Will Mitch McConnell Be The Next Outed Gay Republican?

This post, written by Howie Klein, originally appeared on Down With Tyranny!

Voting-wise, Larry Craig's record is a bit to the right of Miss McConnell's but, when it comes right down to it, the two of them see almost eye to eye on everything: both are classic Bush-Cheney rubber stamps. Several of my friends can't understand why two closeted homosexuals have been so virulently anti-gay. I'm not a psychologist (though I gave it a shot yesterday) so let's just stick to the politics on this. And the GOP leadership is playing hardball-- against one of their own. After his pathetic "I'm not gay" press conference yesterday Tim Russert, on Nightly News, said "I talked to Republicans today -- they just want Senator Craig to exit, to leave."

In 2002 the two closeted far right extremists each went for the #2 slot in the Senate Republican leadership. McConnell beat him. Yesterday McConnell released this statement on behalf of the Republican leaders in the Senate:

Late yesterday we became aware of the incident involving Sen. Larry Craig and his subsequent admission of guilt in a Minnesota court. This is a serious matter. Due to the reported and disputed circumstances, and the legal resolution of this serious case, we will recommend that Sen. Craig's incident be reported to the Senate Ethics Committee for its review. In the meantime, leadership is examining other aspects of the case to determine if additional action is required.

The right-wing grassroots is howling for homo blood and McConnell is more than aware how quickly that could turn against him-- and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is already in trouble with the violently homophobic Know Nothing wing of the GOP for his support of Bush's immigration agenda. One extremist, Robert Bluey, writes "How very sad for a party that once stood for moral values," while another is demanding something that scares the bloomers off McConnell:

I would like to argue that we should stop the bleeding, but if we're going to clean house then it might get a lot worse. Until we learn that daylight is the best cure for scandals, and that moral values mean more than a campaign slogan, there will be many more Larry Craigs elected to office, and our nation will suffer for it.