Homo Vitter v. Craig: Senatorial Double Standards
posted by on November 13 at 8:55 AM
U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) consorted with opposite-sex prostitutes—while wearing diapers, according to unverified, undependable reports. U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) solicited from a same-sex undercover police officer in a restroom at an airport. The Senate Ethics Committee is investigating Craig, but not Vitter—and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force isn’t having it. The Hill reports:
A leading national gay rights advocacy organization is pressuring Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Ethics Committee, to drop an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho). As a result, Democrats may question the merits of pushing the embattled Republican out of Congress.The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which last week helped push gay rights legislation through the House, has written a strongly worded letter to Boxer and Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the Republican vice chairman of the ethics panel, criticizing their investigation of Craig as unfair.
The group argues the Ethics Committee has singled out Craig because he allegedly solicited gay sex but has ignored allegations of impropriety involving Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) because Vitter’s alleged behavior was heterosexual.
The outspoken critiques by national gay rights leaders puts pressure on Boxer to reconsider an ethics committee action that gay political leaders view as a witch hunt motivated by the homophobia of GOP Senate leaders.
Boxer, a liberal Dem, should drop the Craig investigation—why is she carrying water for the homophobes in the GOP?—or launch an investigation into Vitter’s sexual conduct. Now that would be some CSPAN programming worth watching.
And a note to The Hill: NGLTF didn’t help push gay rights legislation—ENDA—through the House. NGLTF opposed ENDA because it didn’t include transsexuals, just like NGLTF’s acronym.
That would be awesome if a gay group got Larry "I'm not gay" Craig off (no pun intended). He would at least have to rethink his wide anti-gay stance, if not his whole sham life.
I'm totally for dropping the investigation or starting one up on Vitter. We'll see what Boxer does.
perhaps they should investigate vitter as well. i mean, i agree that there appears to be a double-standard here. but the cases are still significantly different:
1) vitter wasn't in the senate when he committed his crimes
2) vitter wasn't caught having committed his crimes until after the statue of limitations on them expired.
3) vitter apologized (for whatever that is worth).
Right, so because NGLTF didn't support the non-inclusive version of ENDA, that means they must be totally opposed to ENDA! Those hypocrites!
. . . wait, no. You'd have to be a total moron not to be able to make the distinction between supporting one version of a bill over another version, and opposing the bill entirely.
Vitter should be left alone.
Nice how the diaper-wearing reports are "undependable". Good one, Dan.
Neither should be investigated.
Sex lives, even Senators, are a private matter.
Who and how you fuck is your business.
Married folks may have trouble at home, but no trouble from investigators is warranted.
Move on Congress, quit worrying about the where, when, and how of private sexual matters.
Private sex lives should be a private matter. If the senator was having sex in his home, then he shouldn't have been arrested. But he wasn't having sex at home. He was asking someone (lets ignore the fact that this was an undercover officer for a second) if he could give them a blowjob in a public bathroom. Who you fuck is your own business, as long as the person you're fucking isn't an under-age kid. How you fuck should also be your own business. But I don't think he got in trouble for WHO he wanted to fuck, or HOW he wanted to do it. It was WHERE he wanted to do it that was the problem. If you wanna fuck someone in a PUBLIC place, then it's not really a PRIVATE matter anymore, is it?
#8 GREAT POINT! A "Public Servant" being paid by the publics' tax dollars is always under the eye of people like me. They have no private life as long as I pay their salary and they are my public servant. When they try to deny me rights they enjoy and then turn around and engage in public behavior they enjoy (but openly deny doing) then I as their employer get fucking mad and call that Bullshit out. (Oh such language!) I totally agree wid ya.
The comment period for wearing diapers has expired. Sen. Craig is still doing the t-room two-step, whereas Vitter's alleged transgressions happened years ago. Don't make it a het v. homo issue -- they're not comparable.
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