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April 26, 2011 Print

Things Go Better With Coke – Bullying, Strong-arming, Veiled Threats, etc.

by Bruce Hausknecht

The Left, especially the LGBT advocacy group called the Human Rights Campaign, has been crowing about leaning on King & Spalding’s (K&S) clients, like Coca Cola(TM), who in turn pressured K&S to supposedly “do the right thing” and drop their representation of the House of Representatives in the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) cases.

The lefty news site, TPMDC, specifically identified Coca Cola as one of the companies that complied and warned K&S that if they continued their representation of DOMA, Coca Cola would be unhappy.

Funny thing, though. When asked directly about whether the nation’s favorite soft drink producer had indeed urged K&S to “do the right thing,” TPMDC reports:

A Coca Cola spokesman declined to comment on or off the record for this story, but pointed TPM to the company’s long public history of support for equality and diversity.

Wait, what? No comment? Isn’t gay marriage supposed to be “on the right side of history?” The equivalent of the Civil Rights movement? Wouldn’t good old Coke be shouting its strong-arming of K&S from the rooftops if it believed it was “doing the right thing?” I checked its website for a news release, anything. Nada.

In fact, the Human Rights Campaign says it contacted other K&S clients to do the same thing. Where are the press releases from those companies touting their successful efforts to correct K&S’s “wrong side of history” representation? Anyone? Hello?

Because, of course, this sorry episode has nothing to do with “doing the right thing.” It is however, an exercise in political and financial power (bullying) by LGBT advocacy organizations and their allies. And to what end? K&S just got handed a public relations nightmare, as did Coke and every other client who gets “outed” over this debacle. DOMA will be ably defended by the best appellate lawyer in the country, Paul Clement. The change from a mega law firm to a small boutique firm won’t affect the lawyering, I can guarantee you. And the LGBT cause, which hopes to gain “suspect class” protection in the courts because it is allegedly “politically powerless,” has proven that it is anything but.

If this were a soccer match, I’d call that an “own goal.”



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  • Auntie Dogma

    You phonies can dish it out, but you’re a bunch of (expletive deleted) when it comes back at you.

    • Bruce Hausknecht

      Auntie – my, my. No need to hurl invective. But I wanted to print your comment in order to reply to you. You seem to think we at CitizenLink are down in the dumps because of what King & Spalding did. If that’s what you think, you missed it by a mile. Nothing’s changed, except that K&S and HRC have public relations black eyes over this. When even Dahlia Lithwick and Jonathan Rausch think that HRC screwed up, then you know its bad.

  • Donna

    I had actually called Coca-Cola yesterday before reading this piece. I told them that I realize they have the right to support what they wish, but that I will no longer buy Coke products or Pepsi’s either, since both companies have sided with gay activists in the culture war. I also told them that time and time again, it seems the majority of Americans desire traditional marriage, and that I am appalled that they would allow themselves to be bullied by gay activists. Using violence to get people on your side is not a winning strategy – it repels people from your cause. I have nothing against gay people, but I cannot support gay marriage. God’s Word tells us it is wrong, and I will stand with Him. And before anyone who reads this responds “God hates gays,” that is simply not true. He loves sinners, all of us, but hates our sins. Whether you believe in God or not, He knows what’s best for us, and if we all followed His commandments, what a wonderful world this would be. God bless you CitizenLink staff for all you do.

    • Diane

      Donna, You are absolutely right. God’s love is for all of us and His desire is to bring us closer to Him. Sin separates us from God. The more we search for God in His Holy Word (The Bible) of Truth, the more we find Him. He is revealed in our hearts. God reveals our sin to us and gives us the Holy Spirit so that we can learn to be more like Him. He is working on all of us to make us closer to what Christ was like on earth, when He came to bear the sins of all – once and forever. Praise be to our Holy, Powerful God who drives us, hungrily and full of Thirst to do what is right. We falter, not because we want to, but because of our humanity. We would never have been able to save ourselves, so God loved us so much, He sent His ONLY SON. Think about it. Christ’s blood was shed so that we might live freely. The more we desire to do what God’s word says, the more love we can show. God desires to show His love through us. That doesn’t mean we have to accept sin. We hate sin, realizing that we are all sinful. God hates sin, because it drives us apart from Him. Gays are being deceived, because God’s word says that is not His plan for His creation. Oh, but we do fail so many times – Look to Christ, everyone. You won’t always see Christians as being perfect, because Christ was the only one who could be the perfect sacrifice for us all.

  • Bernie

    “The lefty news site, TPMDC…..”

    Wow. Biased much? Mired in pompous self-righteousness?

    Given that would it be fair to reciprocate in kind by labeling Citizen Link as the ‘Righty-Whitey Blog”?

    • Bruce Hausknecht

      Bernie – Really? In a blog post about DOMA, HRC, powerhouse law firms, a federal law, same-sex marriage, and front page drama, what you criticize me for is the adjective I used to describe Talking Points Memo? I’m feeling kind of miffed.

      So here’s TPM’s entry from Wikipedia. Stop me if you’ve heard this (oh, wait, of course you haven’t):

      Talking Points Memo (or TPM) is a left-wing web-based political journalism organization created and run by Josh Marshall. It debuted on November 12, 2000. It covers a wide range of topics from a “politically left perspective,” including U.S. foreign policy, domestic politics (especially at the federal level) and domestic policy. By 2007, TPM received an average 400,000 page views every weekday.

  • kv

    Hey, these organizations are full of a bunch of angry, self-centered bullies……who threaten, blackmail, distort, lie and can’t see the truth……a lovely set of people……such a pleasure……Coca Cola Co. are wimps…..who in their right mind could fold, so quickly and respond to a bunch of cry babies…..

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