The fault lies not in our stars


Stars: “I am not gay, I have never been gay.”

One of the major tenets of conservative thought, a perfectly legitimate one, is that people should be responsible for their own lives. And yet, one of the major tenets of the conservatives in Washington today is that nothing is their fault and they never do anything wrong, even when, especially when, there is overwhelming evidence that it is and they have. Pushing this example to its most absurd extreme, Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho), a major opponent of gay-rights legislation, claims that an Idaho newspaper is to blame for his actions in a Minnesota airport men’s room.

How this works I’m not exactly sure.  A newspaper devotes column space to trying to prove you’re gay, so you, understandably distracted and anxious about this crisis, proposition a cop in an airport men’s room?  Then, when you’re arrested for this behavior, instead of saying “no, wait, this is all a misunderstanding, and it’s ironic that this has happened, because, oddly enough, there’s this newspaper in Idaho that keeps saying that I do things exactly like this all the time, and I’ve been very distracted and anxious about that,” instead of saying that, you say “I am guilty as charged and I hope this ends the matter.”  Damn those Idaho newspapers!  They get our highest elected officials into the most awkward situations!  How do they do that?

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Comments

5 Responses to “The fault lies not in our stars”
  1. ghostgecko says:

    We were laughing at that at work today. The best part was the heckler who shouted, “What if you WERE gay?” as he left.

  2. mr_noy says:

    For years the Republicans have told us that they want to “reach across the aisle.” Finally, one of them does exactly that and he gets arrested. That’s democracy for you!

    • mikeyed says:

      I never realized that democracy had extended itself into the men’s bathroom

      this comment deserves to receive the “Best Gay Republican Joke Comment Made Ever” award.

  3. rojagato says:

    What has me shaking my head about Craig’s accusations against the Statesman is that this aspect of the story keeps being amplified without the clarification that the Statesman was probably the only news outlet that was not hounding him.

    Prior to the Roll Call article last Monday, they had interviewed Craig as part of an effort to substantiate accusations by Mike Rogers, but did not go to print with a story as their only credible source regarding Craig’s prior cottaging behavior had insisted on anonymity. As far as recent reporting, that was it until Roll Call reported the guilty plea regarding the airport incident.

    The Statesmen did dutifully report, at the time, on Craig’s out-of-proportion response to the page scandal of 1982 (in which Craig was the only Senator who saw fit to issue press releases asserting that HE WAS NOT GAY, when no one specifically was being accused at the time by the two prevaricating pages), but Craig made his own news with that one.

    Anyway, not only is Craig blaming others for his problems, but he is is totally making up the things that the others did to drive him to his sorry state.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Especially difficult as there are only 1 daily paper (The Idaho Statesman) and 1 alternative paper (Boise Weekly) in town.