GAY REPUBLICANS ARE PUSHING AN AUTHORITARIAN TRANSVESTITE FOR THE PRESIDENCY

I'm not necessarily talking about most Republican homosexuals; they're all in the closet, loathing themselves and slowly, inexorably going insane-- you know, the Larry Craigs (R-ID), Mitch McConnells (R-KY), David Dreiers (R-CA), Mark Foleys (R-FL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), et. al. I'm talking about the out ones, the ones who may still be self loathing but aren't hiding in closets-- the Log Cabin Repugs who normally-- and for good reason-- are likened to a small handful of demented law and order Jews in early 1930s Germany who favored the Nazi Party.

Friday the tiny handful of kooks and loons who make up the Republican Party's biggest gay group, the Log Cabin Republicans, had their annual convention in Denver. Needless to say, none of the GOP presidential contenders bothered to attend-- or even send staffers... or flowers. They may be the only Republicans who love the fact that Rudy has a lifelong obsession with mimicking and dressing like women.



But some of them are getting a little wary of their Rudy, especially as he offers to throw them under any far right bus that comes tooling down the road in his quest for the psychotic extremist vote (i.e.- the Republican base that thoroughly controls their party's nominating process). Pam over at Pam's House Blend covered it better than the mainstream media. But with all the news about the Log Cabin doing the rah rah thing for Rudy, and one of the Thompsons (not the lobbyist/actor one, the ex-Wisconsin governor one) changing his mind during the Republican presidential debate about whether or not being gay was a fireable offense-- he said it was during the debate and changed his mind the next morning-- and all this talk about Democrats and moderates trying to pass a hate crimes bill that would help protect gay men and women from Republican bigotry and hatred, no one wants to talk about Butters.


Butters? Yes, Butters Stotch-- the Southpark character whose birthday is 9/11. And although Butters has always seemed a little "gay," and has even imitated the hero of 9/11 by dressing up like a woman, it wasn't until this week that his homosexuality was more fully explored on the TV show in a way that Mitch McConnell's ought to be examined before November, 2008. Even though McConnell was reportedly-- he refuses to release the records of why he was discharged-- thrown out of the army after just a few days for fondling the privates of a private, perhaps he could be cured in the same evangelical camp Butters was sent to last week.


UPDATE: AND IT ISN'T ONLY REPUBLICANS WHO WANT TO ENCOURAGE MORE GAYS TO BE MURDERED AND ABUSED

14 Democratic House members voted with the Republicans against H.R. 1592, anti-hate crimes legislation. The bill passed 237-180 (with 25 Republicans joining 212 Democrats in favor). So who were the Democrats who abandoned their party to give the signal that more Matthew Shepherd atrocities are fine with them? Well, there are a few of the regular suspects, of course, the reactionaries who vote against as much progressive legislation across the board as they can, near-Republicans like Dan Boren, Bud Cramer, Gene Taylor, Charlie Melancon, Lincoln Davis... But now some of the freshmen have come out to show their true colors-- including one, Chris Carney (PA)-- who lied to me about being in favor of gay equality. Blue America endorsed him and raised over $8,000 for him last year. The full list of the worst homophobic Democrats in the 110th Congress:

* Marion Berry (AR)
* Dan Boren (OK)
* Chris Carney (PA)
* Bud Cramer (AL)
* Lincoln Davis (TN)
* Joe Donnelly (IN)
* Brad Ellsworth (IN)
* Bart Gordon (TN)
* Mike McIntyre (NC)
* Charlie Melancon (LA)
* Collin Peterson (MN)
* Mike Ross (AR)
* Rahm Emanuel's Heath Shuler (NC)
* Gene Taylor (MS)

Interestingly, several closeted Republicans refused to oppose the bill-- Phil English (PA) and Jim McCrery (LA) actually voting with the Democrats and Denny Hastert abstaining. Dreier, the best known of the Republican closet queens in the House, voted against the Hate Crimes bill. The Republicans who voted yes were a strange combination of Northeast moderates (relative moderates) like Rodney Frelinghuysen, Michael Castle and Chris Shays and Republicans thought to be in serious jeopardy of losing their seats next year due to extreme wingnut voting records, like David Reichert (WA), Deborah Pryce (OH), Jon Porter (NV), Mark Kirk (IL), Mike Ferguson (NJ), etc.