Who is Amanda-basher Bill Donohue?

Catholic League president Bill Donohue has been one of the leading detractors of Edwards bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan. He has been widely quoted in the established media calling Marcotte and McEwan "anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots."

Who is Bill Donohue? And why do the New York Times and the AP print his deranged ramblings as if they were the pronouncements of a serious civil rights leader?

This is a guy who complained on national TV that gays haven't apologized to straights for AIDS (video):

DONOHUE: The fact of the matter is it's due to the behavioral recklessness of gay men in New York City, that they're endangering the lives of everybody. So, you want to talk about the Catholic Church intervening in other people's lives? The gay community has yet to apologize to straight people for all the damage that they have done -- for contaminating the blood supply in New York City and around the country. And I find it amazing that, when people are acting so morally delinquent, that they're asking for more rights at the same time.

It seems to me that gay people in this country should apologize to the rest of the people, the way the pope has apologized to other people, and practice sexual reticence. Practice restraint, and you won't have the problem. It's entirely a result of behavioral recklessness that we have this disease [HIV/AIDS]. And it's a politically correct disease, isn't it? [MM]

Media Matters has been tracking this fringe figure for years:

He has referred to the "gay death style," remarked, "God forbid we'd run out of little gay kids," claimed that Senator John Kerry "never found an abortion he couldn't justify," and claimed that "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular ... Hollywood likes anal sex." [MM]

Donohue uses the word "bigot" a lot. The top headline on the Catholic League's website today? BARBARA WALTERS—HOUSE MOM TO BIGOTS (for working with Rosie O'Donnell).

Here are a few other gems from the Catholic League's press release vault:

American Prospect Censors Its Own Writer (TAP declined to give the Catholic League permission to reprint a TAP article).

University of Minnesota Funds Bigotry.

Democratic Religious Guru Cracks Up; Howard Dean is in a Jam (accuses Rabbi Michael Lerner of insanity for his views on the family).

Is Rolling Stone Racist? (“If it is true that [hip hop artist Kanye] West is a morally confused black young man, it is also true that Rolling Stone is staffed by morally challenged white veterans: they are to West what white boxing agents in the 20th century were to black boxers—rip-off artists." [...]).

Los Angeles Times Writer Spews Hate (re: Robert Scheer).

Katrina Brings Out the Devil in Them (about how rival Protestant fundies, Planed Parenthood, condom distributing university administrators should be locked up).

Howard Dean Hijacks Christianity.

Anti-Catholic Bigotry Explodes at the Village Voice.

Here's Bill Donahue on the Jews of Hollywood.

Here's Bill Donohue trashing a show he admits he hasn't seen.

Who else has Donohue branded as anti-Catholic? An severely abbreviated list: CNN's Jack Cafferty, the Colorado legislature, the religious left, The Smithsonian, A&E, CSI....

Coturnix has the latest on the ongoing right-wing smear campaign against the Edwards bloggers.

Comments

[Anacher Forester]

Bill Donohue is a hysterical, psycho, bigoted, misogynistic, fear-mongering, repressed, self-loathing SOB. And those are his good qualities. There is not a truly Christian bone in his body. I'm embarrased that the MSM keeps giving him airtime. For a supposed straight Catholic guy, his preoccupation with anal sex speaks volumes.

I'd like to know exactly who keeps booking him for these TV appearances. Those bookers are in serious need of an e-mail campaign educating them about the real Bill Donohue.

AF

[Uncle Kvetch]

I'd like to know exactly who keeps booking him for these TV appearances.

But he's got "zazz"!

I first encountered Donohue a good 20 years ago, shortly after first moving to NYC. He wanted Mayor Koch to reroute the Gay Pride March off of 5th Ave so it wouldn't go past St. Pat's. Allowing gays march past a Catholic Church, he maintained with an utterly straight face, was tantamount to allowing Nazis to parade past a synagogue.

And 20 years on, he's still going strong, the Energizer Bunny of ultra-rightwing Catholic nutjobs.

[Barbara]

As I have said from time to time, if an actor in a movie playing a Catholic character or a performance artist posing as a Catholic said the things that Donohue does as part of their role, he would be roundly condemned by Catholics as being anti-Catholic. And yet the real thing is so much worse than anything I've ever seen on tv or the movies. A living self-parody. That's Donohue.

[TB]

Donohue is a prick.

I went to Catholic school for six years, and I know wanton jerks like this like the back of my hand.

Somebody needs to call him what he is, a fear-mongering little bigot, on national TV and be done with it.

I know, I know, it makes for good ratings, but someone has to start saying no to people like Donohue et al and stop booking them on TV.

If Obama can freeze out Fox, then why can't other outlets start refusing to have on people like this?

[JBC]

Indeed, to anyone who grew up in a traditional Catholic environnment, Donohue is a wearily familiar "type." This small-bore neighborhood lawyer, with his red face and the huge class ring on his finger, his arrogance and gamecock bravado... He is an authoritarian bully, no question about it, utterly consumed with anger and resentment, sex-obsessed. His hatred and anger have multiple sources, too layered to explicate in a blog comment. I know some people like him and even have a few in my extended family, and on a personal level, I feel nothing but pity for them. Believe me, they are deeply unhappy people. Although pitiable as an individual, however, Donohue and others like him are an evil influence on society, and they simply must be fought, through riposte and exposure. Media Matters performs a valuable service in tracking people of this sort and responding, calmly and rationally, to their falsehoods and slanders. Donohue himself cannot be reasoned with, but those who are influenced by him and especially those who give him air time, can.

[Godstar]

What exactly did they write that he found offensive?

[Uncle Kvetch]

Indeed, to anyone who grew up in a traditional Catholic environnment, Donohue is a wearily familiar "type." [...] He is an authoritarian bully, no question about it, utterly consumed with anger and resentment, sex-obsessed.

Well, yeah...but hasn't O'Reilly pretty much cornered this particular market by now? I mean, jeez...how many straight white Catholic males with chips on their shoulders the size of Nevada does the media really need, anyway?

[diakron]

Wow, his pathetic bleatings during the segment on "Lucky Louie" really go beyond the pale. Bill Donohue is a sad, sad little man, and as Louis C.K. should have said more loudly, he's a liar.

[Anacher Forester]

"What exactly did they write that he found offensive?"

Well, first of all, women aren't supposed to write. They're supposed to be seen and not heard, barefoot and pregnant, raise the kids and cook dinner, etc. If women do write, they should only write about topics Bill holds dear i.e. the Church is awesome, men know best, gays and jews are both evil and dangerous, Hollywood loves anal sex even more than he loves talking about it...Get the picture?

AF

[bloodstomper]

The best part of Bill Donohue ran down his mama's leg.

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

Um... OK, reading these quotes from Bill Donohue, all I can do is paint a picture for you:

I'm at my keyboard. At the first sentence, I roll my eyes. At the next two, I progress to chuckling out loud, incredulously, as my eyes widen in that grin-with-roller-coaster look you get when someone's just going off.

Are you guys there with that?