Steve Schmidt, Senator John McCain's
2008 senior campaign strategist, claims that the GOP's anti-gay
stance puts it at a competitive disadvantage.
During an appearance on HBO's Real
Time with Bill Maher, Maher quoted a New York Times Magazine
story on the technology divide between Democrats and Republicans.
“It's difficult to make the case to
go work for a political party that wants to discriminate against
their friend who happens to be gay,” Schmidt responded. “So, we
have an enormous problem because of some of our issues in the
Republican Party that are so out of step whether it is in regard to
women, with regard to gays, anti-immigration rhetoric. It makes it
difficult to attract the best and brightest.”
Schmidt, who first publicly endorsed
gay marriage in 2009, is one of the more than 100 prominent
Republicans signing a Supreme Court brief in support of a suit
challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8, California's 2008
voter-approved constitutional amendment limiting marriage to
heterosexual couples.
(Related: Meg
Whitman, Jon Huntsman join other Republicans in support of gay
marriage.)