Just Say Yes

Too bad Moliere, or some modern rendition of him, isn't around to gloat about the endless onslaught of hypocrisy that is reeking from the Republican congressional delegation. The mind boggles at every new revelation, and it's hard to keep track any more. Granted, politicians by nature speak with forked tongue (and apparently do other nasty things with their tongues as well). The latest brouhaha, over the solicitation citation bedeviling Idaho senator Larry Craig, is just another in a tiresome series of events, unremarkable in itself but part of a cumulative cavalcade of hypocritical malfeasance.

Now I have issues with the nature of the arrest. It does seem to have been a form of entrapment, though Craig's protestations of innocence, as heard on the officer's tape, are not very convincing. That police manpower--and I use this term loosely--is used on this pointless "moralistic" crusade against what is, essentially, a victimless "crime," is problematic in itself. I wonder what kind of voyeuristic and sexual glee the entrapping officer gets from tempting his prey, then handcuffing them. What a tease! And hey--aren't real crimes actually happening in St. Paul? Don't they have some egregious marijuana smokers to imprison?

The most salient comment I've read about the Craig affair is that he is the victim of the marginalizing of a minority that he is guilty of perpetrating, though his vocal anti-gay stances. If gays weren't forced into uncomfortable liaisons by popular prejudices reinforced by puritanical politicans, then maybe the men's room would be safe for tap-free defecation. There's some satisfaction in this, I suppose.

But it's a truth generally accepted that most real homophobes have a bit of the gay tendency in themselves, and project out at others rather than wallow in self-hate. Most heteros who are satisfied in their sexual skin don't give a damn about the variations of others. Except of course for the religious fanatics, doing their cruel evil shit again, falling back on Leviticus as though there is actually some relevance to the ranting of a three-thousand year old crank. These are the people to whom Larry Craig owes his job and his current situation. No sympathy anywhere here from me.

Everyone's sexual inclinations are varied and should be private, no business but to themselves, but the sanctimonious Republican right just has to pontificate, and thereby hangs the perfidy. And the ramifications are so obvious. They attack Bill Clinton for his marital infidelity while both Robert Livingston and Newt Gingrich, successive House speakers, are boinking on the side as well. Livingston had to resign when that was revealed. What did he think would happen? Schmuck.

One wonders what would happen if a Republican congressman actually came out as gay, as someone like Barney Frank did on the Democrat side. By putting his true self out there Frank became impervious to political sexual blackmail, even when it was revealed that he was harboring a call boy. You see, Frank was not a hypocrite. He was honest. Honestly. And he's still in Congress, doing very well.

I am glad though, that as of this moment, Larry Craig has reneged on his initial urge to quit in shame. He won't run again, obviously, but in staying in office he can at least make the statement that neither being gay, nor being caught in flagrant delicto, are grounds for resignation. Our nation has to get off its problems with consensual sexual activity of any nature between adults. The War goes on, Global Warming has baked Southern California and spawned massive hurricanes, but the country is still gaga over a potential hand job in a Minnesota commode.