It seems that if the kid in the IM exchange was upset by it he could have not participated in it and reported it. Instead it looks like he saved the chat log since 2001 or 2002 as some sort of trophy. While these kids were minors, there's a level of sophistication that your average 16 or 17 year old has these days. It's not like these guys were 12 or 13.

I think these former pages are likely people who are interested in politics and have designs on entering the game themselves. So they are not unhappy to cultivate a relationship with a member of the House leadership who can help them out later if they play along with him now by pushing his buttons in an online chat session.

But people who live for so many years in the closet seem to have a sort of arrested social development that keeps them perpetually mentally in high school. Look at all of the closeted Catholic priests who abuse teenage boys. I think it's all part of the same phenomenon.

A minor quibble, but that would be the 12 Apostles, not the 12 Disciples.

Do I need to point out that today is the 11th?

Where was Karl Rove at the time?

FOr some reason I always thought Shays was one of the saner members of his party. But the past week he's really showing signs of strain. Is he losing in the polls at this point? Why is he coming out with these kooky statements?

It makes me sad that my choice is between these two morons.

Actually the reference is to the new constitutional amendment that is on the ballot this year. It purports to write into the VA state constitution that marriage is only between a man and a woman, however it actually goes much farther and says that certain sorts of contracts are also not allowed. I don't think it goes so far as to say a gay person can't sell a car to another gay person. But it does outlaw things like civil unions, domestic partnership agreements, and I believe any sort of power of attorney or any other agreement that bestows any sort of marriage-like privilege. It applies to any couple, not just gay couples. So the unmarried breeders will also have their rights taken away. The only hope to defeat this thing is to get people to realize how far-reaching it is.

yes, this is good for civil rights. But it still would have been good for civil rights two weeks from now as well. Announcing this decision now might well be a disaster.

On the other hand, I think the vast majority of people are way more worried about Iraq than they are about Adam and Steve getting married. Will this really rile up enough of the religious right who weren't going to otherwise vote? That remains to be seen. But I kind of wish they would have sat on this thing for a little longer until after the election is over.

Since when are we losing the 'culture wars'? Seems to me that if we weren't winning the wacky fundamentalists wouldn't be fighting so hard and spending all of their time gay bashing and worrying about what everyone else's sex life is like.

I don't think any of us expect perfection, but Kerry is an idiot. This does take the spotlight off of Bush and takes the focus off the important issues. As they quoted a Dem congressman as saying on ABC, "Kerry gave away the 2004 election, and now he wants to give away 2006 too." There was no reason for him to say what he did, and frankly I think it was rather offensive. In addition to the regular army there are tons of army reservists over there in Iraq. People who are from all walks of life doing all sorts of jobs, including doctors and goodness knows what other sorts of careers requiring a higher education.

He should apologize to anyone he offended, and then lay into Bush. But to not apologize at all makes him look even worse.

Where is there a gay watering hole in Georgetown? Anyway, I don't think we want to claim a scumbag bully like George Allen on our team.

Seems to me there should be little or no doubt about the truth of this since he folded up his tent and resigned so quickly. How long until he enters alcohol rehab and blames it all on the drink?

This is almost as good as all of those "ex-gay" leaders who always get caught hitting on guys in gay bars.

Nobody loves a hypocrite.

It seems to me that the pollsters must have a very hard time finding willing pollees? How many people answer the phone if caller ID tells them it isn't some one they want to talk to? How many young people (and older people for that matter) only use cellphones and don't have a landline at all? I think these polls are becoming even less useful than ever. All they do is keep the press doing their horse race coverage and neglecting to talk about any real issues.