There are a lot of chins being scratched around town today after Freddy picked an afternoon smack in the middle of his miserable press week to go out campaigning with State Senator Ruben Diaz. Diaz, a Pentacostal minister, has been criticized for preaching anti-gay politics, and in February he attacked Freddy for refusing to clearly condemn gay marriage. Isn’t it time the Ferrer campaign gave their poor candidate a breather?
Update: The Ferrer campaign points out that Freddy addressed the differences today, saying “Senator Diaz and I have disagreed on a great many things and we’ve agreed on a great many things. We all know we disagreed on that; we agree on this,” he said, referring to safeguarding the health of public school kids.
UPDATE II: I (Ben) can’t resist adding a couple of Diaz’s greatest hits to this item. There was, for instance, the time back in 1994 he opposed the Gay Games because of the risk, as he saw it, that the athletes would spread AIDS. My personal favorite came during that February meeting at his Bronx non-profit, in which he — adding that he bore gays no ill-will — referred to them as “sons of the devil.” It’s a biblical reference (John 8:44) but when Jesus said it, he was just talking about the Jews, so it was OK…
