So, the Democrats, who are nominally on the gays side, are going to throw the gays under the "gay panic" bus in order to turn away voters?

Great. Just great.

You lie in the bed you made.

It's like what happened to Nazi collaborators after Liberation.

Can't say I'll shed a tear for them. They should have known working for the dark side was a bad choice.

If they were wise they'd "find other opportunities" ripping off the middle class at rich firms in private enterprise. Or enlist and go to Iraq.

Considering the source, I have to question the veracity of the report. Limbaugh, of course, is a lying gas bag, and "The Conservative Voice" can hardly claim to be unbiased.

IF it is true, I think this is a bad idea. It is one thing to out a closeted politician who actively casts votes that harm gays (a la Jim West). It is entirely another thing to go on a widespread gay witch hunt purely for political gain.

I'm all for being out of the closet. I've been out for years -- decades actually. There are very few things more soul-crushing than being in the closet, for all sorts of reasons. But people have a right to their privacy, have the right to make bad decisions and stay in the closet, provided they're not harming anyone by doing so (other than themselves). And looney as it sounds, they have a right to be gay Republicans. With very few exceptions (like Jim West or Tom Foley), no one should be forced to come out if they aren't willing or ready.

This witch hunt just sends the message that gays are bad, and the solution is to rout them out and expose them, which is entirely the wrong message for the Democrats to be sending.

I'm all for it. After all, these are people in the party that doesn't believe in the right to privacy, that believes that the government should be intruding into the bedrooms of Americans, that gays should face persecution. Why shouldn't they face the consequences of their philosophy? Out them all. In ten years, they'll realize it was the best thing that could have happened to them.

This is absurd and ugly. Bigotry at its nasty core.

How about compiling a list of (gay OR straight) congressmen that have abused their power to receive sexual favors? Or corporate donations? Far more to the point, and far less bigoted reaction.

I'll never understand why people are so obsessed with individuals that politicians may or may not be fucking, and so little interested in the collective fucking we're ALL getting from some of them. I'm way more interested in putting a stop to the collective screwing we're getting from the CONCINOs (Conservative Christians-In-Name-Only) than who they individually might be porking.

Will:

Godwin's Law anyone?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_Law

Will the list be limited to DC Republicans, or can Luke Esser's name be added too?

rush just knows. don't question it.

Don't help Rush Limbaugh perpetrate lies like this. This makes no sense. It's obviously not true. This won't get reported by the MSM so why is it on here? Take two seconds and think about the fact that the Democrats have absolutely no reason to do this. The Republican are obviously planning to blame the Foley scandal on his sexual orientation, and this little lie is being put out there to show that the Democrats have just as little regard for the beliefs of gay Americans as the Republicans do. Whenever the Republicans get caught doing something, what's the argument? Both parties are just as guilty of whatever it is. All of Washington is dirty. The fact that it disenfranchises voters is just gravy, given that the Republicans do better with a lower turnout. Don't be so blind as to become a part of their machine. C'mon.

Other non-Limbaugh accounts mention the List -- or even the Chart -- but they don't have it being concocted by Democrats.

YGTBKM: Will's comment is also not a Godwin. PLEASE brush up.

It was less than apropos, as the post-WWII witch-hunt of "collaborators" was in large part a travesty of "punish anyone, guilty or not", which is a Republican-sounding strategy. Most of the punished collaborators in France were not collaborators, and few of the real collaborators were punished. Many of them led the retribution, in fact. Not a pretty sight.

FNARF,

Granted, it may not technically be a Godwin, but it sort of smells like one.

Will,

Is FNARF correct that your comparison of gay Republican congressional staffers to “collaborators” meant to imply that you believe that the Democrats compiling the list are engaged in a witch-hunt that would as such be a travesty of "punish anyone, guilty or not"?

FNARF,

I disagree that punish anyone, guilty or not witch-hunts are the strategy of one party more then any other party. Politics is a blood sport, and the Democrats can be just as apt with the long knives as the Republicans

If anyone is "compiling a list of gays" it's Republicans. Democrats have no interest in outing and thus expelling one of the few moderating voices in Republican ranks.

Gays that serve Republicans, even when they're in the closet, provide some cover, intentionally or not, for at least the semblance of moderation while keeping the "put them on a barge and sink them off the coast" crowd at bay. You can't very well call for the destruction of gays if it's going to include the guys who write your speeches and straighten your ties when you go on TV.

The List, if it exists, is a Republican creation and is a prelude to a dark, dark future for gays in this country. Limbaugh is providing cover for Republicans and doing what he usually does--blaming the Democrats. Don't believe him!

Perhaps Mr. Limbaugh is on drugs, or perhaps Mr. L remembers that the Politics of Personal Destruction & Distraction is standard operating procedure for the Clinton-Flynt Party.

That's how you Democrats bullshitted your way past your president's perjury, subornation of perjury, and obstructions of justice. You enlisted Mr. Democrat, Larry Flynt, to dig up the dirt on the youthful indiscretions of your accusers; you got your goon Jack Palladino (sp?) to threaten Kathleen Willey; you got your goon James Carville to smear Paula as 'trailer trash'; you got Big Media to embargo Juanita Broaddrick (after giving her 15 minutes on a show nobody watched); then you smeared Ken Starr for daring to report what your boy Bill was doing with a barely=legal intern in your property and on your time and while being paid with your dollars. Then you got your fat cats to buy Bill out of his jam. SOP.

The List, Part 1:

* Nancy Pelosi, belated Defender of the Faith & Children, pumped up Congressman Gerry Studds (Democrat, Mass) five times for committee chairmanships. That was after Studds was censured for going to stud with a 17-year-old male Congressional page.

* Eve Ensler's hot lib Vaginitis Monologues has a scene in which a 13-year-old girl is mentored into sex by an adult lesbian.

* Big Beat Allen Ginsberg, lauded at length in a Jayson Blair Times obit, was NAMBLA's unanointed poet laureate. Sample anthem: Young boy/ Give me your ass.

* Some progressive (Hanah Rosen?) at The New Republic ten years ago wrote that we really need to get past our homophobic taboos against letting children be mentored gracefully into sex by same-sex adults.

* Governor Mike Lowry (Democrat, Washington) said mostly the same thing: every ambiguous lad needs a queer mentor.

I think this is old blah blah......

I think Barney Frank killed at least ten bills over the years wikth the threat to out all the closet R s.

It worked many times, the bills just died in committee.

vague threats along this line are interesting .... but Rush a pig and just rying to take the attention from THE PERVERTED case at hand.

Can we all repeat the glas house story"? Apparently thed House R's forgot the good old folk lore. God, who has the videos, I am sure they are out there. If this guy was screwing younger guys, he tok pix.

Am sure sexpert Dan would agree. So when do the videos come public, next weeek?

Sorry, FNARF et al, had to fly to Chicago for a meeting. I meant it in two ways, one that it was similar (and predicatable) to what happened to Nazi collaborators (who were quite visible in the communities they lived in) and what happened to them.

AND that the turmoil would of course drag some innocents down, just like half the people in GITMO turn out to be totally innocent and many of those tortured for years in secret prisons are also innocent.

You lie in the bed you made - and if you're a gay Repub, you're not going to like consequences when they inevitably find you.