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The Democrats staged one of the most dishonest displays of political pandering at last night’s “gay debate,” sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign and gay cable network Logo. Knowing that gays and lesbians would be dissecting every answer, the candidates spent their time ducking, weaving and backtracking.

A report in USA Today offers a few examples:

‚Ä¢ New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said during the debate that homosexuality was a choice, a major mistake that would certainly appeal to PFOX, but not this crowd. His advisers immediately recognized the error and issued this statement afterward: “I do not believe sexual orientation or gender identity happens by choice.”

• Richardson and Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) danced around a question about the Defense of Marriage Act, passed during the Clinton Administration. They said they supported the law because it was necessary to prevent a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

‚Ä¢ Clinton and Richardson also apologized for mistakes they had made. Clinton said she shouldn’t have waited so long to condemn remarks Gen. Peter Pace made about homosexuality. And Richardson said he “meant no harm” when he uttered the Spanish version of a gay slur on Don Imus’ radio program.

‚Ä¢ Clinton brushed aside a question about why she hadn’t tried to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the policy her husband instituted for the military — and the one issue where all Democrats were united. She blamed “a Republican Congress” and a “very negative president.” But Democrats have controlled Congress since January. Where’s the beef?

‚Ä¢ John Edwards, who in an earlier debate cited his religion as the reason he opposed gay marriage, said that’s actually not true. But he didn’t bother to explain why he favored civil unions instead. Clinton didn’t do much better, telling the audience, “I prefer to think of it as being very positive about civil unions.”

• Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) compared gay marriage to the struggle that blacks and whites faced last century over interracial marriage. Despite making the comparison, Obama favors civil unions.

Only Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) and Mike Gravel had the courage to say they favor gay marriage. But I’m convinced every Democrat on the stage, if elected president, would lead the country down that path. As each showed last night, however, it’s too politically risky to make that statement. So along with all of the pandering, gays and lesbians got a dose of dishonest Democrats.

UPDATE — 2:58 p.m.: Amanda Carpenter of Townhall and Ben Smith of the Politico aren’t too kind to Hillary for her performance last night.

UPDATE — 3:56 p.m.: I’ve had a lot of people link to my blog, but I can’t recall the New York Times ever being one of them. The Caucus, the Times’ political blog, is linking to this post in a recap by Michael Falcone.