Senator Larry Craig - A Democrat who Feels Sorry for Him

[stevenleser]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_steven_l_070903_senator_larry_craig_.htm
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September 3, 2007

Senator Larry Craig - A Democrat who Feels Sorry for Him

By Steven Leser

As a bona-fide, card-carrying and self-admitted member of the bleeding hearts club, I often feel sorry for people who find themselves in unfortunate circumstances. See, I did it again. I know that people do not "find themselves" in unfortunate circumstances, at least not most of the time. The reason people get into trouble is usually actions they chose to take. Senator Larry Craig is no exception. He is in the situation he is in because of choices that he made. Still, I feel sorry for him.


There are two possibilities when it comes to the Senator Craig situation and either would generate sympathy from me. Either #1, he IS gay or bisexual and did try to initiate a sexual encounter with an undercover police officer in a public bathroom, or #2, He is innocent but bungled the situation badly. If #1 is the truth, as I think likely, then he was a person at war with himself. He was at war with himself because he is a Republican senator in a Red state at a time when a fair amount of people, mostly conservative Republicans, still think it is OK to discriminate against people based on sexual orientation. As I say that, I have to acknowledge there are still far too many people in blue states who think the same. I try to imagine what any of that would be like, constantly feeling like you have to deny being who you are. I have spoken to gay men and women about being in the closet and what that feels like and the fears that keep you in it. I stand with people in the GLBT community in fervently hoping that the day is not far away when those who choose to be openly homophobic are treated with at least the common level of disgust that those who are racist against blacks or Jews are treated today.


As Republicans pressured Senator Craig to resign from the senate, they claimed that this had nothing to do with the possibility that he might be gay, that it is all about having committed a crime. I have a very hard problem believing this coming from people who completely rejected and maltreated the gay caucus of their own party. The GOP has treated the Log Cabin Republicans, the gay caucus of the Republican Party, over the last seven years as a particularly bad spouse abuser treats their spouse. The fact that until the 2004 Presidential election, the Log Cabins were happy to act as an enabling abused spouse had been a source of bewilderment to me. It took a figurative beating from the 2004 Bush campaign for the Log Cabins to step up and start holding their party officials and representatives accountable (they refused to endorse Bush for President in 2004). I wish the Log Cabin's luck. The forces arrayed against Gays in the Republican Party are daunting. The below is an excerpt from a page on the Log Cabin website includes the following anti-gay statements (among others) from bigots on the far right:


Talking Points: What the Radical Right Says About Us



You can learn the radical right's true intentions by reading what they say about us. Whatever they try to say about traditional marriage, their true motivation is trying to marginalize gay and lesbian Americans. Their own words, based on fear and intolerance, reveal their true motives.


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"I really believe that the Pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians, ... the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen."—Jerry Falwell, 700 Club, September 13, 2001


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"Barring a miracle, the family as it has been known for more than five millennia will crumble, presaging the fall of Western civilization itself."—James Dobson, Focus on the Family, in a 2004 anti-gay fund raising letter


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"For the sake of our children and society, we must OPPOSE the spread of homosexual activity! Just as we must oppose murder, stealing, and adultery! Since homosexuals cannot reproduce, the only way for them to 'breed' is to RECRUIT! And who are their targets for recruitment? Children!"—Don Wildmon, direct mail letter from the American Family Association


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"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything," Santorum said in an interview published April 21, 2003 by the Associated Press. "All of those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family," Santorum continued. "And that's sort of where we are in today's world, unfortunately. It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn't exist, in my opinion, in the United States Constitution."—Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), April 21, 2003, AP interview.


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"The family unit is under attack by dark and conspiring forces who desire to redefine the bond of marriage to include same-sex partners. This design is an abomination of nature and, if adopted by society as normative, will ultimately lead to society's downfall and destruction."—American Society for the Preservation of the Family


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"After all, since homosexual couples can't reproduce, they will simply go after your children for seduction and conversion to homosexuality."—Rev. Lou Sheldon, Traditional Values Coalition, from report Homosexuals Recruit Public School Children


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Reading the above onslaught from the conservative base of the party, the lesson to any Republican elected official is if you are in the closet, you better stay there. If you come out as a gay Republican you stand a good chance of being drummed out of your office and party. While I feel sorry for certain individuals in the Republican Party who have found themselves on the wrong end of this bigoted juggernaut, as a whole and as to their recent election and popularity losses, I have to feel like the GOP have been hoisted on their own petard.

Getting back to Senator Craig, given the still hostile environment to them in this country in general, it is difficult for me to criticize any Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgender person for wanting to keep their sexual orientation secret and/or feeling forced to engage in secret sex practices. I don't know whether sexual repression is talked about in psychiatry/psychology anymore in terms of describing or predicting abnormal behavior, but it occurs to me that people who feel the need to repress their sexuality are often the ones secretly engaging in some of the more bizarre and/or anti-social sexual practices. Understanding that, should anyone criticize Senator Craig’s attempt to get fulfillment from anonymous sex in a bathroom? I cannot bring myself to do it. The contemptible actions by Senator Craig occurred long before, when he sold out to the conservative right GOP establishment that eventually turned on him, sold him out and destroyed him.

[TankLV]

1. If all he did was try to satisfy his "natural desires", then it would be OK. Except that is not the

point here.

Because of his "repressed urges" - he has taken it upon himself to make life MISERABLE for other GBLT persons.

He has actively sought out and authored harmful legislation and made many statements too numerous to note that has vilified and harmed GBLT persons.

THAT is the issue here. He didn't merely seek his own "fullfillment".

He is a pox on humanity. He is a vile creature. He deserves no sympathy in any way shape or form.

He deserves derision, public humiliation, chastisement and punishment for what he has done DIRECTLY to others.

FUCK THE BASTARD.

[stevenleser]

2. That is pretty much what I said when I said:

The contemptible actions by Senator Craig occurred long before, when he sold out to the conservative right GOP establishment that eventually turned on him, sold him out and destroyed him.
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I think every group that has been discriminated against wrestles with what to do and what to think about the Overseers, Jewish Camp Kapos and Larry Craigs. Generally, most African Americans came to realize that the Overseer types are as much a victim of the overall situation. Many Jews I think have come to the same conclusion about the Kapos. Of course, all of that realization is easier to come to once the harshest of the discrimination is mostly over.

[kurth]

3. More gems from GOP leaders:

LESSONS IN PUBLIC SPEAKING, PART ONE

At a meeting of students in Fairbanks, Alaska, Rep. Don Young argued against federal funding for the arts. Young said the government had funded "photographs of people doing offensive things." Asked for an example, he answered "buttfucking," The congressman said he was "trying to educate" the students.

LESSONS IN PUBLIC SPEAKING, PART TWO

Doris Allen recently retired as speaker of the California State Assembly, but not before labeling her critics "power-mongering men with short penises."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_11_27/ai_54469066

[TwilightGardener]

4. Rick Santorum believes that adultery is against the law. This man

was in the Senate for how many years? Oh my God.

[stevenleser]

5. I think it still is in some states, just not enforced...

interesting, isnt it?

[TwilightGardener]

6. Maybe--kinda like sodomy laws. But Ricky is saying that if

gays have consensual sex, next thing you know, there will be adultery. Has anyone been tried for adultery as a crime since the Scarlet Letter lady?

edit to add: outside of the military, I mean...

[Skittles]

7. feeling forced to stay in the closet is one thing

what he did in his position as Senator is entirely another and negates any feelings of sympathy I would otherwise naturally feel