Friday, October 30, 2009


HRC Solmonese Not on
White House Visitors' List

The Obama administration has released the names of lots of people who've visited through the end of July, and the Huffington Post has published the list, with a request for help:
This list is not exhaustive -- it is responsive to specific disclosure requests. It is also not recent, spanning from from January 20 to July 31, 2009.

The new data is [here]. A challenge to the readers: sort through it and tell us what, if anything, is interesting that you find.
One name that is not on the list is that of Joe Solmonese, head of the gay wing of the Democratic Party, the Human Rights Campaign. Among the S names, the list goes from a William Smith to George Soros, without the HRC leader's name between them.

In August, Solmonese gave an interview to US News and World Report, and he explained his engagement with Obama, at his new DC digs:
I've had the chance to visit with the president personally both during the campaign and since he's been in the White House.
I won't say that Solmonese told a little white lie to US News, because, as the Huffington Post said, the names released thus far is not exhaustive. Solmonese's name could turn up on future White House lists yet to be released to the public. But I will say this. It would have been a feather in the HRC "=" cap if Solmonese had made the first cut.

Heck, even if Solmonese had been to the Oval Office to consult with the President on gay issues, I doubt he would have forcefully advocated for us. It's just not his or HRC's method to get pushy with Democrats.

2 comments:

mawrcos said...

We should probably be glad that Solmonese did not go to the White House and push our cause back further.

But his language parses to say that he visit with the President personally since the president has been in the White House, but perhaps that meeting did not happen IN the White House, maybe it was at an aside at an HRC event.

Remember, once we get our civil rights, no more HRC gala dinners and exclusive fundraisers with Senators...

Unknown said...

The list that was released was in response to a specific request by a right-wing group. They gave the White House a long list of names (including Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers) and asked for records for visits by any of those people. If Solmonese's name wasn't on the list that was released, it was because the right-wing group didn't ask about him.

(And they weren't very specific, so they got information a Jeremiah Wright and a William Ayers who visited the WH but who have nothing to do with the famous people with those names.)