DAVID DREIER (R-CA) COMES OUT OF THE CLOSET ABOUT WHY HE HEARTS RUDY

In the last few weeks DWT has looked into the question of what the Republican closet queens contingent will be doing about the '08 presidential race. At a recent panel discussion I was on, one participant, a friend of Drudge's, abandoned his lionizing of icons Anna Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton to wax semi-eloquent about the attributes of Mitt Romney's rugged good looks and penis. (I had no idea-- and I'm sure you didn't either-- but apparently on the furthest reaches of the far gay right the dimensions of Mitt's member are under as intense contemplation as are the attributes of Anna Nicole's breasts and whatever it is people attribute to Ms. Hilton. I was assured that if I would only run a photo, DWT traffic would explode.)

Louisiana gay blade (hysterically closeted, of course; even married his secretary after getting caught in the act a few years back) Jimmy McCrery didn't have to wait for no stinkin' picture of Mitt's thing to sign on. This man, like many Republicans, is consumed with Faith. But Giuliani, who may not be gay-- or as endowed as Romney is supposed to be-- but would certainly be the first transvestite to live in the White House were he to be elected, has landed an even bigger gay fish than McCrery. California's gayest closet case, Rep. David Dreier, has come out for Rudy. We already knew that, of course. But on Friday, he explained why he's on Rudy's team. And it wasn't because of Giuliani's sartorial prowess.

He told MSNBC GOP propagandist Tucker Carlson that "This really comes down to one simple and basic thing, and I can really put it in what I would call a congressional bumper sticker. ...Rudy Giuliani, the man who got rid of those squeegee guys at 51st and Lexington. ...If he could do that, we know he can win the war on terror." We do? Oh, maybe the "we" only includes people like Tucker and Dreier, not normal Americans who take this kind of thing a bit more... seriously.

Actually some right wingers are taking this whole thing more seriously too and they're fed up seeing a small handful of Republicans starting to come to their senses after 6 years of Bush's neverneverland. Far right fanatic Hugh Hewitt is thundering over there that he's going to get primary challenges going against all the Republicans who voted with the Democrats (and 70% of the American people) to ask Bush to reconsider further escalating his Iraq catastrophe. They even started a website to start collecting money to challenge Republicans like Florida Republican Ric Keller who voted against Bush last week. By 2025, if things pick up a bit, they may raise $75.00.

Hewitt calls the non-comatose Republicans "The GOP Surrender Caucus" and he and his fellow far right bloggers are on the warpath against, aside from Keller, Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), James Walsh (R-NY), Walter Jones (R-NC), Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), Michael Castle (R-DE), Philip English (R-PA), Ronald Paul (R-TX), Frederick Upton (R-MI), Thomas Davis (R-VA), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Howard Coble (R-NC), John Duncan (R-TN), James Ramstad (R-MN), and Steven LaTourette (R-OH). Perhaps the DCCC could help them along, especially with destined-for-defeat Republicans like Kirk, LaTourette, Davis, English, and Walsh.

Hewitt published an e-mail to Keller from a right-wing nut purporting to live in his district: "Your pandering to short term, media driven, popular opinion does not win any points with educated and thinking constituents like myself. I will under no circumstances cast a vote to send you back to congress in 2008 and very much look forward to supporting a primary challenger to supplant you. I have never spent a dime to support a political candidate, but I definitely will now-- for your future opponent." Let's just hope he represents a groundswell of loons and isn't just one lone nut.