Pat Boone

Times change. 

For instance, back in 1962 Pat Boone could sing a song called "Speedy Gonzales" about a drunken, irresponsible Gonazles spending his time carousing and buying tortillas, chili peppers, and tequila instead of repairing his cockroach-infested adobe and see it go to #6 on the Billboard chart. 

Today, it would be considered rather offensive:

Which is why it is a little hard to understand why Republican congressional candidate Clayton Trotter is bragging about having received Boone's endorsement and specifically citing this song in an effort to appeal to Hispanic voters in Texas in his race against Democrat incumbent Rep. Charlie Gonzalez:

"Hi, I'm Pat Boone. Back in 1962, I sang a top ten song called 'Speedy Gonzales' about the fastest mouse in Mexico. You might remember this line: 'Speedy Gonzales, why don't you come home?' Today, a different question: 'Charlie Gonzalez, why don't you come home?' As a Congressman, you're spending our hard-earned tax money like there's no tomorrow. Sorry Charlie! You don't represent we the people. On November 2nd, vote Clayton Trotter for Congress."

In fact, Trotter goes even further, claiming that while Gonzalez may actually be Hispanic, it is Trotter who really has the community's best interests at heart ... and that is because is "the Anglo with the Hispanic heart":

Trotter said, "I'm the Anglo with the Hispanic heart. While Charlie has an Hispanic last name, he has consistently voted against the conservative Hispanic values of life and family. For example, Charlie voted against the ban on partial birth abortion -- a barbaric procedure in the last trimester during which the abortionist partially delivers a baby -- feet first, ultimately sucking the baby's brain out. "Sorry Charlie!" That's not an Hispanic value! No wonder Charlie got a 100 percent rating from the National Abortion Rights Action League.

"Plus, Charlie voted against a Constitutional Amendment that defined marriage between one man and one woman. 'Sorry Charlie!' That's not an Hispanic value either. Mexican-Americans are proud of God's creation of heterosexual marriage between Adam and Eve. I'm Clayton Trotter. I think it's time that District 20 had a congressman who defended the unborn babies and defended marriage. Those are true Hispanic values!

"Remember to vote for me, Clayton Trotter, the Anglo with the Hispanic heart."

And nothing demonstrates that better than securing the endorsement of Pat Boone who sang an offensive novelty song about a lazy cartoon Mexican mouse forty years ago.

Oh, and by the way, Trotter has received endorsements from Governor Rick Perry, Rep. Lamar Smith, David Barton, Rick Green, Phyllis Schlafly, Kelly Shackleford, Alveda King, among others.

Earlier this week, Pat Boone penned a defense of his earlier comments comparing gay activists to terrorists by trotting out the "some-of-my-best-friends-are-gay" card and offering what he considered proof of his gay-friendly outlook:

Later (you may be surprised to learn), I really went out on a limb and wrote two books, about and with homosexual friends. The first was "Joy: A Homosexual's Fulfillment," and the second "Coming Out: True Stories of the Gay Exodus." They were written with a longtime lesbian, a former very promiscuous male homosexual and with a transsexual man who had emasculated himself in an effort to be a woman. They'd been down the whole road and back again, and they told me their stories and how they'd each been able to leave the homosexual lifestyle. This was not expedient for me as an entertainer, but I did it out of real love for gays. I do care.

Unfortunately, it looks like both books are out-of-print, but Jeremy at Good as You managed to track down a review of "Coming Out" from 1978, which tells you all you need to know about what Boone's "real love for gays" actually looks like:

Boone's hypothesis is that homosexuals are a product of satanically induced, learned behavior. Based on this belief, he claims all homosexuals can be transformed into good Christian heterosexuals. As "proof," Boone offers in letter form the stories of three people (a lesbian, a male homosexuals and a transvestite) who found the straight life and Jesus.

It seems that one of the emerging ideas among anti-gay activists is to try and explain the gay menace in terms that their supporters can easily understand by equating those seeking equal treatment under the law to terrorist who kill innocent civilians.  

Last month, Pat Boone declared that “homosexual activists” were just like the jihidists who carried out the attacks of September 11th, only more dangerous:

The jihadists in these organized, hugely funded attacks on our morality and virtue are not Middle Eastern – they're homegrown Americans who actually believe they're promoting a better America by destroying the foundations on which this nation was built!

And just in case that analogy wasn’t clear enough, he returned this week to equate the protests over the passage of Proposition 8 to the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai that killed nearly 200 people:

Have you not seen the awful similarity between what happened in Mumbai and what's happening right now in our cities?

Oh, I know the homosexual "rights" demonstrations haven't reached the same level of violence, but I'm referring to the anger, the vehemence, the total disregard for law and order and the supposed rights of their fellow citizens. I'm referring to the intolerance, the hate seething in the words, faces and actions of those who didn't get their way in a democratic election, and who proclaim loudly that they will get their way, no matter what the electorate wants!

Hate is hate, no matter where it erupts. And hate, unbridled, will eventually and inevitably boil into violence.

Then, just for good measure, founder and chairman of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty Seamus Hasson got in on the act while discussing his organization’s recent full-page newspaper ad, telling KPFA’s “The Morning Show” host Aimee Allison that protestors are no different than Al Qaeda:  

Well, whether it’s an organized movement like Al Qaeda or whether it’s the Al Qaeda-like, um, inspired acts of terrorism elsewhere, people are right to be concerned about, um, radical Islamist violence.

In the Nation, Christopher Hayes offers some insight into the origin of the “North American Union”—“NAFTA Superhighway” conspiracy theory, which he writes came out of a proposal for a toll-highway in Texas and spiraled into “the first stage of a long, silent coup aimed at supplanting the sovereign United States.”

“North American Union” rumors swirl around the Internet, in spite of (or because of) a lack of factual support beyond a couple disparate, exaggerated elements – such as the Texas highway proposal and meetings between Bush and the leaders of Canada and Mexico that invoke the menacing word “partnership.” These rumors are championed by CNN host Lou Dobbs, Phyllis Schlafly, “Swift Vet” co-author Jerome Corsi, and the John Birch Society, as well as politicians such as Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) and presidential candidates Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).

But if you were waiting for a moment to take the conspiracy seriously, your moment has arrived: legendary crooner (and occasional far-right spokesman) Pat Boone writes that “We've arrived at the most precarious time in this country since the Revolutionary War…”