The homophobe conservanazis come down really hard on gays EXCEPT  GFY cheney's daughter.  The lesbian who had a child out of wedlock. What's up with that?  I mean, ain't she living in a relationship that's an abomination, as the 7 commandment christians would say.  It's funny how they look the other way when cheney's DAUGHTER IS A LESBIAN, WHO HAD A BASTARD CHILD, yet are so eager to condemn any other GAY conservanazi republikan.

Ah, HYPOCRICY IS A CONSERVANAZI REPUBLIKAN TRAIT!

BUCK FUSH !!!

I had a long drive through South Dakota today, and listened to a bunch of talk hosts, both local and national, and representing a fair portion of the political spectrum, address the Larry Craig issue. One voice I happened to stumble upon was Sean Hannity. I guess the Faux News spin machine wasn't getting enough traction with Bill Clinton, so now they've moved on to Barney Frank. Sean started by some premptory throwing-Larry-under-the-bus comments, and then brought up Congressman Frank's alleged indiscretions (from the '90s), including solicitation of male prostitutes, and known prostitutes operating from his Capitol Hill apartment. The clear inference being "why should Frank be giiven a pass and not Craig?" Mind you all of this is old news that was investigated over a decade ago.

The Republicans just don't get why they get punished on this issue time and time again; if you are going to "talk the talk" of family values and moral conservatism, you have to "walk the walk." Americans hate a hypocrite -- especially one who hides behind religon. Unlike those on the far right wing of the Republican Party, neither Barney Frank nor Bill Clinton made any such claims of moral superiority. Furthermore, Barney Frank is very open about his lifestyle, and gets re-elected term-after-term. Larry Craig seems to be either covering up his lifestyle choice, or has been a victim of very bad luck made worse by really poor judgement. Either way, I doubt he will be embraced by the voters of Idaho.

" Can someone explain to me how Republicans get away with this institutional hypocrisy? Is it simply because religious right leaders like James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and the late Jerry Falwell are/were just Republican stooges?"

I'll take a stab at an explanation. When you get beyond the issues of gay marriage, abortion, school prayer, and displaying the 10 Commandments, you start to follow the money. The steadfast Republican support for school vouchers (or it's predecessor, the tuition tax credit) and, to a lesser extent, the so-called federal faith-based initiatives, would, if ever brought to full fruition, transfer billions of dollars of taxpayer money into the hands of religous institutions, and give huge breaks to mostly-white, upper and upper middle class families who don't want their kids going to school with the lower classes (read: minorities). Republican support on these issues, as well as the prospect of vast financial support drives Dobson, and others, like DJ Kennedy, to use their vast media resources (Moody Broadcasting, the 700 Club) and the pulpits of mega chrches to attack Democrats. It's a wonderfully symbiotic relationship that plays well in the South and rural Midwest -- until a Vitter, Craig, Foley, or Haggard come along to spoil the fun.