Rachel Maddow segment w/Nicolle Wallace re. GOP support for gay marriage

Last night, Rachel interviewed Nicolle Wallace, former communications director for G. W. Bush. Rachel makes the point that while many former or retired GOP officials have been willing to sign on to Ken Mehlman's amicus brief in support of gay marriage, NO elected Republicans have done so. Ms. Wallace makes the claim that "Ken Mehlman is leading our party to places we've never been before." Sorry, not buying it. First, the suggestion that Ken Mehlman, or any other gay Republican, is a serious mover and shaker in today's GOP is simply laughable. Second, the fact that all this alleged "support" for gay marriage is coming only from former Republican officials is no accident. They are rather like many rank-and-file Republican voters who are quick to assure their LGBT friends and loved ones that they don't agree with the most extreme stances their party has taken, yet they go to the polls and continue to put the same old bigots back into office.

And it isn't only on LGBT issues that they do this. Republican voters and those retired from elective office do this thing with other hot-button social issues as well: abortion rights, reproductive rights, minority voting rights, you name it. But virtually NEVER do these folks take any kind of public stance against the extremism their party has come to embrace. Until I see elected Republicans actively renouncing their party's most extreme elements, and standing against the extremist policies those elements continue to advocate, I see folks like Ms. Wallace as little more than enabling co-conspirators to those extremists.

Here's the segment:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#51060234