What do you do when your Party is mired in a sex scandal involving underage congressional pages and two prominent (gay) congressmen?
You run an ad accusing a Democrat of going to a Playboy party, of course.
If you’re wondering if that was some sort of joke, it’s not. Only the Republicans, under the sexually-obsessed leadership of Karl Rove and his protégés, like Dallas-based Republican media consultant Scott Howell, would think of using heterophobia against an opponent.
Admittedly, accusing a Democrat of being a raging heterosexual isn’t exactly how Rove and his evil spawn made their name.
Howell, whose Web site boasts a winning percentage of 80 percent, was the brain behind the slimy and unconscionable ad for Republican candidate (and Vietnam War avoider) Saxby Chambliss (I kid you not).
The ad, which helped Chambliss win, showed images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein with a voiceover accusing Democratic incumbent and veteran Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, of lacking the “courage” to protect America.
The fact that the worst thing Howell can throw at Harold Ford Jr. is his interest in Playboy bunnies is a testament to how times have changed – or just how bad things are for the Republicans.
There was that not-so subtle suggestion of a young black man, Ford, hitting on a southern-sounding white woman. That’s the Republican slime-machine, I know.
If the Mark Foley scandal did anything, it made Republicans think twice about playing the gay card. For once, Republicans are the ones faced with having to defend their gay-friendliness.
When Sen. Santorum said gay marriage would lead to man-on-dog sex, could he have known that two of his Republican colleagues would be the targets of federal investigations involving inappropriate sexual contact with underage male pages and that Republicans would be accused of covering it up?
Santorum’s over-the-top comments are partially why the religious right’s poster boy, who for years was happy to promote a homophobic public persona, is trailing by double-digits in the polls.
Ironically, Santorum’s communications director is gay. I’m not telling you anything Robert Traynham hasn’t admitted on the record. How a gay man could work for a man who equates gay marriage to bestiality is beyond me.
Many gay Republican staffers have boasted in articles published in the New York Times that their bosses are much more accepting in private than they are in public. Perhaps that’s the case with Santorum. It may be the case with Oklahoma’s unapologetically homophobic Sens. Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn.
Besides comparing global-warming science to Nazi propaganda, Inhofe pledged he would never hire a gay. Not to be out-gayed by his Oklahoma colleague, Coburn warned his constituents of a growing gay agenda. What Coburn didn’t tell them was that his legislative director is gay. What Inhofe hasn’t admitted is that one of the key gay staffers involved in the Mark Foley scandal used to work for him.
Foley isn’t the only Republican rumored to live in Florida’s closet. In fact, since Foley was outed, Floridians are again focusing their attention on Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist.
While the rumors about Crist are nothing new, their high-profile coverage is. The 50-year-old Crist has been rumored to be gay for years. Surprisingly, the rumors have not been enough to quell his rise in state politics.
Crist has denied that he is gay a dozen times. Floridians aren’t convinced. The Broward-Palm Beach New Times (think Dallas Observer) has run a series of long investigative articles detailing the history of the rumors.
One article even names a 21-year-old boy and Republican rising star (with White House ambitions) as one of Crist’s sexual partners. According to sources, Jason Wetherington boasted at two different parties that he and Crist had sex.
When asked for comment, Wetherington denied the report.
He did admit to being gay, that he had attended the parties in question, and that he had met Crist. So much for presidential ambitions. Word on the street is he was able to pass his resume along to the would-be governor.
Gay rumors about governors and gubernatorial candidates are nothing new. In 1978, rumors about Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate David Boren were leveled by Boren’s Republican opponent. Boren swore on a white Bible (symbolism is everything) that the rumors were not true and won the election.
The rumors didn’t go away. They followed Boren to Washington after he was elected senator. They then followed him to Oklahoma when he retired to become president of the University of Oklahoma.
Before you crack an Oklahoma joke about steers and, you know the rest, you’d have to look long and hard to find someone in Austin who hasn’t heard the rumors of Rick Perry’s same-sex dalliances, rumors first published in 2004 in the Austin Chronicle.
More surprising than any of the rumors is the reality that behind every homophobic or closeted Republican politician are gays who help elect and keep them in power.
When Condoleezza Rice referred to the mother of the gay partner of the new Aids czar as his ‘mother-in-law,’ many gay Republicans believed that the Bush administration was sending a subtle message of approval.
A nice gesture if you’re a Washington insider. The problem is that behind such Republican subliminal messages are policies that keep politicians in the closet and relegate the rest of us to second-class citizenship.
About the writer:
George Henson is a Spanish professor at SMU. He can be reached at [email protected].
