MSM Fuels Fears of Anti-Gay Backlash in the Republican Party
Terry Trippany on Oct 09 2006 at 11:00 am | Filed under: Election 2006, Feature Article, Media Watch, Political Beat
In case you haven’t been paying attention a new theme has emerged in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal. Democrats and their liberal accomplices in the main stream media are beating the drum of a looming gay backlash on Capital Hill.
This is by design as coincidences in the world of political mudslinging are few and far between. Thus you have the likes of Barney Frank giving interviews to Advocate.com where he compared gay Republicans on capital hill to “secret Jews”. Thus the victimization of the group is established as a sort of contextual background for the emerging contrivance.
Rep. Frank planted the seed in a web and print magazine on October 2nd that would be relatively out of the limelight of mainstream America. In what is billed as an Advocate.com exclusive Rep. Franks stated that the Foley scandal will result in a purge of gays from the Republican Party.
What do you think was the role of gay Republicans in all this?
Apparently, Kirk Fordham, Foley’s ex–chief of staff and Rep. Thomas Reynolds’s chief of staff, is a very active gay Republican [and] also had some role in the hush-up. [As of Wednesday, Fordham is no longer on Reynolds's staff.] There are others who were involved that I can’t mention since they aren’t out. They are all more like secret Jews.
How do the gay Republicans reconcile their consciences?
A lot of them chose between their gayness and their party. I’m sure the group of gay Republican staffers hid Foley’s actions as best they could.
This is a real crisis, since before, gays in the Republican Party were willing to be tolerated, but Republicans will now be more nervous having gay people in positions of power. They have been critical of people who are out and gay—there could be a real purge of gays in the Republican Party now. It’s probably just enough for people to be perceived to be gay.
Rep. Frank also expanded on his perception that gays on capital hill have become more closeted since Republicans took over.
While Advocate.com may be out of the mainstream limelight others aren’t. Perhaps following the lead of Rep. Franks, or simply following the agenda of Democrat politics, liberal media outlets are running with the same message.
The LA Times ran an article on October 6th titled “Path is Risky for GOP Republicans“.
Gays hold many prominent positions in government and business in Washington. But in the GOP ranks, homosexuality is still politically risky. In fact, with the exception of the military, perhaps no institution in America has as strong a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach as the Republican Party.
It is no surprise that the New York Times followed suit with the exact same message in their article on how the Foley Case is upsetting the balance of gay Republicans.
“There’s been a change from 20 years ago when people used to be hyperconscious of staying in the closet,” said Steve Elmendorf, an openly gay Democratic strategist who was the chief aide to former Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, who served as the Democratic leader. “Now there’s more of an evolution to a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ rule.”
But it is not simply the implication that gays must maintain a secret identity in the GOP. The developing theme is about the implied backlash. Once again liberal advocates are furthering their agenda based on victimization and fear.
Accordingly, the liberally inclined MSM is also helping further the claims of the much hated and prescient Ann Coulter by grafting this fear on the backs of a politically protected segment of society. While gays are meant to fear the backlash of the Mark Foley scandal, Republicans are unable to defend themselves against this blatant attack for fear of being called a gay basher.
Worse though, any investigation of the Mark Foley scandal is immediately going to be scrutinized as a witch hunt and a purge of gays by Republicans. So if in fact it turns out to be a gay individual who hates Republicans that was involved in the timing of the Mike Foley scandal would that investigation be allowed under this premise?
Actually the New York Times is already answering that question.
Conservative blogs and Web sites pointed out that gay staff members played principal roles in investigating the Foley case, suggesting that the party was betrayed by gay men trying to hide misconduct by one of their own. In the meantime, a group of gay activists, angered by what they see as hypocrisy by gay Republicans, have begun circulating a document known as The List, a roster of gay Congressional staff members and their Republican bosses.
“You can see where it would be easy for some people to blame gays for something that might bring down the party in Congress,” said Brian Bennett, a gay Republican political consultant. He was a longtime chief of staff to former Representative Robert K. Dornan, Republican of California, who regularly referred to gays as Sodomites.
“I’m just waiting for someone in a position of authority to make this a gay issue,” Mr. Bennett said of the Foley case.
Isn’t it ironic that Bennett is wringing his hands over this becoming a gay issue in an article that is designed to make it a gay issue? More incredible is that the New York Times mentions “The List” as if it is some small little side stage event in this whole story when in fact it is “the story”.
It appears that many roads lead to this list and gay anti-Republican Michael Rogers of blogactive is helping to fuel this fire. Rogers is at least one person releasing the list of gay staffers that work for Republicans on his web site and it appears that those close to him may have been involved in this whole Foley scandal (at least by some accounts).
Regardless though, the blogactive website is asking people to provide information to help with the outing of all closeted gays in Congress. Further, Michael Rogers is one of the more prominent people asking others to feed this information to the ethics committee in an effort to start the investigation of gays involved with the Foley scandal. Not Republicans.
Beginning Monday, and every weekday thereafter, I will be identifying the name of a closeted senior staffer in Congress with the hopes that those investigating this matter will make sure to include them in their questioning. And I hope the press looks for them as well. It’s time to rid the government of those that would harm us.
I will also highlight a past case from the site’s history. I will ask you all to join me in sending emails to the ethics committee and media about these staffers who are putting the very stability of our government. – Michael Rogers, Blogactive
So what we see here is a bait and switch on the part of Barney Franks and the mainstream media. I think it’s all going according to plan.
In case you think that I have provided a flimsy list of just two MSM newspapers please feel free to look around. I used the two most prominent examples for brevity but you don’t have to look far (Key, use week of 10/2 to 10/9 to narrow your search).
The Houston Chronicle: The world of gay Republicans
The Boston Globe: The gay problem in the GOP
Mark Foley, Democrats, liberal, main stream media, gay, Capital Hill, Barney Frank, gay Republicans, gays, Republican Party, Democrat, MSM
[...] For instance, Barney Frank accused the republican leadership of covering this up out of fear that the base would reject gay republicans. In other words republicans were acting out of a homophobic fear that is basically discriminatory. [...]