Posted on 10/10/2006 11:44:09 PM PDT by MadIvan
THE cluttered closet of the Republican Party is being wrenched open by the sex scandal involving the disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley and his explicit computer messages to teenage male interns on Capitol Hill.
Washington’s gay Republicans — the “velvet mafia” — are caught in the crossfire of an election-time battle over who should take the blame for allowing Mr Foley to continue his predatory activities for so long.
On one side are radical gay activists seeking to expose the “hypocrites” willing to work for a party that has campaigned so hard against proposals such as same-sex marriage. Since the Foley scandal broke they have been circulating a list of Capitol Hill’s gay Republicans, which allegedly includes nine chiefs of staffs, two press secretaries and two directors of communication.
The aides are said to work for some of the Religious Right’s favourite members of Congress, ranging from Representative Katherine Harris to Senators Bill Frist, George Allen and Rick Santorum. Others, being outed on websites such as BlogActive.com, include a senior figure in the office of Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
On the other side is a deeply worried Republican Party leadership that is struggling to explain why it failed to take firm action against Mr Foley even after being given repeated warnings about his inappropriate contact with the interns, known as congressional pages.
Mr Hastert said yesterday that if any members of his staff had helped to “cover something up, then they should not continue in their jobs”.
Kirk Fordham, a gay Republican who once worked for Mr Foley, has already been forced to resign from his job as chief of staff to Congressman Tom Reynolds because of his role in the affair. He has refused to go quietly, saying that he told the House leadership of concerns about Mr Foley long before Mr Hastert’s office admits it learnt of them. Jim Kolbe, the Republicans’ only gay Congressman, who is retiring at this election, has made similar allegations.
At the same time a raft of opinion polls have suggested that the Democrats are rapidly gaining ground before November’s mid-term elections — with so-called moral value voters particularly angry about the handling of the Foley scandal.
Socially conservative organisations, many of which have been recipients of “the gay list”, appear to be turning on the Republicans. The Arlington Group, which represents evangelical activists, said it was “very concerned that the early warnings of Mr Foley’s odd behaviour toward young male pages may have been overlooked or treated with deference, fearing a backlash from the radical gay rights movement because of Mr Foley’s sexual orientation”.
Right-wing blogs are increasingly blaming the “velvet mafia” for looking after one of their own, with claims of a sinister “gay subculture” infiltrating the upper echelons of the party. Barney Frank, a Democrat and one of only three openly gay Congressmen, has predicted that there will now be a “real purge of gays in the Republican Party”.
The Republican leadership has always been remarkably tolerant of homosexuality in private, despite its public exploitation of voters’ fears on issues such as gay marriage to mobilise its base support during elections. Even Senator Santorum, who once compared gay sex to bestiality, incest and polygamy, employs the openly gay Robert Traynham as his communications director.
Daniel Blatt, who helps to run a website called Gay Patriot, said that he had rarely encountered any prejudice within the party.
“It’s harder to be a gay Republican in gay circles than it is to be a gay in Republican circles — gay activists are the most intolerant SOBs I’ve ever come across.”
He also said that Mr Foley had probably failed to come out earlier because he was ambitious for higher office. Indeed, some suggest there appears to be a glass ceiling for gays in the Republican Party which means they are tolerated in private — provided they “do not get above themselves”.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
UNNGGG... if they have evidence lets see it..
The "velvet mafia"? What? I thought they called themselves "log cabin Republicans," based on their unsupported contention that Pres. Lincoln was a homosexual.
Don't be naive. It's always been ok to criticize gay Republicans and it always will be.
Funny I read right wing blogs daily and not only have I not seen them blaming the velvet mafia, I've never heard the term until reading this article.
Gays work for Democrats and gays work for Republicans. Nothing new here. The problem is some of the Democrat gays are sickos who want to nuke (via outing) conservative gays because they see them as hypocrites and betrayers of their great gay causes such as gay marriage
Do Gays have a choice here; or not?
Do all Gays want 'same-sex' marriage legislation? There are non-Gays who favor this; why cannot Gays have the same option to NOT favor the Gay agenda? Does sexual orientation - at least if one is Gay. . .automatically define and/or limit one's judgment?
Are they hypocritical on the issue? Maybe; but maybe not. Think these 'agenda driven' Gays are themselves hypocritical and worse, in their assuming they have the right to threaten another so as to coerce a vote.
Seems 'choice' should be the operative as to how anyone lives their life. And for those elected. . .'choice' just may be, choosing to represent your consituency in a manner they deem appropriate.
Thought perhaps I was not reading the 'right' ones - but never heard this term either.
No slant here! Just perfectly objective and accurate reporting . . . /s
I'll bet the list of "velvet mafia" members in the Democratic Party is longer than Hillary's nose after a press conference. Why don't we get a look at that list?
Excellent point, MI.
The Foley Follies will level the playing field so that conservatives are not held to a different standard.
The PC atrocity has created a dual playing field----with gays elevated to being a "protected class."
When conservatives defend their values, the paranoic PC crowd yells "homophobia."
It's time to put the PC beast out to pasture.
Nope.
Just as all Blacks must believe in affirmative action.
All women must believe in abortion.
All Latinos must believe in open borders.
etc.,
All gays must believe in gay marriage.
Ahhh, the wonderful totalitarian black and white world of liberalism!
What did Rahm Emanuel know and when did he know it? And did he put pages at risk, by holding back information to score political points? (Rahm is Dem Cong Committee Chair).
It strains credulity to suggest Foley's activities were not known in small-town Washington where every "secret" is public knowledge and discussed 24/7.
Everybody knows who hangs out in "the club" bars and book stores on Dupont Circle.....that includes Democrat club members.
The bizarre video episode seen on news segments where Foley is addressing Congressional pages is clearly Foley as predator, visibly "turned on" by youngsters.
It was not the first time Foley "outed" himself in public view. He seemed to have had no problem flaunting it.
How are gays getting elected by the Republican party? I assume they are way in the closet or something. I HOPE it is because they are in the closet. Surely once they are outed Republicans would not re-elect them.
Someone should mention to Hollywood that the decline of their movies and TV shows is related to the influence and population of gays running the "back rooms" of the industry. There is no difference between the "mafia" of gays and women in Hollywood and the same groups running mainstream churches like Episcopal, Methodist or Church of England; their control has resulted in the decline of participation of the mainstream population.
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