One aspect of the corruption and bribery mega-scandal shaking Washington that is swirling around conservative lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and which hasn't gotten much mass media attention: how a lot of dough from Abramoff-controlled slush funds went to leading homophobes from the religious right.
Abramoff did more than hire anti-gay luminaries as Rev. Lou Sheldon (head of the Traditional Values Coalition) and Ralph Reed (former head of the Christian Coalition) with money from Abramoff's clients and front groups to lobby for special interests. Abramoff also funded an anti-gay group close to the lobbyist's best buddy and biggest water-carrier, Rep. Tom Delay -- the U.S. Family Network -- with laundered money that has been traced to Russian oil interests.
Let's start with Rev. Sheldon. He's such a professional anti-gay wacko that even conservative pundit Tucker Carlson has denounced him for it. In a Jan. 4 column Carlson wrote for MSNBC's website, Carlson recounted an interview he had with Sheldon, who told him, "You want to know what the single biggest problem facing inner-city black neighborhoods is? Homosexuality."
Carlson's reaction: "Homosexuality was the biggest problem in the inner cities? Bigger than crime? And unemployment? And poverty? And broken families? And AIDS?... Nope, there was no way around it. What the Reverend Lou had said was bizarre. And creepy too."
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