possibly OT -- Congressman outed by LA Weekly

[Duffbeerlvr]

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/44/news-ireland.php

The latest target of a Capitol Hill outing campaign - designed to
expose closeted homosexual Republicans who oppose civil rights for gay
people - is San Gabriel Valley Congressman David Dreier.

The powerful 12-term congressman - chairman of the House Rules
Committee, chairman of the California Republican House delegation,
co-chairman of Californians for Bush, chairman of Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger's transition team - is in the cross hairs of Mike
Rogers and his Blogactive.com Web site, whose outing campaign has
already forced one GOP congressman out of politics. Representative Ed
Schrock, a reactionary from Virginia, ended his re-election campaign
last month after Rogers put on his Web site an audiotape of Schrock
trolling for tricks on a gay chat line.

Now, Rogers - a former development director for the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force - has given Dreier the "Roy Cohn Award, in
recognition of 24 years of working against gay and lesbian rights while
living as a gay man yourself." He is pummeling Dreier with almost
daily revelations as a response to the GOP's anti-gay crusade for a
constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.

Rogers' campaign against Dreier got a major boost when it was taken
up by Raw Story, the hot new liberal gadfly newsblog. Raw Story -
which is edited out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, by 23-year-old John
Byrne, who is also gay - last week published an interview with
Dreier's Democratic opponent in 1998 and 2000, Dr. Janice Nelson, who
said she was aware during her 2000 campaign that Dreier was living with
his chief of staff, Brad Smith. "Brad was like an invisible
presence," she said. "They really have the routine down slick."

Nelson, a professor of pathology, says she came forward when she read
on Raw Story that Hustler - the Larry Flynt magazine - was working
on an exposé of Dreier's secret gay life. Mark Cromer, the mag's
features editor in charge of its outing of Dreier, is a former reporter
for a string of Valley newspapers in Dreier's district, including the
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and the
Pasadena Star-News. Cromer said his mag's exposé on Dreier - part
of a package on sexual hypocrisy by Republican spear-carriers in the
"culture wars" - will be published in November. And he accuses
the papers in Dreier's district, all of which spout a conservative,
anti-gay editorial line, of having a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
policy toward the congressman and his relationship with Smith. These
papers are all owned by Media News Group (MNG), whose CEO, Dean
Singleton, is a major contributor to Republican campaigns. Opinion
pages editor Steve Scauzillo said he could not comment on the Dreier
matter without the approval of MNG higher-ups.

Raw Story has provided some fascinating details about Smith. It appears
that he is the highest-paid chief of staff to any House committee
chair. Smith's $156,600 salary is just $400 less than that of White
House chief of staff Andy Card and Bush political commissar Karl Rove.
By comparison, the chief of staff to the chair of the House Judiciary
Committee makes $126,000, while the chief of staff to the chair of the
House Ways and Means Committee makes just $100,696. New Jersey
Democratic Governor Jim McGreevey was recently forced to resign when it
was about to become public that he had put his boyfriend on the public
payroll at a salary slightly less than the one which Dreier pays Smith.

Neither Dreier, Smith, nor the congressman's press secretary would
return several telephone calls and detailed voice mails seeking
comment. A staff member on Monday hung up the phone when I called back.



I have always taken the view that outing a gay person should be
approached with caution, and that in doing so one should strictly
adhere to the Barney Frank Rule. As articulated by the openly gay
Massachusetts congressman during another anti-gay GOP witch-hunt over a
decade ago, when Frank threatened to out a number of gay-baiting
Republican fellow congressmen, the rule insists that outing is only
acceptable when a person uses their power or notoriety to hurt gay
people.

Dreier clearly meets that standard, for his voting record is strewn
with anti-gay positions. To cite just a few: He voted against the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would have banned
discrimination against gay people in hiring; voted for the gay-bashing
Defense of Marriage Act; voted for banning adoption by gay and lesbian
couples in the District of Columbia (3,000 miles away from Dreier's
district); voted to allow federally funded charities to discriminate
against gays in employment, even where local laws prohibit such bias;
and voted against the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Dreier is not just a political homophobe but a heartless AIDS-phobe as
well, voting against the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS
(HOPWA) program designed to give shelter to the impoverished sick, and
against funding for the federal ADAP program that furnishes the poor
with the AIDS meds they need to stay alive.

Dreier can probably survive outing in his district and be re-elected,
and it won't hurt him much with Arnold and his cronies either. But
Dreier's days as a key member of the ultra-homophobic Hastert-DeLay
House GOP leadership may be numbered. The telegenic Dreier has often
served as the GOP leadership's spokesman on the TV chat-show circuit.
It will be interesting to see whether, the next time Dreier shows up on
Crossfire or Chris Matthews' show, he's asked about the
contradictions between his anti-gay voting record and his
hitherto-secret life.
Doug Ireland can be reached through his blog, DIRELAND.

[GLC1173]

Post by Duffbeerlvr
As articulated by the openly gay
Massachusetts congressman during >another anti-gay GOP witch-hunt over a
decade ago, when Frank threatened to >out a number of gay-baiting
Republican fellow congressmen, the rule >insists that outing is only
acceptable when a person uses their >power or notoriety to hurt gay people.

"Outing" should also be used whenever a closeted gay or lesbian hurts other
gays or lesbians in other ways - like scams, child-custody fights, property
feuds, sexual harassment. Face it, lack of any marital status for gay
relationships in most all U.S. states means that often one party is at a
terrible disadvantage. On campus, closeted gay/lesbian profs know damn few
students they sexually harass can stand up to them other than by "outing."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<B>Dissident news - plus immigration, gun rights, weather, gun show
<I><A HREF="http://www.alamanceind.com">ALAMANCE INDEPENDENT:
official newspaper of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy</A></b></i>

[Duffbeerlvr]

Isn't it true though that since this congressman apparently has his
live-in on the payroll, that it is a violation of the public trust and
therefore should be exposed?

[c***@earthlink.net]

how so? to me, not unless the guy cannot do the job...of course, overpaying
is up for discussion, too...

Post by Duffbeerlvr
Isn't it true though that since this congressman apparently has his
live-in on the payroll, that it is a violation of the public trust and
therefore should be exposed?

[Duffbeerlvr]

For the Record: I'm against outting in most instances -- more so during
a general election. But the larger question here involves payroll. If a
congressman were to employ his wife in a similar fashion, would that be
considered ok also? -- I dont' think so, because it would allow the
congressman to effectively increase his pay (or at least the pay going
into his household) .
Should a gay congressman be held to the same ethical standard?

[Bo Raxo]

Post by Duffbeerlvr
For the Record: I'm against outting in most instances -- more so during
a general election. But the larger question here involves payroll. If a
congressman were to employ his wife in a similar fashion, would that be
considered ok also? -- I dont' think so, because it would allow the
congressman to effectively increase his pay (or at least the pay going
into his household) .
Should a gay congressman be held to the same ethical standard?

So you think no straight House or Senate member has ever had his mistress on
the payroll.


BWAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA!!!!!!

You've got to be as dumb as Dan Rostenkowski to actually get in trouble for
it. It's a tradition as old as politics.


Bo Raxo

[Duffbeerlvr]

Thanks for the reply. I'd have more respect for it if you left off the
immature
tag you so often post around here. Bo, you are not an all knowing sage,
merely an anonymous poster on a usenet newsgroup.