Kirk Fordham Is Gay???

[KharmaTrain]

According to Jay Levine on WBBM-TV...the reason that Fordham turned on Hastert is that Fordham is gay. I haven't seen this posted reported elsewhere. Anyone else hear this or have a link?

[Syrinx]

1. I don't follow

What does Fordham's orientation have to do with it?

[KharmaTrain]

7. That Was Why He Turned On Hastert

For the past couple days, Fordham has been M.I.A...especially after the story of him trying to "negotiate" with Brian Ross on squashing the IMs. Today he surfaces and the story is he had been fired by Reynolds and then said that he had told Hastert's office on various occasions about problems with Foley. There was no mention of Fordham being gay. It wasn't until I saw the Chicago news this evening that I first heard this factoid...and mentioned as a reason why Fordham threw this mess right back at Hastert and this may be the straw that brings Gym Teach Denny down.

The orientation issue explains why Fordham would have intervened on Foley's behalf...and as a friend as much as a political ally. If Fordham's sexuality was a reason he was fired by Reynodlds and is now being used by Hastert to pin the blame on...this is a new and interesting twist to a sorid story that gets more bizarre by the minute. Also, will it open the doors wide open to the biggest unspoken inside the betlway...other gays who are in the Repugnican party and still in the closet. This could start a witch-hunt as the party spinners try to blame the gays for this scandal.

[maddezmom]

2. DU thread here with some info

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2314143#2317221

[KharmaTrain]

5. Thank You For The Link

That surely deserves a thread of its own...especially those letters from 2003. I posted earlier that nothing's worse than a Press Secretary scorned, but I didn't know how it'd take on a different meaning. LOL.

Fordham says he's going to name more names...and in this context, this could mean the biggest dirty secret inside the Beltway could be an issue here...Gays in the Repugnican party. Ya gotta wonder how Kenny Mehlmann must be feeling right now.

After the 2004 elections there were some here who blamed the gays for the loss...unjustifiably so...but I'm already seeing that happen on the other side for far different reasons and with far different results. While a majority of Democrats united behind gay marriage and welcome gays in our struggle for sanity, the Repugnicans have long played both sides of the fence and now this could open a Pandorra's box that could get real messy real fast.

:popcorn: anyone???

[maddezmom]

6. just read this in the LAT

Onetime Loyal Aide Now Stands to Undermine GOP
Former staffer Kirk Fordham says he'll tell all to the FBI in the Foley case, poising him to take on the leadership he once served.
By Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger, Times Staff Writers
October 5, 2006


WASHINGTON — For 20 years, Kirk Fordham was a loyal staffer and strategist — rising from his early days as a Capitol Hill intern to the coveted post of chief of staff to a senior congressman.

~snip~

For the soft-spoken Fordham, a role as a possible whistle-blower is an unfamiliar one — but it is perhaps not surprising for a longtime Republican weary of his party's anti-gay political tactics and concerned that some were planning to make him take the fall. He spoke out Wednesday to denounce what he said were false charges from unnamed sources that he had tried to suppress details to protect his old boss.

~snip~

n 1994, Fordham left the Hill to manage the congressional campaign of Foley, who at the time was a fast-rising but little-known Florida state senator.

The two shared something in common: Both were gay men with private struggles, trying to make their mark in a party that was anything but hospitable to homosexuals.

Foley won the race, despite an opponent who raised his sexual orientation as an issue. Fordham became his chief of staff and stayed with him for 10 years — advising the congressman on media strategies and helping him become one of the GOP's most prolific fundraisers.

more; http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-fordham5oct05,0,3833418.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

3. Yes, according to this gay activist blog

The owner, Michael Rogers, posts a letter he wrote to Fordham in 2003 protesting his involvement with Mel Martinez's campaign on the grounds that Fordham is openly gay but working to support an opponent of gay marriage.

http://www.blogactive.com/2004/07/action-write-to-kirk-fordhamat-mel.html

Wow. His page on Foley, posted in March 2005, is something else:

I have seen the enemy...

Birds of a Feather
Two haters, one picture:
Gay-bashing straight man John Ashcroft and Gay-bashing gay man Mark Foley

This is United States Congressman Mark Foley
He voted this week for a law to allow hate groups to fire gay and lesbian people at will
The law he is supporting will overrule ANY local laws on the matter.
MARK FOLEY IS GAY
MARK FOLEY WILL BE EXPOSED FOR THE HYPOCRITE HE IS THROUGH A MAIL AND INTERNET CAMPAIGN THAT WILL REACH INTO EVERY HOME IN HIS DISTRICT.

THIS MAN IS A DANGER TO GAY MEN AND LESBIANS

DO NOT SLEEP WITH THIS MAN
IF HE CRUISES YOU IN THE BATHROOMS OF CONGRESS,
IGNORE HIM!
IF HE HITS ON YOU AT THE NEXT REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
IGNORE HIM!

THE NATION MUST BE WARNED ABOUT THIS
ABOMINATION IN THE GAY COMMUNITY

Please to support our educational and advertising campaign against this right wing hypocrite, click here and join the battle for true lesbian and gay liberation.
------------------------
http://www.blogactive.com/2005/03/i-have-seen-enemy.html

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. It's the opening shot in the "Gay Staffer Witch Hunt/Roundup" that

will turn the discussion COMPLETELY away from Hastert and company's malfeasance to "those evil gays in Congress".

The talk of "the list" is just a coded announcement that the witch hunt is beginning, here is your early warning, get out of town now or we aren't responsible for what happens to you.

The gay staffers must be removed for the health of the GOP Hive Mind!

[KharmaTrain]

8. We're On The Same Page Here...

The quote I heard musta come direct out of Gym Teach Denny's piehole...and is one of the few defenses Hastert has to try to get out of this mess. Many hate radio spewers have long astroturfed the pedophile = gay meme...as have Tony Perkins and Dobson. I saw how Jim Kolbe was treated by his party 'bretheren' when he came out and this must have sent a warning to others to stay well closeted. Now with their power about to slip away, Hastert, Rove and the GOOP desperately need a scapegoat to either hang onto power or for future blame. Bring on the gays.

If I'm Ken Mehlmann I'm not sleeping well tonight...his Faustian deal is in serious jeopardy here as is the devil's pact between the beltway elite and the religious right. With independent and moderates now slipping away in droves...the only way to turn this thing around is to "energize the base" and somehow try to use gays to get the fundies into the church busses.

Fordham looks like he's ready to name names...

I'm going out this morning for an industrial strength :popcorn: machine. It's gonna get a workout today.

Cheers...

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

9. Yeah, Drudge must be sleeping real easy these days too.

[KharmaTrain]

10. Where's His Siren???

Put the shoe on the other foot...an aide to a Democratic Congressman comes out and is ready to name other Democrats. Drudge would have all sorts of hot flashes. :rofl:

This story will be one I'm gonna watch closely today...I want to hear Rushbo try to explain David Drier to his listeners. :rofl:

Cheers...

[Solly Mack]

11. I'm watching the "Salem Witch Trials" right this minute

and I was thinking about how little things have changed...when I saw what you wrote.

Still scapegoating people to protect ourselves, to steal...still a fearful nation...full of superstition and ignorance...so willing to harm others, to kill them, in order to defend ourselves against an imagined enemy...one promoted by government and monetary advantages ... and calling it in the interest of security

So willing to yell "witch!" to distract people from our own crimes and our own hypocrisy

So willing to yell "witch!" because of a snowball of hate and fear bred into the people for the purpose of control..and it is so much easier to let people die than it is to say "I was wrong"...because then you lose control.

[KharmaTrain]

12. This Is Playing The Emotional Card...

I think that's the term someone used in an earlier thread about Foley being Rove's Honey Pot...that this could have be a greymail or blackmail operation that is either Rove is directing or spinning out of control. Depends on your perspective.

I had heard rumors about other Repugnicans being in the closet, but not Foley...however when I saw the way he blew out of Washington last Friday, I knew there was a lot of fire to the smoke...and others did too. It was that night I started hearing the first pedophile = gay memes...some of them even showed up on here.

Yep...dare I say yelling "Gay" in the Repugnican tent is the same thing as "witch"...and it's been a wedge issue they've used to define Democrats and now are chaffing when that same wedge is applied to them. It's a big reason why Gerry Stubb's name is repeated by the hate radio spewers and the never mentional Daniel Crane who was also censured with Stubbs for raping a page (sex with an underage girl is considered rape). They avoid mentioning the long and growing list of Repugnican perverts of all shapes and sizes who have been caught with their pants or keyboards down. There's one Congressional candidate who stands accused of strangling a girl. During Clinton's inquisition, one GOOP Congresscritter, who voted to convict, was wearing a bracelet cause he had been convicted of a crime, lost his election but was able to participate in the lame duck session and pass judgement on Clinton. The temptation to play "so's your old man" with this is too easy and pointless.

The hopes here is some good old gay bashing may bring everyone together. Hastert stands down this evil plot from the gays within his party (or that's how it's portrayed) and there's a purge (just like a good Stalinist party should) of any and all "gays" that will somehow make the bible thumpers feel something's been done. How else can they spin this?

Cheers...

[Solly Mack]

13. I think it's the same too...obviously (yelling "gay"/"witch")

"The hopes here is some good old gay bashing may bring everyone together."

Yes, I agree that is what is happening.



and I mourn that it is happening

People were murdered when "witch" was yelled and people are murdered because of the deliberately fostered hate of gays

[KharmaTrain]

14. The Same As Being A Jew In Munich In 1938

Heinrich is blown up and a scapegoat is needed. The parallels to totalitarianism here are too obvious and that's alarming.

Hang in there...if this scandal means the end of a rubber stamp House of Repreentatives...chairmanships to John Conyers, subpoena power to Henry Waxman and a splintered Repugnican party, I think there's hope.

Cheers...

[Ian David]

15. Jeff Gannon will be on The Randi Rhodes Show today.

This could be interesting.