But killing a hundred thousand Iraqi people is just fine. Promoting war through the media is OK too. Heck, losing billions upon billions of dollars is just peachy as well. But don't think for one second that you can show a naked body on TV or else the FCC will fine you $1.43 million for indecency. Talk about disturbing and indecent, our priorities in government are screwed up.
For the FCC, the episode of "NYPD Blue" was an indecency twofer.
"We find that the programming at issue is within the scope of our indecency definition because it depicts sexual organs and excretory organs -- specifically an adult woman's buttocks," the FCC wrote in its ruling.
My goodness. These people require a serious dose of psychological assistance. It's always wonderful to be lectured on morality by the same Southern Baptists who stand at the top of Christian denominations with divorce rates. The Bible Belt leads the nation in divorce, yet they always cry and point the finger at everyone else as the root of evil. Look in a mirror and quit spending everyone else's money for silly puritan campaigns. If only they cared so much about peace in the world.
Many thanks to Mike Signorile and producer David Guggenheim for access to the audio of my segment yesterday on Mike's satellite radio show on SIRIUS OutQ 109.
We tried in 20 minutes to untangle the latest GOP gay scandal involving Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC10) and a cast of characters involved in a bizarre Florida murder-suicide. It's a murky, pretty depraved mess that is crying for mainstream media to pick up.
I guess this should go into the "I'm not sh*tting you" files. I really, really I thought I was done with this guy for a while, but he's like a zombie in Dawn of the Dead -- he keeps on coming -- no matter how much PR rot is occurring.
A press release from Idaho Senator Larry Craig on the Petraeus testimony the other day. I'm sure the GOP and Petraeus are happy about this endorsement.
Craig Reacts to Petraeus, Crocker Testimony General, Ambassador paint picture of progress in Iraq
BOISE, ID - General Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker testified before the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees today regarding the troop surge in Iraq.
"I was pleased to hear the forthright testimony before Senate committees today by General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker regarding the status of U.S. and coalition efforts in Iraq," said Idaho Senator Larry Craig.
"Unfortunately, many were quick to prejudge the surge, as well as the testimony of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker," Craig continued. "However, I believe their testimony told a positive story. Our soldiers are making progress on the ground to provide breathing room for the Iraqi government, and we have seen a significant decrease in violence across the country, and most importantly, in Baghdad. That being said, the Iraqi government must stand up and prove to their people that they can govern and secure their country from violence."
It proves that clinging to power is so embedded in this guy's thinking that he cannot imagine just lying low for a while.
Just got a note from someone on a listserv that the alternate headline for this article should have been: "Craig: Petraeus Does Not Blow." Oh, I wish I had thought of that one.
I was on the Michelangelo Signorile Show (Sirius Satellite Radio's channel 109 OutQ) this afternoon to wade through the latest convoluted, woefully under-reported GOP scandal -- the bizarre murder-suicide in Florida of a Republican consultant and two of his "friends". Some of the facts we discussed:
* the bodies of Republican political consultant Ralph Gonzalez, 39, president of The Strategum Group, his roommate David Abrami and "a friend," Jason Robert Drake, were found in the house of Ralph Gonzalez.
* Gonzalez served with the Republican Party of Florida's House Campaign Division and executive director of the Georgia Republican Party and counted the Alabama Republican Legislative Committee as a client, producing an anti-gay flier accusing a Dem candidate of supporting marriage equality.
* A newspaper, Florida Today, initially reported that there were signs of a struggle, printing "Lovers' fight may have sparked three deaths" as its headline. The paper later scrubbed any references to a love triangle.
* BradBlog has shown the ties between Gonzalez and Florida's vote-tampering congressman, Tom Feeney. From Pat Go Bye Bye:
Gonzalez, who was out to his friends, had ties to Ralph Reed when he took over the Georgia Republican Party and used unethical tactics to beat Senator Max Cleland. He was also the campaign chair for the ethically-challenged Tom Feeney's congressional campaign as well as his state rep campaign after which Feeney became house speaker and got involved in a software-buying scandal involving Yang Enterprise. Feeney is best known for his vote-rigging scheme (which has ties to an unexplained death of a Florida state investigator in Valdosta GA), Jack Abramoff, and a variety of unethicalsmear tactics against Democratic candidates.
* Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry has ties to Gonzalez and Drake, the latter was determined to be the shooter in the murder-suicide.
* McHenry's office initially denied knowing Drake but confirmed later that McHenry did know him, but didn't specify the nature of the relationship.
* Drake was also allegedly tied to a gay escort service in Virginia; the prostitution angle -- and who it extends to -- is very murky at this point, with few sources on the record.
The people and relationships involved are almost too convoluted to follow; here's more:
* Patrick McHenry is also affiliated with outed former National Field Director of the RNC Dan Gurley. According to NC Conservative, McHenry "owes his seat to Dan Gurley" -- with Gurley working with Robert Drake on McHenry's behalf.
* McHenry's apparently a good friend of the former National Young Republican Chairman, Glenn Murphy. Yes, that Glenn Murphy -- the one arrested for sexually assaulting a sleeping man, performing oral sex on him (image of police report here). McHenry supported him for the National Young Republican Chairmanship.
* Pat's deputy field director Brett Keeter blew a 0.13 on a DWI, recently and received a two-week suspension and alcohol education classes. Keeter, as a Region IV director of North Carolina Federation of Young Republicans allegedly also pressured the College Republicans National Committee to endorse Glenn Murphy for the chairmanship.
* Another big problem for McHenry recently was the saga of Michael Aaron Lay, field coordinator for McHenry's 2004 campaign. He was indicted for voter fraud in North Carolina.
At the time Lay was listed as a resident in a home owned by 32-year-old McHenry but campaign records indicate Lay's paychecks were sent to an address in Tennessee. McHenry won the primary by only 86 votes. According to Gaston County, North Carolina District Attorney Locke Bell, Lay was indicted on Monday, May 7 by a local grand jury.
Lay accepted deferred prosecution on Aug. 8 and with unsupervised probation for six months. More than one man was listed as living at McHenry's address, btw (he has scans of the documentation on the site). No less than three other men listed their residence as McHenry's pad in Cherryville, NC. I have no idea what that's about, but it surely is worthy of investigation.
And if you thought that was all that was dogging Patrick McHenry, take a look at the latest bit of business passed on today -- at least $182,000 of McHenry's 2004 campaign funds ($923,975) came from an organization donating under fraudulent circumstances. That's almost 20% of McHenry's campaign war chest. Who is behind that? It just keeps on coming, folks.
arose after the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee filed a complaint with the FEC in 2003 alleging that the group was violating federal election laws. After an investigation, the FEC concluded that the 527 was required to register as a political action committee because it was accepting contributions and engaging in activities intended to influence the outcome of federal elections.
According to FEC Schedule E report the Citizens Club for Growth had funneled the McHenry donations through an organization called Red Sea LLC:
Red Sea LLC 1111 19th Street NW Suite 211 Washington, DC 20036
Purpose of Expenditure: tv air buy
This Committee SUPPORTS The Following Candidate: PATRICK TIMOTHY MCHENRY Candidate ID: H4NC10047 Office Sought: House of Representatives State is North Carolina in District 10 Date Expended = 08/12/2004 Amount Expended = $49790.00 Calendar YTD Per Election for Office Sought = $182440.7
That said, McHenry isn't the only pol who benefited from Citizen's Club for Growth -- but the Congressman from NC only won his primary by an 84-vote margin, so it's clearly relevant to look into, as well as any other irregularities in McHenry's financial documentation.
The mainstream media is negligent if it doesn't get off its duff and investigate all of this. What does it all add up to? Who knows.
I'm especially worried about Rep. Patrick McHenry. His name seems to be coming up a lot in connection with that GOP heterosexual naked wrestling triangle's murder-suicide investigation. One of the dead men, anti-homosexual political strategist and former executive director of the Georgia Republican Committee Ralph Gonzalez, was connected with a service that would send men to hotel rooms to help husbands get what they wanted. He is also said to have been Rep. McHenry's close personal friend, perhaps even a former guest of Rep. McHenry's Hostel for Strapping Young Republican Lads.
How do you expect him to explain himself if it comes out that he too loves to occasionally suck a little soldier in a completely heterosexual manner? You've pretty much sealed his fate, haven't you? Perhaps you've sealed your fate as well, and Grahams and Dryers too for that matter.
It was nice to wake up on a Monday and have a full laugh-out-loud moment like this. May the jokes start up all over again. (AP):
Sen. Larry Craig should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in a sex sting because he was under extreme stress after being hounded by journalists asking questions about his sexuality, his lawyer argues.
...In particular, Martin cited pressure from Craig's hometown newspaper, the Idaho Statesman, which spent months investigating whether Craig engaged in homosexual encounters.
Craig, who has denied such suggestions and accused the newspaper of conducting a "witch hunt," was so concerned about that investigation, he quickly pleaded guilty when arrested in the bathroom sex sting, Martin said. Craig did not consult with a lawyer or appear in court.
...Craig will also argue in court documents that he cannot have pleaded guilty since what he did was not illegal. The police officer said Craig bumped his foot, then tried to signal him with hand gestures beneath the stall divider.
Craig maintains he inadvertently touched the officer's foot but made no hand gestures. He said he was merely picking up a piece of paper.
W-E-A-K. The newspaper was investigating whether you were a Republican Sexual Hypocrite. I like this whining about witch hunts when there are plenty of those going on under Don't Ask, Don't Tell, investigating patriotic men and women, not for potty cruising/lewd behavior as Craig pled guilty to, but for an accusation or suspicion of being gay. How does it feel, Larry? If his defense is successful -- that the behavior he engaged in (wide stance toe-tapping and "picking up paper" isn't illegal -- then that could lead other bathroom sting cases going bye-bye. That should make the right wing ecstatic! Also, take a look at a piece in today's NYT that discusses Craig's case -- and those of other men caught in stings at the Minnesota airport.
There is a bizarre story swarming blogtopia, laced with unconfirmed (and confirmed) sources that could lead to another Republican Sexual Hypocrite "outing" and scandal. First, some facts about the weird murder suicide in Orlando in late August that kicked off the whole matter:
A Republican political consultant killed in an apparent double murder-suicide in Florida had worked extensively in Alabama politics including a controversial "Adam and Steve" campaign leaflet that parodied gay marriage.
Ralph Gonzalez, 39, president of The Strategum Group, was found dead Thursday along with his roommate, David Abrami, 36, and a friend, Robert Drake, 30, according to The Associated Press. A motive has not been determined. Weapons and signs of a struggle were found in the house.
... The Alabama Republican Legislative Committee in 2005 paid Strategum $3,144.06 to print a flier that accused a Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives of supporting gay marriage.
The flier depicted two smiling men on a porch holding hands with the caption: "Let Gloria Dolbare know God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!"
The Orlando Sheriff's deputies have not released a timeline or official motive -- the bodies that were discovered had been dead for several days. Some articles at the time mentioned a gay love triangle, which caught the eye of several blogs. As Andy at Towleroad noted, Florida Today originally ran the story with the "Lovers' fight may have sparked three deaths." He did a screen cap of it:
The newspaper later scrubbed all references to the "lovers' quarrel" from the report without comment.
The fact that it gets even more GOP-scandalous - it also ties into a male escort service/prostitution ring - shows it is begging for additional investigation by the MSM, but no one seems to want to touch it. Drama Queen notes:
In both Monday and Tuesday's posts, my point was that it's highly suspicious that the traditional media has basically ignored the Florida murder suicide: a sensational story that juicily combines fundamentalist Christian politicians and homosexual consultants, election software tampering and this potential tie to a gay porn-related murder in Pennsylvania.
This story is potentially wilder than anything Larry Craig's toe-tapping in an airport restroom. I have no idea what it all means since there are many still off-the-record sources. I'll let Scrutiny Hooligans, Down With Tyranny and Pat Go Bye Bye tell the potentially sordid tale. BlueNC has been on the case for some time now as well. However, you might want to start here for an overview.
The events on the record are noteworthy enough for the MSM to investigate at this point, because the office of right-wing Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has gone on the record tying the pol to the shooting. Howie Klein, making a serious charge:
As we mentioned yesterday, Drake, a former marine, also is alleged to have a strong relationship-- both intimate and business/political-- with right-wing Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC). When I spoke to McHenry's office about this they at first insisted they never heard of Drake then, confronted with specifics, admitted they know him. They refused to put Congressman McHenry on the phone. There is every indication that McHenry may have been one of the Republican elected officials who was using the services of the gay prostitution agency connected to Drake. Our pals over at the BradBlog points out the connections between Florida's ultra-corrupt, vote-tampering congressman, Tom Feeney, and Gonzalez and reports the threat to expose the list of Republican elected officials who were using the gay escort service.
Where will it go? Who knows, but with a story of this potential magnitude, the mainstream news media, which has the resources to investigate and uncover whether the thick smoke does or doesn't lead to fire, isn't biting.
***
Meanwhile, drop by The Pensito Review for a post on the next GOP closet doors that could be kicked open.
While we're on GOP topic, look at the yeoman work of this Blender, Tommy Korioth. He said he expected to spend a couple of hours working on a list of the Republican Culture of Corruption, but it took him 3 days. We've got to get this stuff into a searchable Conservative Values Monitor database again.
Joe left the homophobic World of the Wildmons after working as staff attorney for the Tupelo, Mississippi-based American Family Association. He also penned (IMHO) hilarious anti-gay columns for its news organ AgapePress (known these days as OneNewsNow), has a stinging rebuke of the hypocritical cut-and-run of the GOP when it came to their toe-tapping conservative friend Larry Craig.
Murray, who's definitely on the conservative side of the political spectrum, did a couple of interviews with me earlier this year (here and here) on his evolution about LGBT rights, and his decision to speak out against the homophobia and hypocrisy -- and the anti-gay fundraising tactics of the religious right.
Murray is now in Las Vegas and writes for the Philly-based conservative paper The Evening Bulletin.
The Craig conundrum has exposed an Achilles heel that has long been present in the GOP - conservative organizations, such as the American Family Association, have removed the human element from homosexuality and replaced it with a man-made element driven by fear of the "homosexual agenda." Homosexuals, therefore, are not just average citizens; they are threats to the moral order and must be opposed at all costs.
To some of the leadership of the Christian right, the homosexual agenda is a zero-sum game where Christians lose if gays win. There is no middle ground; there is no room for compromise.
Homosexuality, thus, has become the ultimate of sins that can be committed against the GOP establishment, and its punishment must be quick and severe, lest one is seen giving aid to the enemy. When it is unearthed that a homosexual is within the ranks of GOP leadership, they must be shown the exit immediately.
The fact that the alleged homosexual may be a God-fearing Christian struggling with his sexual identity is irrelevant. Christian compassion stops at the Castro District.
If you are caught fraternizing with the D.C. Madame, we got your back. Plead no contest to a DUI charge? Don't sweat it; we're all human. Have a home raided on charges of corruption? We've all been there. But get caught in a Minneapolis men's room sting, and you receive a one-way ticket to the gallows.
There is, however, a bit of irony. In their zeal to portray homosexuals as public enemy No. 1, some right-wing activists have created a catch-22 that leaves no room for error. As demonstrated in the past, not many people can live up to such a standard.
The far right religious crowd has set the "values" bar so high that it makes the GOP look foolish when it continuously waffles, weaves and frets when faced with its same-sex trolling scandals.
Sigh. Poor Michael Medved of Town Hall. He bloviates in his column that lifting Don't Ask, Don't Tell will result in an explosion of toe-tapping cruising in the latrines.
Imagine the impact on morale and unit cohesion if two guys from the same barracks engaged in toe-tapping hanky-panky (and perhaps much more) while occupying adjacent bathroom stalls in the military facilities?
Of course, advocates for gays in the military will insist that any such indulgence would involve a violation of the rules, with offenders facing stiff, severe consequences. But the impact of gay GI’s on bathroom atmospherics doesn’t just stem from the real chance of actual sex acts in the latrine, it involves whole sexualization of one of the most frequented and important conveniences on any base.
Does he not realize that Larry Craig has said he's not gay, and that the Atlanta police department found that the majority of men busted in his stings are married with kids? How, exactly then, will DADT prevent bathroom hookups if self-proclaimed heterosexuals are engaging in public, anonymous homosex? If you read on, it's clear the level of Medved's projection that he will be the target of amorous toe-tapping is, well, extreme.
The problem isn’t just the chance of molestation, it’s the radical change of mood and sensibility if you know you may be checked out as a sex object at a very private moment (of urination or defecation) when most normal people prefer to avoid any and all thoughts of physical intimacy.
...The national shudder of discomfort and queasiness associated with any introduction of homosexual eroticism into public men’s rooms should make us more determined than ever to resist the injection of those lurid attitudes into the even more explosive situation of the U.S. military.
Oh, please. How does the desire to serve one's country without being in the closet now turn into an orgy of bathroom sex? It's about the inappropriate nature and location of a sex act, not the orientation, Medved.
If Craig thinks he's straight and has to cruise public restrooms for same-sex encounters, it says more about homophobia and the pathology of the closet driving men like him to engage in this kind of public, anonymous, illicit behavior, particularly because of the deceit and the pain it causes their families.
From WND's Joseph Farah. Please let Craig try this one. Mitch McConnell will keel over.
Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, didn't have to plead guilty to sex charges stemming from a men's room encounter with an undercover cop in Minnesota.
All he had to do was hand the police officer a copy of the U.S. Constitution – the document the senator swore to uphold upon first taking office in Congress 27 years earlier.
You've got to be kidding me. On Meet the Press, GOP "sage" Mike Murphy, who has been on the payrolls of John McCain and Mitt Romney, decided to blow off some steam about all the fallout from the sexual hypocrisy of anti-gay pols in his party by blaming the messenger -- bloggers who dare to talk about or reveal the dual lives of legislators and elected officials that work hard to deny civil equality to LGBT citizens, while trolling for same-sex encounters or who are on their second, third (and counting) "sacred" marriages. (NBC):
MR. SHRUM: ...people are going to laugh if these wonderful family values candidates like Giuliani and Thompson get up there and start talking about these issues.
MR. MURPHY: Yeah, but there’s an ugliness in all this, too. I, I think Craig is an unsympathetic figure. But there has been this case of bloggers on the far left trying to expose closeted politicians if they don’t fall completely into lockstep with a certain liberal gay agenda. And I think that’s unfair. It’s a form of McCarthyism, really.
MR. SHRUM: Don’t you think the ugliness was voting against the hate crimes bill, as Craig did...
MR. MURPHY: No, no, no, but what Dems do is...
MR. SHRUM: ...and then going into a men’s bathroom...
MR. MURPHY: This is -- no, it’s...
MR. SHRUM: ...and soliciting a police officer?
MR. MURPHY: Of course, that was ugly, but, but the point is, there is a tendency to apply an identity politics test now, which, which has a real chilling effect on politics, that somebody’s private life has--or their, their race or their gender or their orientation--has to dictate where they stand politically. If you’re a woman, you have to be a pro-choice Democrat. I mean, that calculation cheapens politics, and it’s unfair to people in public life who do have private lives.
Talk about hypocrites. Where do you begin? No one is saying Larry Craig needed to support gay rights. As a far-right conservative elected on a "family values" agenda, it's pretty clear that he wasn't going to be on our side of the issues. What isn't acceptable is for the man to be out trolling for sex with men in a restroom, then heading off to the Senate floor to vote against taxpaying LGBT citizens. If a pol cannot reconcile his sexual desires, is full of self-loathing and takes it out on others who are able to separate sex acts from sexual orientation, IMHO that pol isn't psychologically stable enough be given such legislative power to vote on such matters. The public does have an interest in the sexual hypocrisy of legislators as long as their efforts continue to legislate against the privacy rights of individuals and deny civil rights to a group of citizens.
They need to stop peeping and leering into our bedrooms and get to the business of solving this country's real problems.
James Carville was also on MTP; he brings up the GOP's eager drop-kick of the loyal conservative Larry Craig:
Ah, schadenfreude.
MR. RUSSERT: James Carville, in 1999 Larry Craig was on this program talking about William Jefferson Clinton, the president of the United States, and his behavior. This is the way Senator Craig talked about the president.
(Videotape, January 24, 1999)
SEN. CRAIG: And I will tell you that the Senate certainly can bring about a censure resolution, and it's a slap on the wrist. It's a "Bad boy, Bill Clinton, you're a naughty boy." The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, a naughty boy. I'm going to speak out for the citizens of my state who, in the majority, think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.
(End videotape)
MR. JAMES CARVILLE: You know, I've said many times that those who are not willing to give pardon and mercy are those that don't need pardon and mercy. Clearly, Senator Craig is not one of these people, nor, I suspect, is anybody on this television set or are very few people like that. And I couldn't -- I remember that, as you remember a lot of things. And I remember that people know the way that he, he used gays in, in terms of gay marriage or gays in the military. He was very, very far out there. And I think the American public has really sort of turned against this kind of thing, and I think he was exposed for being the kind of hypocrite that he was. By the same token, you could not look at that event yesterday and be a human being and not feel sorry for that man, to some extent, and feel sorry for his family. But, you know, the, the message here is just shut your mouth and lead the life. And I think that's what the American people want, want, want people to do.
What I found extraordinary about this is nobody came out and defended this guy. I mean, nobody said, "He's a good man, done a bad thing." "Here's a decent guy who's obviously been struggling with a problem." "Here's somebody who"-- I mean, nobody. No Republican, no, no, no, no operative, no journalist. Nobody said, "Well, Larry Craig's got nothing." And I mean, they didn't throw him under the bus, they hit him with the bus. I mean, he's like, boom! Flattened him.
Yes. All of Larry's friends, those fellow back-slapping pols, rushed for the exits as fast as they could.
I have to give props to the NC GOP for playing hardball with hetero Privette; at least they are sending him the kind of message that the GOP on the Hill hasn't given to Diaper David Vitter, who also admitted diddling around with sex workers.
Coy C. Privette, the Cabarrus County (NC) commissioner, retired Baptist minister, and disgraced former head of The Christian Action League, recently pleaded guilty to six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution. Yes, Coy repeatedly broke his religious marital vows over and over for a little horizontal bop on the meter.
The 74-year-old retired pastor is now being urged to resign by his fellow commissioners, and he received a formal letter to that effect.
The state Republican Party chairman said she has sent Privette a priority-mail letter urging him to step down.
..."It was my opinion that he should step down immediately," state party Chairman Linda Daves said Thursday afternoon. "The letter said he's dishonored and disgraced."
...Daves said she talked with Privette on Sunday and told him he should resign immediately for the good of the party.
Here's an excerpt of the letter Privette received:
Despite your many years of service to the people of Cabarrus County and the Republican Party, your behavior has severed a public trust, and you have sacrificed the privilege to represent the people of North Carolina. Your confessed conduct is dishonorable to yourself, your family, the people you represent, and our Party."
I'm not sure I want Privette to resign. See, he and my BFF, Robin "Flipper" Hayes are tight. Coy's followers provide GOTV assistance to Hayes and other local Republicans and I don't want Privette to resign and rob me of the chance to link Robin Hayes to a man who is guilty of straying outside the bounds of morality and using a prostitute to satisfy his carnal desires. Now we know just what kind of "action" he was getting at The Christian Action League.
Speaking of Robin Hayes....he's been silent on the news that his friend and colleague, Coy Privette can't keep his peter in his pants. Does Robin Hayes think that if he stays quiet long enough nobody is going to point out that he and Coy go way back? I mean...they're pinky shake, spit on the ground, best friends fo'evahhhhh kind of pals. A friendship like that simply shouldn't be hidden away at a time like this. Coy needs his buddies. Come on Robin Hayes, show a proselytizing old pervert some love.
A voice of semi-sanity can occasionally be found on the pages of Free Republic. I make light of the ignorance there because it is seemingly endless, but here we find some actual truth-telling about the Craig matter, by FR resident nathanbedford that leaves most of the knuckledraggers there with little to say. You may not agree with this Freeper's views in total -- his argument is less support of Craig (or homosexuality) as a moral issue but an acknowledgment that far-right efforts to impose their morality through law-making leads to abuse, such as bathroom busts targeting gay sexual conduct versus straight sexual conduct, the latter which never seems to be the target of vice sting operations. For the underbelly of the far-right, this is a rare major smackdown from one of its own.
What should be the proper conservative perspective on laws concerning homosexuality?
First, we must acknowledge that the Supreme Court decision in the Texas case [Lawrence v. Texas, which decriminalized homosexuality] exists. Second, we deplore the decision because it is a departure from states' rights-but I think it would be a very serious blunder to deplore the decision because we find homosexuality icky. The world has moved beyond the point where our society arrogates the right to criminalize unseemliness in private, consensual, adult sex. We like to think of ourselves as far more enlightened than the Victorians and we regard them as being a culture locked in irrational sexual taboos. But it was Lady Astor, very much a Victorian, who said, "you can do anything you like in public providing you don't frighten the horses."
Second, we must recognize the tides of jurisprudence, culture, and public consensus are flowing against us. The Supreme Court opinion is very unlikely to be reversed, so the law has already moved substantially against the traditional "conservative" position. Concurrently, the legal and social advances of homosexuals in our society are unlikely to be reversed. The homosexual community is an exceedingly active and effective lobby who can only be expected to campaign vigilantly for their own perceived rights. They are winning the battle. Conservatives who stand against them are impotently standing athwart history and must expect an unrelenting series of Larry Craig type incidents which increasingly alienate us from the general public. I think a truly conservative approach to the issue of homosexuality is to distinguish between that which is tolerable and that which is not because it conflicts with a competing higher value. For example, private homosexual sex between consenting adults is something that a true conservative who respects individual liberty should have little trouble concluding that is an area not for the Lawgiver but for the Redeemer. The flagrant, obnoxious, in your face primping and even soliciting, should be outlawed because it is repugnant to a higher value, which is the welfare of our children. Likewise proselytizing of our children in the school system. Homosexual marriage can be opposed because it degrades a higher institution, heterosexual marriage. Civil unions, on the other hand, should be easy for a conservative to tolerate because he believes in the freedom of contract.
Third, as conservatives we fear, above all things, intrusive government. We should be wary lest we tolerate government peccadilloes against homosexuals because we are disgusted by them. As conservatives we are rightly or reluctant to turn to the government for solutions to social problems. To the degree that we regard homosexuality as a "problem" we should be very reluctant to look to the criminal law system as the solution. That means that we must be careful not to criminalize or even stigmatize homosexuality because we find it repugnant. Conversely, we must not be intimidated by political correctness from insisting that the law protect our children from physical, psychological and educational abuse. We must be careful to punish acts where appropriate, but not the status. Neither should we tolerate that the status be exalted. We should act only when the horses are frightened.
So all of this brings us to the political implications of the Craig scandal. I have posted in another context as recently as a few days ago my concern about Republicans who throw their fellows to the enemy as soon as storm clouds gather. In fact, I make reference to this deplorable tendency in my about page. I do not think it is necessary to consider what to do about Senator Larry Craig, he is a problem in the process of resolving itself and I have no doubt that he will not be the Senator from Idaho on January 2, 2008. His senatorial career is virtually over. But I dodge the issue, what should be done about Senator Larry Craig if he does not go voluntarily? He should be shunned by the party and all support for him should be withdrawn not because he is a homosexual but because he is a damn hypocrite. Craig did not do much of anything legally wrong-he did not frighten the horses-if but he brings disgrace to the party by his flagrant hypocrisy. And the party must rid itself of him because failure to do so would lay it open to the charge of hypocrisy. He represented the party in the United States Senate for the state of Idaho and he lied to us about matters of morality and "family values." It is one thing to have a rot in the body of the party and to remove that rotten apple from the barrel and quite another thing to regularize perversity as the Democrats have done in similar circumstances.
What to do about other homosexuals? Do we welcome them into the party? I should think so, so long as they are open and otherwise comport themselves in sync with conservative values. That is, when they are not hypocrites.
Ironically, the remarks of Barney Frank seemed to me to be the best placed of this controversy. Of course he did not object to Craig's homosexuality and thought he should remain in the Senate. But he did criticize the man's hypocrisy. In this Barney Frank struck home. So long as we as conservatives attack homosexuals for their status as homosexuals rather than for their overt acts which are repugnant to a higher value, we are open to the hypocrisy charge. And every time a Republican homosexual is outed, we will become a laughingstock. We are open to the charge that we are hypocrites when we invoke the criminal law to enforce our predilections about sex because we are the party which says it stands for individual liberty and limited government. The Democrats say we intrude government into the bedroom and in this case they are right. So, when they say the same thing about abortion, we cannot effectively deny the charge even though a much higher value-a baby's life-is at stake.
We fall into this hypocrisy trap when we make the fundamental mistake respecting the nature of homosexuality vis-à-vis society. Democrats accuse us of hypocrisy because closet homosexuals within our ranks preach "family values." Why do we let the Democrats conflate these two issues? Because we have done so ourselves. Homosexual activity in private between consenting adults who are not married constitute no threat to my marriage. Nor do they constitute a threat to the institution of marriage. Adultery poses a threat to the adulterer's marriage whether the adultery is homosexual or heterosexual. The adulterer is not a greater hypocrite because his adultery is homosexual. I submit that no-fault divorce is a far graver threat to the institution of marriage than is the fact of homosexuality in our society.
It's nice that Glenn makes it easy for me to go out of town (I'm in NYC visiting family). No need for additional keystrokes from me when you can read his column, Forcing Larry Craig's resignation while embracing David Vitter; it scorches the GOP and professional Beltway "Christians." A snippet:
The only kind of "morality" that this movement knows or embraces is politically exploitative, cost-free morality. That is why the national Republican Party rails endlessly against homosexuality and is virtually mute about divorce and adultery: because anti-gay moralism costs virtually all of its supporters nothing (since that is a moral prohibition that does not constrain them), while heterosexual moral deviations -- from divorce to adultery to sex outside of marriage -- are rampant among the Values Voters faithful and thus removed from the realm of condemnation. Hence we have scads of people sitting around opposing same-sex marriage because of their professed belief in "Traditional Marriage" while their "third husbands" and multiple step-children and live-in girlfriends sit next to them on the couch.
... It goes without saying that no gay candidate would stand a chance of receiving the presidential nomination from the party that stands for Traditional Marriage. And indeed, the Idaho Family Values Association (entitled to great respect), in the wake of the Craig scandal, just called -- explicitly -- for the Republican Party to purge all gay politicians from the party:
The Party, in the wake of the Mark Foley incident in particular, can no longer straddle the fence on the issue of homosexual behavior. Even setting Senator Craig's situation aside, the Party should regard participation in the self-destructive homosexual lifestyle as incompatible with public service on behalf of the GOP.
And don't forget, there was much said in the bible about adultery and divorce, a tome the Right frequently drags out to beat gays with. And what about the whole shebang about wearing mixed fibers and eating shellfish? Oh, yeah, that doesn't matter either with that crowd.
Craig Reacts to Petraeus, Crocker Testimony General, Ambassador paint picture of progress in Iraq
* Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry has 
To some of the leadership of the Christian right, the homosexual agenda is a zero-sum game where Christians lose if gays win. There is no middle ground; there is no room for compromise.
Coy C. Privette, the Cabarrus County (NC) commissioner, retired Baptist minister, and disgraced former head of The Christian Action League, recently