Here is a question: What do Kim Davis and Donald Trump have in common? Before you reach for a punch line, I should note it’s not actually that kind of a setup. In truth, it is hard to follow either story, because it is difficult, to the one, to comprehend the full dimensions of what is actually happening, and to the other that it happens so damn fast. Either absurdist tragedy leaves us breathless trying to keep up.
For instance, adding the Oath Keepers to the mix probably isn’t any specific reason to be alarmed, but still, it can’t be good news.
In a phone call with Jackson County Kentucky Sheriff Denny Peyman, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes said members of his group had reached out to Davis’s legal team and were already forming an on-the-ground presence in Kentucky’s Rowan County, but remained tight-lipped on specifics, Right Wing Watch reports. Rhodes said his group’s action had nothing to do with same-sex marriage, but instead was focused on his belief that Davis had been illegally detained after being found in contempt of court by not issuing marriage licenses.
“As far as we’re concerned, this is not over,” he said in the audio clip above. “This judge needs to be put on notice that his behavior is not going to be accepted, and we’ll be there to stop it and intercede ourselves if we have to.”
(Wong)
And if it seems like only yesterday that we paused to wonder what Kim Davis might do to meddle with marriage licenses, well, it was, and it really was an easy speculation to suggest she might fire her deputy clerks for doing their jobs. While Ms. Davis’ course on this count remains to be determined, her supporters are already trying to make the case:
Supporters of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples due to her religious beliefs, said on Wednesday that any of her deputies who provide the documents without her permission should be fired.
‡
Ante Pavkovic, one of the people who helped organize pro-Davis rallies outside the Grayson, Kentucky, detention center where Davis was jailed, lectured the deputy clerks not to violate their oaths of office. He criticized Bunning and the U.S. Supreme Court justices who backed gay marriage.
“Do not join them in this any further, and if you can’t do that, then you should just quit,” Pavkovic, 49, of North Carolina, said, standing in the clerk’s office in Morehead, Kentucky.
He waved a sign in the faces of the deputy clerks that read, “Fire the cowardly clerks that are lawbreakers.” He was asked to leave by a deputy sheriff.
Which, in turn, brings us a bright spot:
Brian Mason, a deputy for Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, told BuzzFeed News on Wednesday that he would issue marriage licenses even if Davis instructs him not to when she returns to the office.
“I would issue licenses,” Mason told BuzzFeed News. Asked to confirm he would issue licenses even if Davis says he is not allowed upon her return to work after several days in jail, Mason said, “Yes.”
(Holden)
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee continues to botch up the Constitution he hopes to protect and preserve; and then there is the man of the hour, Mat Staver himself:
The lawyer for Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who briefly went to jail last week after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, said Tuesday that requiring her to issue those documents would be like making her “grant a license to sodomize children.”
And at this point we would remind that anyone showing such disdain or apathy toward sexual consent should only be listened to in order to determine what manner of threat they pose to society.
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Image notes: Top ― “Kim Davis and Friends”, detail of cartoon by Kevin Sears, The Charlotte Observer, 10 September 2015. Right ― Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver. (Detail of photo by Gage Skidmore)
Bittenbender, Steve. “Defiant Kentucky clerk’s backers: fire aides over gay marriage licenses”. Reuters. 9 September 2015.
Farias, Cristian. “Mike Huckabee Thinks He Knows The Constitution Better Than The Supreme Court”. The Huffington Post. 9 September 2015.
Holden, Dominic. “Deputy Clerk Says He Would Defy Kim Davis And Issue Marriage Licens”. BuzzFeed. 9 September 2015.
Jauregui, Andres and David Moye. “Kim Davis’ Lawyer Says Forcing Clerk To Do Job Is Like Making Her ‘Grant A License To Sodomize Children'”. The Huffington Post. 9 September 2015.
Wong, Curtis M. “Anti-Government Group Threatens To Step In To Keep Kim Davis Out Of Jail”. The Huffington Post. 10 September 2015.
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