Meg Whitman scores endorsement of pro-Prop 8 pastor, "The Karl Rove of Latino evangelicals"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Meg Whitman's new star Latino endorser could be trouble: Disagrees with her on immigration, calls out "Oprah Winfrey Christians"

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=74406

Meg Whitman's peeps are touting the endorsement of the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, an evangelical pastor from Sacramento. Oh, did we mention he is Latino? (18 percent of the electorate alert!) Well, the Whitman campaign sure did: It used the word "Latino" six times and "Hispanic" five times in its five-paragraph press release.

True, Rev. Rodriguez gets a lot of national love as a president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. He's been dubbed the Karl Rove of Latino evangelicals -- and we've interviewed him a few times as well. Both President Obama and former Sen. Hillary Clinton reached out to him during the 2008 Dem presidential primary -- a sign of the potential votes among the estimated 16 million Latino evangelicals in the U.S.

But one thing Team Whitman neglected to mention is that Rodriguez disagrees with Meg about illegal immigration. Rodriguez WANTS a legal pathway to citizenship for the 12 million folks illegally living in the U.S.

And Californians will remember that Rev. Rodriguez was key to organizing Latino voters for Proposition 8, which banned same sex marriage in California. The Rev can work up a good stew while preaching -- and some provocative, if indecipherable metaphors. Here's a clip of him in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmkL63AJ8yc

[JuniperLea]

1. If this guys a Christian, I'm the fucking Pope!

GAWD I hate this crap.

[pinboy3niner]

3. LOL!

You cracked me up once again, Your Holiness. :)

He is a Christian--just not in the way a lot of US understand it. At least he takes something of a progressive position on immigration reform (though I'm afraid to watch the vid and find some nutjob spoiler there that would make that support meaningless). But in that department, he's clearly backing the wrong horse. Not to mention his major FAIL on human rights and marriage equality.

I wonder how much Meg paid him? (I'm being only somewhat facetious--his ministry and causes may well be receiving a significant donation as payback for his support.)

:hi:

[JuniperLea]

4. I'm sure Meg is supporting his cause...

With her big bulging bank account.

They are both so... icky!

I would have had some respect for her had she hired an immigration lawyer for that "member of her extended family for over 9 years" instead of firing her.

Did you see Meg and Carly tossing back the tequila shots? EW! I took great offense to that, and I'm not a Latina.

[JI7]

2. "Karl Rove of LAtino Evangelicals", now THAT will win some latino votes over

hhahahahha

[Initech]

5. Apparently separation of church and state doesn't apply to them.