The relevence of Santorum's gay aide

[dsc]

As anyone who has read threads on outing here will attest I am virtually always against the practice. Even here, I am not totally sure it was warrented, but according to the aide, he was an out gay. So I am not sure this is outing in the usual sense.

But now that we do know, it provides a window into hypocracy, not his, but Santorum's. Santorum is crystal clear in his views on gays. He considers us immoral people on par with rapers of animals, cheating spouses, and bigamists.

Yet as his public face, he employs someone he knows to be a gay man (assuming that the man isn't lying now about having been out to Santorum). Santorum can't have it both ways. Either gays are immoral, ruiners of society or we aren't. Either we are fit to be citizens of this country or we aren't. Either we should go to jail for our private conduct, that was the context of this statement, or we shouldn't. There is no such thing as being a little bit immoral, or a slight ruiner of society.

If Santorum really feels gays are immoral and not to be trusted, then he wouldn't have such a high ranking gay aide. Thus we are left with the option that he doesn't believe what he says. That makes him even more dangerous. People interested in power for power's sake, which is the only real option here, are actually far worse for democracy than a person who believes even bad ideas. The first class knows no bounds of behavior when consolidating power, while the second does.

Santorum isn't just a hypocrite, he is a hypocrite with some power who wants a lot more. I liked him better when he was a bigot, and that is saying alot.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. The vast majority of bigots are ignorant hypocrites.

When it comes down to their own personal lives they have no real principles. They just spout them for public consumption. Look at Jesse Helms for a good example. Need I list all the loud-mouthed anti-gay proclaimers who have turned out to be secret homosexuals?
Scratch the surface of every bigot and you will find a hypocrite.

[dsc]

3. Jesse Helms wasn't gay

and to my knowledge his only gay employee that he knew about was Finkelstein. Armestead Maulpin worked for Helms but was closeted when he did.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. I was using him as an example of a hypocrite. He was pro-segregation

his entire life and yet had fathered a child with a black woman. Hypocrites come in all sizes and colors, not just closeted gays. :)
I wish I had $10 for every pro-life zealot who has paid for a girlfriend's abortion.

EDIT: Look at all those "family values" hypocrites that are into their third and fourth marriages...

Hypocrisy comes in many varieties, not only sexual orientation.

[dsc]

10. That would be Strom Thurmond

[BrklynLiberal]

26. oooooooooooops. Sorry. Guess it was way past my bedtime.

I guess I have trouble telling bigoted old white Southerners apart..

:silly:

[dsc]

27. Helms, for all of his many faults, actually walked the walk

I would never vote for the man, but I will give him the fact that he didn't get corrupted by Washington, nor did he sell out his views. He also, by all accounts, remained faithful to his wife of many, many years. That doesn't make him less of a bigot but it does make him not a hypocrite.

[Booster]

2. I think Santorum is a latent gay. He's just too hung up on it.

[FreedomAngel82]

4. Of course

he's a hypocrite. It's nothing new with these people.

[dsc]

5. actually I thought he was a true believer

though I hadn't realized he wasn't pro life before having run for the Senate.

[Gardeaux08]

7. Wow....

I have a friend who was an intern in Santorum's office yeas ago who is also gay.

[Disturbed]

8. He is a Hypocrite.

All the shit he says is just his spiel.

[Tommymac]

9. What troubles me, is how

could the aide work for someone like Santorum? If he is talented, he could latch on with anyone he wanted too...why support someone who is antagonistic to who you are as a person...whether it is a front or just a stance (I beleive Ricky is dead serious, btw, - he is a loon)the results are the same. How can he enable Ricky?

[mitchum]

13. Because the aide is a house queen

[Tommymac]

16. I don't understand what you mean.

Seriously. Can you explain?

[mitchum]

18. It's a variation on the antbellum expression "house n****r"...

a slave who worked in the big house rather than toling in the fields.
Harry Belafonte refered to Rice and Powell as playing this role in the bush administration.

As far as I know, I coined the term "house queen", but feel free to spread it far and wide. Because it is apt.

[Tommymac]

23. LOL.

But I would welcome any serious speculation on the guys motivations.

As you know, here in Pa we are going to be unseating the Rickster next year....and we must have good ammo to challenge this puke - if his aide comes out and says Ricky is a wonderful guy, we need to know where he is coming from so we can effectively rebut it.

I want to get beyond name calling here - I know, hard for me to do as I am one of the worst when it comes to piling on dear Ricky - and start gathering stuff we can use against him. The western PA area has a lot of very homophobic people...this issue will not play well here for Ricky.

[Obamarama]

Will this be the other shoe to drop????

We find out that he's gay, he's out, BUT he's celibate? Santorum is Catholic, so that would go with "church teachings" (aka PROPAGANDA).

[dsc]

12. He certainly isn't celibate as he is married

and he isn't chaste as he has children.

[Obamarama]

15. I meant the aide, not Santorum.

I can see now I didn't make it very clear in my original post. Sorry, I made that entry sans-coffee, so my synapses weren't all firing at once.

What I meant, will the other shoe to drop be the revelation that Santorum's aide is celibate, in which case in Santorum's eyes everything would be honeky-dorey. Since the most recently deceased pope declared gays aren't evil as long as they remain celibate (the man should have given that memo to his own priesthood, n'st pas?!), then Santorum would theoretically be okay having an out gay staffer if said staffer was chaste.

Either that or the guy is soon to be a graduate of an ex-gay program.

I just don't think it's as cut-and-dried as "Santorum has an openly gay staffer," without there being some other underlying thread of Republican Christo-fascist propaganda.

[dsc]

21. Sorry I should have realized that

He describes himself as an out gay man but that doesn't preclude chasity.

[Obamarama]

11. delete

My post "double-posted" so am deleting the dupe!

[Deja Q]

14. People in power ALWAYS want it both ways. And we are

damned if we do, damned if we don't.

[dajoki]

17. how long has the aide been with santorum?

just wondering because we all know little ricky's true beliefs. he could possibly be using him(to show some on the left he's not to be feared) although i can't see anyone falling for it.

[dsc]

22. 8 years

[Jara sang]

19. Was it Santorum that made the Box turtle comment?

I have trouble keeping track of all the bigotry. I'm sure Santorum knows about his aide being gay, I'm sure that it merely, conveniently "never comes up", if it does Santorum I'm sure dismisses his stance against homosexuality to the person by saying stuff like, "I don't mean you..." and "That's just my public face..."

[Jade Fox]

20. The Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts....

wrote one of the best things I've read about the bizarre hypocrisy of
R-wingers when writing about Mayor of Spokane Jim West.
I've been trying to ge a link, but I'm having trouble with the Miami
Herald website. Check it out, if you haven't, and can get into the
Herald website to pick up the Pitts column.

My memory of what Pitts said was that the Wingnuts make this twisted
distinction between public gayness, and private gayness. In their
minds its okay to be gay, as long as you do it secretly and shamefully.
The problem, according to this logic, is when gay people want to be open
and excepted.

I think Pitts is correct, but it also gets clearer all the time that
homophobia is just a useful wedge issue to a lot of Republicans.
Their political homophobia has nothing to do with their personal
conduct or beliefs.

[Karenina]

25. Roy Cohns

I cringe when people, such as this aide, are referred to as "gay." They are NOT gay in the sense of our family, neighbors and garden variety friends who teach children, design interiors, drive the bus, play football or WHATEVER. I challenge anyone to look at the L-O-N-G list of Republican "outed" Roy Cohns. There is a very sick manifestation that has ZIP to do with sexual preference. It's about authority, control, manipulation, power and dominance. The "rules" don't apply.

Wilhelm Reich's writings are a good place to start if you want to understand the distinction.

[devilgrrl]

24. People should start pointing out that the GOP...

only use "wedge issues" to win elections, and that they really don't care about abortion or homosexuality.