Ruh-Roh! Fox's anointed GOP savior, Dr. Ben Carson, is in a bit of hot water over the comments he made on the Hannity show a few nights ago. Specifically, Carson called marriage between a man and a woman "a well-established pillar of society" and added, "And no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality - doesn't matter what they are - they don't get to change the definition." Not only did Carson offend a lot of people, some Johns Hopkins University medical students have called for him to withdraw as commencement speaker.
As Media Matters reported,
A group of students from the graduating class at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine are calling for the replacement of Dr. Ben Carson as commencement speaker for the class of 2013 following his "deeply offensive" comments on marriage equality and other issues.
In a letter obtained by Media Matters, eight members of the school's class of 2013, including a co-chair of the school's LGBT organization, ask their fellow students to sign a petition describing Carson, a neurosurgery professor at the university, as "an inappropriate choice of speaker at a ceremony intended to celebrate the achievements of our class."
Meanwhile, in a contentious interview with Andrea Mitchell today, Carson tried to walk back his comments a bit and apologized "if anybody was offended." Heather, at Video Cafe, noted:
Carson continued and claimed that his goal was "to get people to have discussions about things, about which they disagree in a civil way" and "not call each other names" and "get into infantile discussions" and that "at some point we're going to have to tone down the rhetoric." Mitchell pushed back at Carson, pointing out that his own rhetoric was divisive, but was brushed off by Carson in response. This is an old trick by the right, claiming they want everyone to be "civil" while they're calling the other side names.
But Carson also said he was "absolutely" willing to withdraw from the commencement ceremony. He said, "This is their day and the last thing I would want to do is rain on their parade."
Video of Carson's comments on Hannity via Media Matters followed by Carson on Andrea Mitchell Reports via Video Cafe at Crooks and Liars.