Homosexuality in American politics.

This week we are offered further proof by the Idaho Statesman that, contrary to his claims that he is not Gay, Republican Larry Craig has had a number of liaisons with other men. Then, on the front page of the Sunday Times online is an article pointing out that the biggest news regarding Condelezza Rice is not that she is orchestrating the Arab - Israeli peace talks in Annapolis, MD., but the rumors that she is a closet Lesbian.

On the Democratic side, well-known homosexual Congressman Barney Frank recently told Charley Rose that being homosexual causes him no political problems at all as he functions in Congress as current chairman of the Financial Services Committee. In fact he said, it is normally that case that he has to remind those he is working with that he is a homosexual. It is of that little consequence.

This is a problem unique to the Republican Party. It centers on their exploitation of religious hatred of homosexuals in order to get elected to office, followed by the hypocrisy of either going home and practicing the very behavior they attempt to criminalize, or as was the case when Republican Congressman Mark Foley was exposed as a closeted homosexual preying on Congressional Pages, Foley's homosexuality was well known in the Republican Party and concealed by them.

In fact, the Republican hypocrisy on homosexuality is is made starkly clear by the efforts of then Congressman Larry Craig as he attempted to have Congressman Frank expelled from the House or censured because Congressman Frank had unknowingly rented his basement to a homosexual prostitute to had run a prostitution ring.

Think about it - would you rather have a meal with the witty and interesting Barney Frank or with the undistinguished and sad Sen. Larry Craig? And why should questions of Condi Rice's sexuality be of any importance at all as she attempts to once again bring peace the Arabs and the Jews who have spent over half a century fighting about Jerusalem?

Don't give me the crap about homosexuals attempting to recruit children to their lifestyle. That fiction is a fig leaf designed to conceal the true hatred that those who espouse it carry with them. No one in their right mind would choose to be pilloried as it done to homosexuals in our society. But even if it were true, the laws the Republicans are attempting to pass declare that the crime is to be homosexual, not to recruit children. They are laws designed to declare someone a criminal for what they are, not what they do. Fortunately, our society is outgrowing that primitive, hate based fear of others who are different.

The hypocrisy of the conservatives works in the short term to build turnout and draw votes in the heat of a political campaign, but in the long run, has been furiously building 'blowback' for the hypocritical Republican Party and for conservatives.