, not because she had evidence, but because it confirmed a pre-existing prejudicial viewpoint that she holds firmly. She didn't try to confirm the story because she didn't care if the story was true. It told her what she wanted to hear and that was good enough for her.

The only reason she has backed down was that she created a storm with the claim which was harming her career. She could have backed down quicker but didn't. I suspect her prejudicial beliefs are so firmly entrenched that she was also firmly convinced that the claim would be confirmed. I would even bet there is a decent chance that she still believes it was true, just that the evidence was covered up so she can't find it. She's probably a "Gay Truther:" that's someone who believes absurd and silly claims about gay people the same way the lunatic fringe believes absurd and silly claims about 9/11.

Will this hurt Elliott's career? In a rational world, it should. But she's a Republican and the GOP is far from a rational world these days. It is the last refuge of Neanderthal fundamentalists, Truthers, Birchers and other bigots and morons. So, within the dark recesses of the Republican Party her lying claim will probably help her. Her challenge will be convincing voters in general that she isn't crazy, while convincing her Republican constituency that she is.