The demise of mountain state Republican Senator Larry Craig amuses those of us who enjoy watching right-wing heroes crash to the ground, spiked on their own hypocrisy. It further confirms my theory: prick any conservative and the kink oozes out. The rockier the rib, the more likely you'll find pink lingerie under the trousers or a bullwhip and manacles in the bedside drawer. You can bet those Beltway dominatrices, madams and escorts (gay and straight) have been able to buy second homes -- maybe even in Sun Valley! -- with their haul during W's reign.
However, because we are people of compassion, we should also feel a little horrified by this tortured man's sad, humiliating demise. He's obviously lived his whole life afflicted by the religious psychobabble and outright bigotry of people who say homosexuality is a sickness and a lifestyle decision instead of an innate state of being that has nothing to do with illness or choice.
The sickness, of course, is in the suppression, which is why closeted men seek love in rank public bathroom stalls.
The Republican Party got Bush re-elected in 2004 by playing the homophobe card. In Ohio, their minions went door-to-door in Amish country and warned the historically non-secular inhabitants that if they didn't get out and register Republican, gay marriage would be the law of the land. Tens of thousands of Amish men and women hitched horses to buggies, cracked their whips, and raced to the nearest polling place to vote to repel the Sodomites. With their unprecedented help, Ohio, that crucial state, slid ever so narrowly into the red column, sending the Bush regime back to the White House with four more years to plot how to bomb Tehran.
The trouble with this wedge issue, as everyone now knows, is that it's Republican suicide. The hateful public stance of the party has driven its many gay members into ever more contorted acts of self-loathing excess, driving the disease of suppression out in the open and subjecting men to public stoning by their own frenzied followers.
Foley, Haggard and Craig are only the most famous. There's Florida Rep. Bob Allen, also caught lurking for sex in a public bathroom, Corporal Matt Sanchez, gay porn star and -- for a shining moment -- Fox News channel's right wing Marine of the moment. And who can forget Jeff Gannon, the right-wing faux journalist with a secret life as a gay escort favored with a hard (yes!) White House press pass by the Bush administration communications department.
Yesterday, Republicans were sprinting away from shiny-shod, crisply cuffed mountain man Larry. Craig "represents the Republican Party," Rep. Pete Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, said. You got that right, Pete! And then: "I think it's important for Republicans to step out right now and say, 'No, this behavior is not going to be tolerated.'"
"Tolerated." Now there's a word Republicans should meditate on for a long moment.
When I was covering Capitol Hill just before Clinton's impeachment, every other young, spiffily manicured male staffer I met in Republican Congressional offices was at least androcentric, if not obviously gay. I don't have a sensitive gay-dar, but there was something about them. Ties never askew, hair immaculately groomed, cuffs gleaming, they usually knew more about my shoes than I did.
Bill Clinton's voracious heterosexuality had as much to do with drawing their rabid hatred as any of his other attributes. He loved women too much, and if only he'd given equal time and effort to seducing those beautiful men, he might have saved himself some trouble.
Republicans in Washington know there are probably more gay men in their ranks than there are on Castro Street.
Still, against all logic and sense, they won't utter a word about tolerance.
It's time for Republicans to embrace their own gay wing and stop fueling the sickness of suppression that drives men like Larry Craig into airport bathroom stalls. Until they do, they're headed straight for the toilet with him -- not that they shouldn't jump right in anyway.
The rampant homophobia that is the sum and substance of the Rethug party and their enablers, the evangelical fundies and the Catholic fundies are without parallel and truly reminiscent of southern slavery, even yet a core part of the neo-confederate lifestyle and mindset throughout the south of today.
Truly hate is the name of THEIR game.
He's a republican Kapo - - a self loathing gay man who so thoroughly despises himself that he joined the enemy to protect his identity. He clawed his way to the top by pushing anti-gay legislation and beating up on his fellow gay Americans. His is a selfish man who doesn’t care how many lives his self- loathing impacts, starting with the woman he deceived into marrying him, the children he lied to and the friends he conned.
With regard to his anguish, I am thrilled. It is a pleasure to see him squirm. I can only imagine how embarrassed and ashamed he is, and I am relishing every moment of it. I hope that he finds no solace.
His closet now has a light in it. Enjoy.
Clinton certainly had his bacon grilled over his indescretions with Monica Lewinski, but I never heard of him referred to as a self hating heterosexual, or a deviant heterosexual, or perverted heterosexual.
Can you begin to imagine how your use of the word gay in your tirades comes across as a slap across the face of every gay person who reads it? Perhaps you should consider two very simple rules for dealing with gays, such as I:
Rule one: I am a human being.
Rule two: I am a sexual being.
If you have a problem dealing with rule number two, please refer to rule number one.
Strange group, those Repub cons.
ANYWHERE ELSE, THAT ***WOULD*** BE GAY...
With younger Republicans, it's just the dress code, I think. (Though come to think of it, maybe their obsession WITH dress codes stems ultimately from repressed homoeroticism. Hmmmmmmm.....)
Now, the people at the forefront of the anti-gay movement are one-by-one getting caught having gay sex. Some of them in public!
In the words of the people who denounce AIDS patients as perverts, "These people are getting exactly what they deserve."
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Bill Clinton's voracious heterosexuality had as much to do with drawing their rabid hatred as any of his other attributes. He loved women too much, and if only he'd given equal time and effort to seducing those beautiful men, he might have saved himself some trouble.
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Huh?!?!?
This is WAYYYYYYYYYYY off base. As a gay liberal I am not a big fan of Republicans in general, much less gay Republicans/conservatives. That said, your contention that gay Republicans hated Bill Clinton because "he loved women TOO much" is absurd and out of line. Your argument suggests that gay Republicans are inherently misogynistic and that they are put off by uber-heterosexual, philandering politicians.
Since when? Many of the gay staffers on the Hill WORK for uber-heterosexual, philandering politicians! Say what you will about the personality quirks/traits that lead certain gay men to join the GOP, an enmity toward "voraciously heterosexual" male politicians is clearly not one of them.
You go on to suggest that gay Republicans/conservatives would have hated Bill Clinton less had he somehow signaled that his sexual appetites extended beyond women. Again, this is a preposterous, baseless claim.
This troubling and wrong-headed paragraph seriously mars what was otherwise a good assessment of the Craig trainwreck.
Gruesome Old Perverts
Grand Old Perverts
Gaul Of Perverts
etc. etc. etc.