We're quoted in The Economist!
I'm bumping this up (it was an addition to my earlier Craig post):
- A president is caught having sex with an intern in the Oval Office and lies to cover it up; he finishes his term (and may yet return as president-consort).
- A congressman sends salacious e-mails to former pages now of legal age; he resigns in disgrace.
- A senator engages in the illegal activity of hiring prostitutes-even (it's come to light) taking a call from his madam while on the floor of the United States Congess; he's finishing his term and no one is suggesting prosecution.
- A senator taps his toes in a men's room in a subtle signal only a fellow seeker would recognize and respond to; he's entrapped, charged with a crime and forced to resign in disgrace.
All together, guess which orientation is cut no slack? It's an unsettling pattern of homophobia-tinged double standards that those gays who cheered the fall of Foley and Craig might want to consider.
Also, on a lighter note, a joke making the rounds suggests that the best Larry Craig defense to pitch to conservatives would have been, "It's not like I wanted to marry the cop!"
Relatedly. From the New York Times:
With the corruption issue having weighed down some of their Congressional candidates in the disastrous 2006 elections, Senate Republicans saw Mr. Craig as inviting even heavier damage, especially on the heels of ethics cases involving two other Republican senators, David Vitter of Louisiana, who was the client of a dubious escort service, and Ted Stevens of Alaska, who faces a widening inquiry into whether he traded official favors.
Corruption, whores, or (closeted) gays-which senator must resign?
And unrelatedly, an interesting take sure to annoy ideologues on all sides of the issue, via H. Alexander Robinson, the openly gay head of the National Black Justice Coalition, who argues: "Society must come to terms with the fact that not everyone who has gay sex is necessarily gay. Although it may be a difficult concept for some to comprehend; gay sexual behavior does not equate to gay sexual orientation."
A sympathetic note. Former N.J. Governor James McGreevey writes, movingly, A Prayer for Larry Craig:
After all the whispering, fights, insults, reading of academic journals and lessons from the church, you simply say to yourself: This thing, being gay, can't be me. Everything and everyone told me it was wrong, evil, unnatural and shameful. You decide: I'll change it, I'll fight it, I'll control it, but, simply put, I'll never accept it. You then attempt to place "it" in a metaphorical closet, keep it separate from open daily life and indulge it only in dark, secret places.
Larry Craig became part of the problem (voting to keep homosexuality a second-class status), but he was also a victim.