Voices from a different era

My father on the Senator Craig thing:

“He’s sick, the man is sick. [Being gay] It’s a disease; it’s no different than diabetes.”

I have, for the record, corrected my father on the fact that there’s nothing wrong with being gay. Propositioning for sex in a men’s bathroom in an airport is probably not the best venue. A Turkish bath would be better, perhaps. Or a Turkish prison.

There is, however, plenty wrong with being a hypocrite and a liar. That really is what should be driving this thing. The party of family values. The saber-rattling, sanctity of marriage, one man, one woman, no abortions or contraception crowd is chock full of these people who, in their blustery harrumph, seem to be living a lie. “Pressured into pleading guilty?” His counterparts in the house like Jerry Lewis (lady!), Duke Cunningham and others knew how to lawyer up for major shit that could bring prison time. What’s the matter with pulling fifty grand from your campaign fund to just make it go away with some appropriate legal maneuvering and PR efforts? Because he was guilty.

Mark Foley, on the other hand, is sick. It’s the same argument over pederastery (and my spellchecker insists it’s not a word). Priests molesting children aren’t gay. They’re sick. People don’t accuse unordained, unelected child molesters of being gay or misunderstood or confused about their sexuality, do they? No, they’re registered sex offenders who are tracked and watched and prohibited from doing lots of things because, all together now, they took advantage of children.

I’m in agreement with much of the Blogosphere today. How the fuck is David Vitter avoiding all of this hellfire and damnation and Craig is catching it? I guess because the Family Values crowd is okay with cheating on your wife with other women as opposed to cheating on your spouse with one of Those People. Those Heathens. Those…“Faggots”.

Maw, where’s m’ gun?

Jesus Christ on a popsicle stick…