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The president of a conservative organization which opposes rights for LGBT people on Sunday rejected the notion that public opinion now supports marriage equality because "the polls are skewed."

Speaking to American Values President Gary Bauer, Fox News host Chris Wallace wondered if conservatives should oppose the federal government interfering in states' rights by refusing to recognize the legal marriages of LGBT Americans.

"I don't think so," Bauer insisted. "A lot of people are changing their mind because there's been a full-court blitz by the popular culture, by elites, by all kinds of folks to intimidate and to cower people and to no longer defend marriage as being between a man and a woman."

"Quite frankly, the argument that the public is overwhelmingly in favor of same sex marriage is ludicrous," he continued. "If it was so obvious that the American public wants to try a radical social experiment that results in children in those households definitely -- definitely not having a mother and a father, that's what makes marriage a special institution. It guarantees that children have mothers and fathers. If the opinion of the American public was so overwhelming, the gay rights movement and their allies like Nicole [Wallace] would not be asking the Supreme Court to say to the America people, 'You have no say on this issue.'"

Wallace pointed out that a recent Washington Post poll found that 58 percent of Americans agreed that same sex marriage should be legal, and 70 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 39 supported equal marriage rights.

"Do you worry that this only puts the Republican Party further out of touch?" Wallace pressed Bauer.

"No, I'm not worried about it because the polls are skewed," the former Family Research Council president replied. "Just this last November, four states -- four liberal states -- voted on this issue. My side lost those votes, but my side had 45, 46 percent of the vote in all four of those liberal states. In fact, those marriage amendments that would keep marriage for a man and woman outran Mitt Romney in those four liberal states by an average of five points."

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President Bush's former secretary of Commerce on Sunday pointed out that Mitt Romney and the Republican Party made a mistake by pushing anti-immigrant policies like "self deportation" in the 2012 elections because it was "scaring the heck out of" Hispanic voters.

"I would lay the blame [for Romney's defeat] squarely on the far right wing of the Republican Party," former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said during a panel discussion on CNN. "That's where you get into things like immigration. If we want to be the party of growth and prosperity, we have to be the party of immigration."

"So we should be leading comprehensive immigration reform. We should be leading the DREAM Act, not the military DREAM Act, students as well," he explained. "We should be getting rid of things like English as the official language of government. We have to be welcoming immigrants. This is like we are competing for investment capital, we are also competing for human capital. And our party is scaring the heck out of them."

But conservative activist Gary Bauer quickly objected, insisting that the policies of inclusion that Gutierrez had suggested would not attract more voters to the party.

"Seventy-five percent of the American people believe that English, sir, is the language of United States," Bauer opined. "I don't understand why you would jettison 75 percent, and the idea that's going to get you votes."

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Ah yes... if we're going to have a discussion about President Obama and his recent announcement that he's "evolved" on the issue of gay marriage, who better to bring on than someone who's had a long history of anti-LGBT bigotry like Pat Buchanan? That's exactly what we got this Monday when Buchanan appeared on Megyn Kelly's show on Fox News, America Live.

Although I can't say some of the other networks are doing much better since I can't seem to get his fellow bigots Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, Ralph Reed or Bishop Harry Jackson, among others, off of my television screen either. It wouldn't bother me so much to have them on if they were actually being challenged on their views, but as Media Matters noted in their post from Sunday, with the exception of Chris Matthews, that generally has not been the case.

Here's now Fox Insider portrayed the interview above: Pat Buchanan: Joe Biden ‘Dragged Barack Obama Out of the Closet’:

Pat Buchanan, who ran against former President George H. W. Bush in 1992 in the GOP primary, joined Megyn Kelly on America Live to talk about possible backlash the president could face.

Buchanan disagrees that President Obama’s public support will help him, saying, “I think that Joe Biden basically dragged Barack Obama out of the closet.” He continued, “I think the president has put his presidency at risk because this is an emotional, cultural, moral issue. And when folks go to the polls the overwhelmingly majority already in 30 states have imposed a ban on homosexual marriage.”

Megyn Kelly recalled Fox News contributor Sally Kohn saying that the vote in North Carolina to ban gay marriage shouldn’t be taken as an indicator of anything because the number of people who turned up to vote was very small. Buchanan responded, “How does that guest of yours explain how it was for example in California in 2008 where Barack Obama was winning in one of the largest margins in history. 52 percent of Californians voted to ban gay marriage, a majority of Hispanics, and 70 percent of African Americans.” [...]

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Candy Crowley asked to Gary Bauer, who as Think Progress noted, is a board member of the neoconservative Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI), about whether he'd reveal the names of the donors funding the attack ads against Joe Sestak who is running for the Senate in Pennsylvania. Bauer resorted to the typical defense we've been hearing from all of these Republicans on why they should not have to reveal their anonymous donors, they might be subject to harassment if their names were known.

As Matt Duss pointed out in the Think Progress post:

One of the main claims of ECI — which belatedly came out in support of a two-state solution last month after being shamed into it by the pro-Israel, pro-peace group J Street — is that Americans overwhelmingly agree with them on issues relating to Israel. Yet now one of their board members suggests that ECI cannot reveal the names of donors for fear that they would be harassed. That doesn’t really indicate much confidence in their claims, or in democracy itself.

No it doesn't. The other thing Matt didn't mention is Bauer's other group that is also, as Candy Crowley mentioned earlier in the interview running attack ads against Democrats as well, Campaign for Working Families. I don't know about anyone else, but anyone representing both a far right religious PAC along with a pro-Israeli PAC gives me an extreme case of the hebejebes.

And one last note on the way the press has responded to the reporting by Think Progress on the Chamber of Commerce and their foreign donors. Eric Boehlert wrote a great post earlier this week comparing the media's response to this story and the way they reacted to the Whitewater story during the Clinton administration. He made a lot of great points about the hypocrisy of our beltway media and how they carry water for Republicans.

Press claims Chamber of Commerce story's too "convoluted." Like Whitewater wasn't?

Full transcript via CNN below the fold.

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Countdown's Worst Person segment with first runner up "Jesus loves torture" Gary Bauer. Second runner up Fox News stalker reporter Griff Jenkins for not identifying himself to Janeane Garofalo during his ambush "interview". And winners Governors Mark Sanford and Rick Perry for their plans to arrange, organize and launch Tea Party 2.0.