Who Was on the Grassy Knoll?

Was Ken Hutcherson, pastor of the Antioch Bible Church, the man who is claiming responsibility for Microsoft’s reversal on the Washington state gay rights bill, really delivering a deal, rather than a threat?

Chris Patil of Marching Orders thinks so, and I think he might be onto something:

It never seemed right that Microsoft, which has been decorated by LGBT organizations for its support of gay rights in the workplace and in society at large, would have reversed itself because of hassling by one ornery preacher -- if that were how it worked, and individuals had that much power over the corporate giant, Bill would have fixed the security holes in Windows a long time ago.

What if the conservative preacher was a red herring, and instead, Microsoft bargained away its support for the gay rights bill in exchange for the future support of key Senators for the expansion project?

The bargaining could have occurred either actively on Microsoft's part (e.g., Microsoft approaches socially conservative opponents of the expansion and offers them a trade) or less voluntarily (i.e., social conservatives approach Microsoft and make them an offer they can't refuse, threatening opposition of the expansion project unless Microsoft pulls support for gay rights legislation).

And Ms. Julien notes:

…this is the way of our "ownership" society - they want the expansion - they traded with Republicans who have the power to give them the expansion - and those same Republicans get elected and re-elected by the religious right. There's your "lone wacko..."

It seems quite plausible that the fix was in. Who knows that the real story is. It seems everyone’s willing to sell their souls these days, and if selling a few others along with your own helps grease the wheels, well, that’s just fine, too, I guess.