11.09.2006

CNN: Chairman of Republican National Committee Will Step Down By Year's End

So Ken Mehlman is on his way out faster than Pastor Ted Haggard changed his many versions of his I-never-smoked-methamphetamines-but-I-did-buy-it-to-throw-away-on-my-way-back-from-a-totally-heterosexual-massage-from-a-gay-male-prostitute?

I suppose my only questions are:

  1. Is this decision entirely based on the poor, poor, poor performance on Tuesday?
  2. Did this disclosure tonight have any hint of something to do with Bill Maher's disclosure of one of the worst-kept secrets in the GOP-waving-Chinese-made-American-flags-world that Mehlman is a gay male driven, it would seem, to make policies that hurt other gays?
  3. Was the revelation that Mehlman's RNC received HUGE contributions from the makers and distributors of hard core gay porn a factor?
  4. Did Mehlman's culpability in the Mark Foley (cough) affair influence this decision?
  5. Is there a concern that Republicans may face major scandals and litigation based on the way GOP contractors used robo calls to make voters angry with Democratic candidates?
  6. And - last but not least - how soon may we expect to see Karl Rove flogged in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue?

The irony here is not solely that homosexuality comes up again and again in such reasonably legitimate questions. I do not believe for a moment that being gay is some punishable offense anymore than heterosexuality is.

No, the sad issue is that again and again, we hear the far right Republicans talk of homosexuality like it's somehow worse than being a war criminal and insist that "these people" must be stopped at any and all costs before they do terrible things like enter into a long-term monogamous relationship through same-sex marriage. Yet - also again and again - we learn that the "great moral ones" - like a Mark Foley, a Ted Haggard, a Ken Mehlman, a David Drier, to name but a few - love to make rulings against other gays while living a double (or triple) life.