Oh dear - Mike Rogers has "exposed" another militantly homophobic Republican as gay: Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID).
How will James Dobson explain Republican bathroom blowjobs to his homo-hating Republican "suckers" - especially after Condi Rice "blessed" the gay marriage of her new global AIDS coordinator Mark Dybul and Jason Claire, who held the Bible upon which Dybul swore his oath?
The Dybul incident "was totally a damper to the base that we need to turn out," said the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition.
Rogers broke the news on the Ed Schultz Show, which has a huge audience in the heartland - including Idaho.
On the show I have called on Senator Larry Craig to end his years of hypocrisy by leveling with Idahoans about who he really is. I am also calling upon several prominent Idaho social conservative leaders to ask them how they square their anti-gay positions with their support for this leader.
I have done extensive research into this case, including trips to the Pacific Northwest to meet with men who have say they have physical relations with the Senator. I have also met with a man here in Washington, D.C., who says the same -- and that these incidents occurred in the bathrooms of Union Station. None of these men know each other, or knew that I was talking to others. They all reported similar personal characteristics about the Senator, which lead me to believe, beyond any doubt, that their stories are valid.
Larry Craig being mentioned as possibly connected to Congressional scandals is nothing new. Check out these video clips from 1982 when he preemptively denied his involvement in a Congressional sex and drug scandal. (I love what he says about unmarried people back then and how often do politicians issue preemptive denials based on rumors?)
Senator Craig has consistently relied on the support of Idaho's "values voters," but he has not been honest with them about his own conduct. Conservatives and liberals are both standing up and recognizing the hypocrisy of elected officials like Senator Larry Craig. The time for treating Americans one way and behaving in another is over.
Of course Craig denies it.
"Craig, who is married, denied the allegations through his staff, saying they 'have no basis in fact.' Sid Smith, spokesman for the Idaho Republican, said it would be hard to independently check Rogers' sources, adding, 'saying you have anonymous sources doesn't seem very convincing to me.'"
Smith said that a lawsuit would be giving the issue "more attention than it deserves" and said that Craig categorically denies Rogers' charges: "The senator says the story is completely ridiculous. Mr. Rogers has no facts to back up his story. [The events] absolutely did not (occur); there is no basis in fact."
Craig refuses to sue Rogers for slander for one very good reason: Rogers has never been wrong. Just ask RNC chair Ken Mehlman, spurned Majority Leader wannabe David Dreier (R-CA), or former Rep. Ed Schrock (R-VA).
Rogers' "expose" is creating lots of buzz in the blogosphere. Craig isn't up for election until 2008, but solid-red ID-01 is on the verge of turning blue because rightwing GOP nominee Bill Sali is despised by every sane Republican in the state. If Idaho's religious right turns against Larry Craig's GOP, the scandal-ridden GOP could take one more step towards political oblivion.
Update 1: Glenn Greenwald delivers the ultimate smackdown to rightwing bloggers after reading
this disgustingly pious concern being paraded about by all sorts of right-wing pundits over dragging sexual innuendo into the public arena and subjecting political officials to unpleasant personal attacks that would drive good people from office, and how can anyone let that raging, violent hypocrisy just go uncommented upon? Their entire political movement over the last 20 years has been fueled by sleazy sexual innuendo; dragging private sexual behavior into the public arena for fun, profit and political gain; and exploiting the gay issue to drive people to vote for them.
Are they aware of the history and behavior of their political movement when they deliver these sermons or, like the chaos and civil war they brought to Iraq, do they block those facts out and create a different reality for themselves?
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