Will The Gay Larry Craig Please Stand Up?

This past week-end I spent at least an hour over a rather fabulous dinner at 1480 KPHX sponsor Harley's Italian eaterie, with a very good friend (also rather fabulous I might add) discussing Senator Larry Craig.

My friend it seems, with the idealistic principles of Dennis Kucinich minus the desire to act on them, held the position that Democrats were missing a perfect opportunity. He thought Larry Craig the gay man, should find champions in some faction of the Democratic party, at least the GLBT sector, to come out (no pun intended) and advocate for his rights! Craig was, after all, being persecuted by Republicans for being gay, not for a misdemeanor crime. Senator David Vinter on the other hand is *not* facing Republican ousting (presuming he did have sex "with that woman") because he is straight.

While I spent most of the time arguing that having sex with the same sex did not make you gay (ambi-homosexuals and ambi-heterosexuals may be less known but make up some portion of "homosexual" activity) and secondarily that it was not in Democrats best interest to back a guy that was first, a hypocrite and second, accused of a crime, my friend kept hammering on the "principle" thing; it was a mater of principle: being gay should not net the punishment of expulsion from public service (again, no pun intended) and Democrats should be the party willing to say it!

Given all that, now that Larry has decided to fight back should he just "come out" as a gay man and fight the misdemeanor charge (maybe it was entrapment) still registered as a Republican? I think so, because that of course allows people like me to mercilessly roast the entire Republican party for throwing poor Larry "at" (not even under) the bus while the Gay Old Party goes into denial over Vinter, but what does it do for Craig?

Well, if --when the investigation gets really ugly decoding the Madam's diary linking Vinter with oh-- gay WH press/hooker Jeff Gannon --Larry's little rub (okay, that was a pun) starts to look like positively great news! Then Craig can reregister as an Independent, caucusing with Democrats to screw Republicans on important "family values" legislation (not to mention war funding) and throw the whole damn party under the bus!!

Well, it wasn't me who was arguing about principles!

Cross-posted on Voice of North America.

INCOMING: California RNC 2008 "Dirty Tricks" Already Afoot!

Excellent post warning of California RNC attempt to steal 20 electoral votes for Republicans PERMANENTLY!

NY Times: Republicans Will Use "Elaborate Dirty Trick" to steal White House:
Every so often, political hacks join high-minded commissions and say things that sound downright statesman-like. But then, with the passage of time, when dollar signs dance in their heads, they forget that they have a conscience and go back to prostitution. That appears to be the case here in California, where lawyers for the Republican Party have put forward an initiative so cynical and embarrassingly partisan, that Fidel Castro would blush. The New York Times put it succinctly in a scathingly powerful editorial yesterday: this initiative is an "elaborate dirty trick" by a "shadowy group" of California Republicans will "do serious damage to our democracy."

SNIP--

Tom DeLay, who as the House majority leader put up with the inconvenience of having to achieve Congressional majorities to pass legislation, simply stole five new congressional seats in 2003 by using corporate money to bribe members of the Texas legislature to invent new Republican seats where formerly Democrats had been electable. Remember when the minority Democratic members of the Texas legislature fled the state so that there could be no vote on this literally corrupt power grab? Eventually, DeLay won and Democrats did not win back the House, by about five seats. DeLay's gone, but at what price?

Dirty tricks, paid for illegally by corporate funds, kept the House in Bush's hands for another two years.

Now a lawyer named Tom Hiltachk, who works for the California Republican Party and until a few months ago worked for Governor Schwarzenegger, has filed an initiative that would steal 20 or so Electoral College votes from California's 55, making it damn near impossible for a Democrat to win back the White House.

SNIP--

There's one simple way to put this behind us. Imagine if hundreds of thousands of ordinary people in this country signed a petition to say "no more dirty tricks." And then every day, for as long as it takes, we force those who have the temerity to support this dirty trick to explain themselves.

Ted Klaut, Egg Inspector

Male Republicans in positions of power seem to have impulse control problems, no?

Another one bites the dust:

"Former Republican Rep. Ted Klaudt could spend the rest of his life in prison after turning himself in to authorities Friday on felony charges that include eight counts of rape involving foster children and former legislative pages.

Five girls told authorities they were assaulted by Klaudt, court documents state, although charges filed Friday involve only two of the girls.

Four of the girls said they were accosted in Klaudt's hotel room in Pierre, where he stayed while serving in the South Dakota Legislature. Two of the girls were legislative pages when they were attacked, they told investigators.

He's accused of performing 'ovary checks' and 'breast exams' under the guise that he was helping young women donate their reproductive eggs, according to court records."

Remarkable. Right-to-life guilt has created yet another trigger for women by which they may be victimized.

HT -- Bradblog.com