Plato: "The Measure Of A Man Is What He Does With Power"

Out specializes in lists-- the 100 this and the 20 that. Every few months they have a list. It must sell issues. The new one has the The Power 50 of 2013. "Welcome," they write, "to our 7th annual ranked list of the gay men and women whose power and prestige is instrumental in influencing the way Americans think about, and engage with, the world." And although Apple CEO Tim Cook is #1 again this year-- don't ask me; I have no idea-- there are quite a few more political figures on the list than usual... even without the now retired Barney Frank.

Rachel Maddow moves up to #4-- between TV show maker Ryan Murphy (Glee and The New Normal) and Anderson Cooper-- but the highest entry for a newcomer is NY Times columnist and statistician Nate Silver at #6, as gay as... Tim Cook.

Haters gonna hate-- but that didn’t stop the wunderkind statistician from prognosticating the 2012 presidential election with, at final count, 100% percent accuracy on his New York Times blog, FiveThirtyEight. As a result, on the day after the election, Silver’s book, The Signal and the Noise, skyrocketed in sales, hitting number 2 on the Amazon bestseller list. The numbers nerd is currently planning his next move, while continuing to apply his data-driven model to everything from the Oscars to the Super Bowl.

This year's highest rated politician per se is the freshman senator from Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin at #9.

She shattered a glass ceiling when she became the first openly gay senator elected in U.S. history. Although a junior senator, Baldwin previously served as a congresswoman representing Wisconsin from 1993–2013. Asked on the campaign trail what it would mean for her to win, Baldwin replied, “When you’re not in the room, the conversation is about you. When you’re in the room, the conversation is with you.”

They lump 3 congressmen together at #15-- Mark Takano (D-CA), David Cicilline (D-RI) and Jared Polis (D-CO):

These three statesmen are the real deal in the new gay-friendly climate on Capitol Hill.

A freshman congressman, Takano (D-California) joined the House this term as its first openly gay, non-white member.

Cicilline (D-Rhode Island) won re-election this November in a heated race.

A co-chairman of the LGBT Equality Caucus, Polis (D-Colorado) cosponsored and helped pass a version of the Violence Against Women Act, updated to protect LGBT women.

Also on this year's list are New York City Council Speaker, and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn, Republican Party strategist Ken Mehlman, Houston Mayor Annise Parker, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry (nope, I didn't know either), as well as plenty of media figures, from Matt Drudge, Kevin McClatchy, and Andrew Sullivan to Perez Hilton. Is Drudge out? His wikipedia page sure doesn't mention he is, only that "[b]y early 2009, Drudge earned millions of dollars a year, travelled extensively (Israel, Las Vegas, Geneva), had moved to another property in Miami and become reclusive, communicating regularly only with a select group that included Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Andrew Breitbart."

So if Out is outing closet cases, what about politicians like Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and Aaron Schock (R-IL), the ones who barely try to hide it when they're outside of their own districts any longer?