Letters to the Editor
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Wow. Just wow.
What a well-written, obviously meticulously researched piece. Kudos, Glenn.
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this column
is gay.
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A mirror image
of the right wing reaction is the reaction on several progressive blogs I've visited--to wit: what's so bad about cruising bathrooms for sex, and don't the police have better things to do with their resources than entrapping hypocritical politicians?
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which blogs?
I haven't even seen any comments like that on Daily Kos, which has a large centrist, Dem apologist contingent that can usually be counted on to quickly disgust me.
This time, it's schadenfreude all around.
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Johnson's Dog
A mirror image
of the right wing reaction is the reaction on several progressive blogs I've visited--to wit: what's so bad about cruising bathrooms for sex, and don't the police have better things to do with their resources than entrapping hypocritical politicians?
How is that a "mirror image"? I think this now and I thought so back then. I don't care what Larry Craig does in his personal life. That is between him and his wife. It's relevant as a political story only because of the insistence by people like Craig that issues of private sexual morality should be inserted into our political proces. What mirror hypocrisy do you think you see?
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Are the trolls paid now?
They sure seem to get up bright and early to do their "work".
As to the subject at hand, one would think these pundits would suffer from intellectual whiplash, but when your shilling pays the bills, why bother with maintaining an internal consistency to your arguments? That their readers seem just fine with this is yet another example of how authoritarians will twist everything to maintain their hardened world view, facts be damned.
Thanks Glenn, more fine work from you as usual, and with a style of exposition that I simply love.
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Is There Such a Thing as a Hetro Conservative?
I ask the question only half-jokingly, but it is beginning to look like the GOP is completely GAY. Not gay in the same way that most gay people I know are--you know, normal people pursuing love, sex, and relationships like anyone else--but gay in the sense of being viciously closeted and projecting all of their hate and self-loathing onto others in between feverish buggery sessions in seedy rest stop men's rooms.
For a long time I thought the gay-bashing in general, and opposition to gay marriage and civil unions in particular on the right was just a ploy to win elections by doing what they always do: play to the anxieties and superstitions of the most ignorant people in the country, but slowly it became clear to me that the most vigorous opponents of gay marriage believe it to be a threat to the "institution of marriage" because for them it is.
Leaving aside the fact that most of them tearfully worship a nude man nailed to a board...to these men, the idea that you could share a normal life with someone you actually wanted to fuck at some time in your life is a inherently threatening to the well-maintained facade they have managed to put up for most of their lives. I mean if I was married to the usual breed of hatched faced gorgons these types usually end up with, not to mention actually having a litter of equally awful children, I would definitely be striking a wide stance at men's rooms across America every chance I got, and I'm straight.
So let me just say this again, if you're a conservative, you're here and you're queer, now get used to it.
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Disagree somewhat.
“Today, with the election safely over, that exact same behavior makes Craig a scumbag who should resign”
I guess i see it a bit differently. Previously it was a story put out by a seemingly partisan writer based on anonymous sources - and just prior to important national elections. Of course the GOP pundits questioned whether the accusations had any basis. [Point taken that some of them hedged with the “And if it’s true, it’s none of our business...” stuff.]
The main diff between now and October is the accusations are now shown to be true. So, now that the accusations are confirmed, the pundits turn on the guy. Would they have reacted differently if an arrest was known in October? I don't know...
Also, if i recall correctly, the GOP (and the "liberal" Press) went after Bubba’s philandering not based on anonymous rumors (of which there were plenty), but based on accusations from Gennifer Flowers.
Oh, a side note - one thing i find a bit annoying about the whole story is how it seems focussed on his bisexuality/homosexuality rather than the fact this nut is aggressively harassing people in public bathrooms. I wish the focus was on that, not on the gender he chose to harass.
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in fairness
I can't believe I am going to say this, but in fairness to the Rightwingers all you had last year were reports on a blog from anonymous people saying they had sex with the guy. Now you have actual arrest reports and guilty plea. So while before one could somewhat plausibly say that it might not be true, now you have the guy admitting guilt. Two pretty different animals.
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Hankest/Glenn A.
I guess i see it a bit differently. Previously it was a story put out by a seemingly partisan writer based on anonymous sources - and just prior to important national elections. Of course the GOP pundits questioned whether the accusations had any basis. [Point taken that some of them hedged with the “And if it’s true, it’s none of our business...” stuff.]
The main diff between now and October is the accusations are now shown to be true. So, now that the accusations are confirmed, the pundits turn on the guy. Would they have reacted differently if an arrest was known in October? I don't know...
No. Go read the posts I linked to. The claim was NOT that the story was despicable because it was unreliable and based on anonymous sources. The argument was that it was despicable because it was completely irrelevant even if it were true.
By the very terms of the argument, the fact that the claims turned out to be true and corroborrated is irrelevant. The claim was that the report was slimy because it does not matter what Larry Craig does in his private life.