I read those Village Voice articles and everything about them got my radar pricked.
Also, I saw Wead on Anderson Cooper the other night, and knowing absolutely nothing about him, it struck me that he was gay. I don't know if it was because he was wearing makeup, the tone of his voice, the way he leaned into Anderson Cooper (openly gay) or what it was, but all my instincts told me he was homosexual.
The VV articles
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/ made me even more certain of this. Why? Because of his being able to put his finger on using gay issues as a political wedge. Who, other than a gay person himself, really could understand the virulence and rancour of the anti-homosexual crowd? I think there are a number of higher ups at the White House right now who understand this equally well.
This ties in to the Gannon/Guckert thing as well. To deflect attention from a creeping scandal that might burst open the whole gay culture in upper-level Republican circles, whom do they use to distract? A person who seems to be fervently religious, who is creepily "spiritual", and who has made the gay issue an agenda of his own.
Do these people just hate themselves or are they so power hungry and greedy for wealth that they will stop at nothing? Or, is it more titillating for them to participate in activities that are forbidden, if not legally, then implicitly by their public words?
It really struck me today for the first time that the reason Mehlman et al were so hyper-aware of the visceral reaction gay ballot initiatives would get is that they themselves are more sensitive to it than heterosexuals might be. I grew up in a small town with very few Catholics and was hyper-aware of criticism directed to Catholics. Protestants who grew up with me noticed no such thing.
Anyway, this post is based on intuition, not knowledge, but there is something odd going on.