March 11, 2008
We’re royally pissed off at Elliot Spitzer — not because he was patronizing a prostitute (or ten, or a hundred), but because by letting his little head do his thinking, he’s really screwed over gay and lesbian Americans.
Elliot Spitzer was one of the best friends American LGBTs could ask for. He’s been a longtime advocate for marriage equality, and last April introduced a same-sex marriage bill in the New York legislature — the first governor in the country to do so. Although the GOP-dominated state senate killed the bill, we were hopeful that New York would be one of the next states (competing with Rhode Island and California) to offer full, equal marriage, à la Massachusetts.
Spitzer had also promised to sign the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA).
Now it looks like we’re going to lose our best friend in the Empire State. And even if Spitzer doesn’t resign (and, really, he has to; he violated the Mann Act), his power is effectively neutered.
We don’t care a whit if Elliot Spitzer wants to pay for sex, and whatever damage he’s done to his marriage (and his relationship with his children) is his own concern. What a person does sexually, in private, is nobody’s business — unless his behavior puts a crimp in somebody else’s freedom. That includes conservatives trying to force the rest of us to live by their “moral values,” or, in Spitzer’s case, a single individual setting back the march toward LGBT equality by way of a really stupid choice he made for his own selfish pleasure. In short, Elliot Spitzer traded our freedom for the promise of a lousy orgasm.
A lousy, expensive orgasm. It’s difficult to imagine what you get for $4,300 — the price Spitzer was going to pay for a call girl named “Kristen” — but we imagine it wasn’t seven minutes in the missionary position.
Whatever Spitzer was going to get for his money, he didn’t get it. We were the ones who got screwed — without, as my dear departed father used to say, so much as a kiss.
Then, of course, there is the damage Spitzer has done to the Democratic Party, the extent of which remains to be seen. We already have a hint about the extent of the damage he’s done to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign; within minutes of the story breaking on the newswires, Barack Obama supporters on the Message Forum That Shall Remain Nameless were using the Spitzer scandal to smear Clinton. First, they somehow rationalized (if you can call this line of thought “rational”) that Clinton was tainted merely by her association with Spitzer, one of her most high-profile supporters; furthermore, they decided that this association by default cancels out Obama’s relationships with Donnie McClurkin, Kirbyjon Caldwell, and the rest of the homophobic bigots from whom Obama refuses to distance himself.
As if.
Second — and this is very real damage — the widely-circulated image of Spitzer’s wife, the silent, suffering Silda, standing by her man…
…brought the image of Hillary standing by Bill during the Monica Lewinsky scandal back into razor-sharp focus.
Literally. This is the image ABC decide to run to illustrate a piece called “Why Women Stand by Their Men“:
Counter-clockwise from upper left: Mr. and Mrs. Elliot Spitzer, Mr. and Mrs. Larry Craig, Mr. and (now ex-) Mrs. Jim McGreevey, and Mr. and Mrs. Bill Clinton.
What’s wrong with this picture? For starters, three of the four disgraced politicians are Democrats. Having researched political pecadilloes for years, I can tell you that Republicans far outnumber Democrats in the cheating department. Granted, represented are four of the most infamous sex scandals in recent memory (although it’s a stretch to call the Lewinsky scandal “recent”), but if ABC had asked for my input, I could have given them dozens of examples of humiliated wives standing by their men — from the other side of the aisle.
In any case, Clinton (Hillary, not Bill) is screwed no matter whether Spitzer resigns or not. As Peter Baker wrote in WaPo:
Spitzer has been a bad-luck charm for Hillary Clinton to this point. His illegal immigrant driver’s license proposal arguably became the first time she was thrown off her stride in this campaign. … That led to a bad patch for her that lasted all the way through the Iowa caucuses. …
Now Spitzer may throw her off stride again at a moment she needs to keep her momentum going. And on top of that, even if he does spare her by resigning soon, that has a cost too — one fewer superdelegate for her at the convention.
It’s not lost on us, by the way, that this scandal comes at the most inopportune time for Democrats — and at a very convenient time indeed for Republicans. (You’ve already forgotten all about Vicki Iseman, haven’t you?)
And it’s not lost on us that Spitzer was nailed by a federal wiretap — you know, that part of the USA Patriot Act that allows the feds to listen in on your phone calls for any half-assed reason they want (or no reason at all). It was the Bush Machine that turned the U.S. into “one nation, under surveillance” — and we knew Big Brother wasn’t going to confine wiretapping to terrorism suspects.
OK, OK, so the Spitzer hooker bust was a by-product of a “routine tax inquiry” by the IRS, and prostitution was said to be “the furthest thing from the minds of the investigators” looking into the suspicious movement of funds through Spitzer’s hands. But the timing of the emergence of a “confidential informant, a young woman who had worked previously as a prostitute for the Emperor’s Club V.I.P., the escort service that Mr. Spitzer was believed to be using” who enabled the investigators “to get a judge to approve wiretaps on the cellphones of some of those suspected of involvement in the escort service” seems awfully convenient. To the Republican Party, that is.
But, all speculation aside, what’s done is done — and what’s been done is irreversible.
As for how badly Spitzer has hurt the Democratic Party, hurt Hillary Clinton, and hurt us LGBTs — who saw in Elliot Spitzer the closest thing we had to a savior — only time will tell.
But it’s gonna hurt every last one of us.
And all because Elliot Spitzer couldn’t keep his penis in his pants.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Permalink
|
Trackback
|
Category:
Barack Obama,
Bill Clinton,
Corruption,
Crime,
Democrats,
Donnie McClurkin,
Election 2008,
George W. Bush,
Hillary Clinton,
Homeland Insecurity,
Jim McGreevey,
Larry Craig,
Marriage Equality,
New York,
Republican Sexcapades,
Republicans
January 12, 2008
…for Dickheads of the Year (Maher’s “picks for the biggest assholes of 2007″), we’ll never know. But Maher is so spot-on, and entertaining, it’s a must-see (and a must-pass-along). A few of our favorite lines:
Blackwater despot Erik Prince: “…a super-Christy Jesus freak who looks on the Crusades the way rednecks pine for the Confederacy.”
Crandall Canyon Mine owner Bob Murray: “The fat-ass, lying embodiment of the Bush administration’s regulatory policies.”
Senator Larry “Wide Stance” Craig: “Don’t people like Larry Craig and Ted Haggard and Mark Foley prove that being gay really is a hard-wired thing — not, as the conservatives always claim, a ‘lifestyle choice‘? If anyone could choose not to have gay sex, it would be these guys, since their whole careers are built on not having gay sex.”
Senator David Vitter, diaper-wearing hooker’s john: “Caught dead to rights as a customer of the D.C. Madam, and explained it away by saying, ‘Several years ago I received forgiveness from God in confession.’ Oh, well, all righty then, it’s all good, then you’re obviously not a disgusting, horrible hypocrite who runs on family values and then fucks whores at home and in Washington.”
College Republicans: “…cutthroat, amoral putzes like Karl Rove… Doughy losers who, at age twenty, care more about tax cuts than girls.”
Bush’s Attorney General du jour, Michael Mukasey: “Kind of makes you miss those innocent days when Gonzales just couldn’t recall.”
Rudy Giuliani: “Rudy says if a Democrat is elected in 2008, we’ll be at risk of another 9/11, because… he was mayor of New York when they attacked the World Trade Center the first time? His slogan should be ‘Not on my watch… again.’”
Much, much more at the link, and well worth the click.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Permalink
|
Trackback
|
Category:
Celebrities,
David Vitter,
Democrats,
Gay Republicans,
George W. Bush,
Humor,
Karl Rove,
Larry Craig,
Radical Religious Right,
Republican Sexcapades,
Republicans,
September 11
October 8, 2007
Sen. Larry Craig chosen for Idaho Hall of Fame
Sen. Larry Craig has been chosen for induction into the Idaho Hall of Fame, despite his well-publicized arrest and guilty plea in an airport sex sting, officials said.
The nonprofit Idaho Hall of Fame Association picked Craig in March, months before he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after a Minneapolis airport police officer accused him of soliciting sex in the men’s restroom, the organization’s board chairman said.
“Larry Craig has made a great contribution to Idaho over the period of 20-some years. At the time it was considered, this other matter had not come up,” Harry Magnuson told The Spokesman-Review newspaper Saturday.
But some Republicans said the honor is inappropriate now. Kootenai County Republican precinct committeeman Phil Thompson said Idaho Hall of Fame officials should consider at least postponing the induction.
“Maybe in 10 or 15 years we can think of this hall of fame stuff. Now is not the time,” he said. “It’s a sad day to be a Republican.”
Discuss this story
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Permalink
|
Trackback
|
Category:
Idaho,
Larry Craig,
Republican Sexcapades
September 28, 2007
Our suggestion.
|
|
New Stalls for Craig’s Airport Restroom
MINNEAPOLIS - The infamous airport men’s room where Sen. Larry Craig was arrested is getting new stall dividers that drop nearly to the floor to make it a less inviting spot for sexual liaisons.
Web sites had touted that restroom as a popular site for sex with strangers, and police reports over the summer described several cases of men ducking their heads under the dividers into adjoining stalls, allegedly in search of sex.
On June 11, an undercover police officer was the men’s room when Craig allegedly tapped his feet and swiped his hand under the divider in a way authorities said was a signal for someone wanted sex.
. . .
The Minneapolis airport has more than 80 restrooms, but only two are being targeted for the new dividers, including the one now known for Craig’s arrest.
“These two have been the most problematic in terms of complaints from people and indications on Web sites that sexual activities are occurring in them,” said airport spokesman Patrick Hogan. He said the dividers would be installed within the next two months.
. . .
The new stall dividers will fall to just 2 to 3 inches above the floor, instead of leaving as much as a foot of open space as they do now. The airport expects to spend $25,000; installing them in every restroom there would cost about $1 million, Hogan said.
Discuss this story
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Permalink
|
Trackback
|
Category:
Larry Craig,
Minnesota,
Random Stupidity
September 26, 2007
Like you didn’t see this coming. From SFGate:
Sen. Larry Craig said he hopes that his guilty plea in an airport sex sting will be rescinded by a court in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
The first step in the process of wiping away that plea, however, has nothing to do with whether an undercover policeman misunderstood Craig’s actions in a bathroom stall at the Minneapolis airport. Instead, it’s all about whether Craig’s attorneys can convince Judge Charles Porter that the Idaho senator’s plea was a mistake.
“He’s already gotten lots of justice and fairness,” said Mary Jane Morrison, a professor in criminal law at Hamline University. “A court will view this as taking not just a second bite at the apple, but a fourth and fifth bite. Because he had the right to refuse to plead in the first place, and put the state to its proof. He had the right to have an attorney help him figure out what was in his best interest.”
Craig won’t be attending the hearing, according to Judy Smith, a spokeswoman for Craig attorney Billy Martin. Stopping briefly to speak to reporters as he left his home in the Washington area early Wednesday, Craig said he hoped the judge would “allow me to prove my innocence.”
. . .Craig announced that he intends to resign from the Senate on Sept. 30, but a spokesman has said there is a slight chance he may keep his seat if he can withdraw his plea.
Discuss this story
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Permalink
|
Trackback
|
Category:
Crime,
Idaho,
Larry Craig,
Minnesota,
Republican Sexcapades
September 17, 2007
Reports 365Gay.com:
The American Civil Liberties Union says that Sen. Larry Craig should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea because “the secret sting operation used to arrest him was likely unconstitutional.”
The ACLU submitted a friend-of-the-court brief to a Minnesota District Court on Monday urging it to allow Craig to withdraw the guilty plea.
. . .
When free speech rights come into play, police enforcement actions must be “carefully crafted” so that they don’t unnecessarily ensnare people who are engaging in constitutionally protected speech, the brief states.
The secret sting operation used by the police to arrest Senator Craig was not “carefully crafted” to avoid ensnaring innocent speech, said the ACLU.
. . .
“Senator Craig has not always been a great friend of civil liberties, but you shouldn’t have to endorse the civil liberties of others to keep your own…
“Government should make public restrooms safe for all, but it should do so in a manner that is really designed to stop inappropriate behavior, rather than destroying the lives of people who might have no intention of doing anything illegal.”
Stings suck (can you say “entrapment?”), but we’re more concerned about airport cops focusing on dirty old (water-)closet cases, when they should be looking for — what are they called again? — oh, yeah… terrorists. We also have no love for Larry, that right-wing, gay-bashing hypocrite, but we’re having a very difficult time understanding how a stupid old putz in a men’s room warrants more attention than looking for people who might present a real threat to airport security.
Discuss this story
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Permalink
|
Trackback
|
Category:
Larry Craig,
Law Enforcement,
Republican Sexcapades
September 10, 2007
Sex sting senator to change plea
Senator Larry Craig pleaded guilty in August to disorderly conduct following a sting operation in a men’s bathroom at the Minneapolis airport.
He has said he regrets that decision made hastily and without talking to a lawyer. He said he was under stress and pleaded guilty only to put the matter behind him.
Lawyer William Martin said today a request to withdraw that plea would be filed tomorrow. Such requests are rarely granted. Martin would not discuss the argument he planned to make in court.
Martin said he was not involved in discussions about Craig’s future in the Senate. Craig originally announced he would resign at the end of the month, then said he was reconsidering that decision. His chief spokesman later said Craig had dropped virtually all notions of trying to finish his third term.
“My job is to get him back to where he was before his rights were taken away,” Martin said.
Craig’s congressional spokesman has said the only way that Craig is likely to remain in the Senate is if a court moves quickly to overturn the conviction, something that is unlikely to happen before the end of the month.
Discuss this story
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Permalink
|
Trackback
|
Category:
Crime,
Idaho,
Larry Craig,
Law Enforcement,
Minnesota,
Republican Sexcapades
Phelps to Picket Sen. Craig
Senator Larry Craig has come under fire for hypocrisy from the GLBT community; the Idaho Republican, who has a long record of voting against GLBT Americans, was arrested, then pled guilty to, lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport mens’ room sex sting operation. But now Craig has come under fire from an entirely new quarter: the church of right-fringe anti-gay reverend Fred Phelps.
In a press release dated Aug. 28, Westboro Baptist Church, located in Topeka, Kansas, exhorted followers to “Thank God for revealing a bit of truth about Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho; and, by a logical extension [sic], about the United States Congress.”
Said the church’s press release… “Every member of Congress is either a fag or a fag-enabler. God Almighty has now drawn back the curtain of hypocrisy and lies for all the world to see how fags and fag-enablers run the government at every level–starting at the top.”
. . .
The press release went on to say that the church would picket Senator Craig’s offices in Boise and in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 10 and Sept. 11, respectively, “in religious protest and warning” with the message that, “God Hates Fags! & Fag-Enablers! Ergo, God hates Sen. Craig, and ldaho, and America.”
Let’s pray/chant/hope for a long, happy life for Fred Phelps and his Moronical Mystery Tour — he’s the best advertisement against fundy insanity we could ever hope for, and if he didn’t exist, we’d have to invent him.
Discuss this story
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Permalink
|
Trackback
|
Category:
Fred Phelps,
Hate Speech,
Idaho,
Larry Craig
