Akin and Luetkemeyer Sign On To Attacks, False Allegations Against Obama Education Adviser

Reps. Todd Akin and Blaine Luetkemeyer have signed on to a letter drafted by Rep. Steve King with false accusations about top Obama education adviser Kevin Jennings, calling on him to resign. Jennings has come under fire in a coordinated effort by conservatives in recent weeks because of his history as a gay rights advocate and because of an unfortunate incident from the 1980s when Jennings was a young teacher.

Greg Sargent has details on the letter:

GOP Rep Steve King, who’s been leading the charge against top Obama education adviser Kevin Jennings, today called for Jennings to be fired for allegedly "ignoring the sex abuse of a child" when he was a young schoolteacher.

But guess what: King’s office was informed at least a week ago that even Fox News, a lead tormentor of Jennings, corrected these allegations and acknowledged that the “child” was actually of legal consent age. I know, because I informed his office of this, in the course of seeking comment on an earlier story I was doing about the whole mess.

Jennings is reviled by conservatives because of his past as a gay rights advocate. Fox News and many other conservatives have also crusaded against Jennings because as a young teacher, Jennings failed to report it when a teenager confided in him about a sexual encounter in Massachusetts.

Jennings later regretted the incident, there’s no defending what he did, and it’s true that Jennings himself initially described the kid — wrongly — as being 15 years old. Since then, however, as Fox acknowledged in a correction, the kid stepped forward to reveal that he had been 16, the legal age of consent in Massachusetts.

King's letter -- signed by Akin and Luetkemeyer -- includes the false allegations, even though King's office knew they were false.

The attacks from King, Akin, Luetkemeyer and others, however, seem to have  lot more to do with Jennings' work for gay rights.  Before they get to their concerns in the letter regarding the incident from the 1980s, they decry his work "promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda."

As the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Mr. Jennings has played an integral role in promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America's schools-an agenda that runs counter to the values that many parents desire to instill in their children. As evidence of this, Mr. Jennings wrote the foreword for a book titled Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue About Sexualities and Schooling. Throughout his career, Mr. Jennings has made it his mission to establish special protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students to the exclusion of all other students. The totality of Mr. Jennings' career has been to advocate for public affirmation of homosexuality. There is more to safe and drug free schools than can be accomplished from the narrow view of Mr. Jennings who has, for more than 20 years, almost exclusively focused on promoting the homosexual agenda.

More on the controversy and the demagoguing from some on the right can be found at The Plum Line, TPM, Media Matters and elsewhere.