At HRC Gala, Obama Denounces Shameless Political Remarks. Or Not

Speaking at the annual Human Rights Campaign gala, President Barack Obama denounced Republican presidential candidates for failing to defend a gay member of the military who was booed at a GOP debate:

"We don't believe in the kind of smallness that says it's OK for a stage full of political leaders -- one of whom could end up being the President of the United States -- being silent when an American soldier is booed. We don't believe in that. We don't believe in standing silent when that happens. We don't believe in them being silent since. You want to be Commander-in-Chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it's not politically convenient."

Obama was referring to audience members at the last GOP debate who booed after Stephen Hill -- a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq -- asked the candidates the following:

"In 2010, when I was deployed to Iraq, I had to lie about who I was, because I'm a gay soldier, and I didn't want to lose my job. My question is, under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?"

I'm all for defending gay service members, and I think homosexuality is a lousy reason to exclude someone from the military.

But it would be nice if Obama's stand against incivility was more consistent. It was just a month ago when Mr. "We don't believe in standing silent" offered not a single word of protest when James "Jimmy" Hoffa, Jr., made this now-legendary remark about the Tea Party:

"President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these son of a bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong".

In fact, Obama's whole administration pledged silence, with both White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and communications director Daniel Pfeiffer explicitly rejecting the notion that Obama had any responsibility whatsoever to police the speech of Hoffa or anyone else. Yet here he is demanding that GOP candidates police the speech of anonymous members of the audience.

And, actually, when you look at the video of the GOP debate (see 1:16:00), not that many members of the audience are booing. Not nearly as many as were cheering when Hoffa let loose his invective.

And it's not even clear what the GOP audience is booing: Are they booing the serviceman for being gay, or the new policy on gays in the military? Or are they booing the serviceman's apparent belief that the GOP doesn't support progress for gays?

It's almost like President Obama is only denouncing invective when it's to his political advantage. But that couldn't be the case, could it? If he were to do that, he'd risk turning the call for civil debate into nothing more than empty rhetoric, wouldn't he?