First Print Story on the Outing of Congressman David Dreier on the Internet

biz.yahoo.com/prnews/ ^ | Monday September 27, 4:59 pm ET | PRNewswire

[watchout]

First Print Story on the Outing of Congressman David Dreier on the Internet

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- San Gabriel Valley Congressman David Dreier is the latest GOP member to be outed as a homosexual Republican by Mike Rogers, former development director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and his blogactive.com Web site. Doug Ireland, longtime radical political journalist, media critic and self-described purveyor of "investigative opinion," defends the outing and assesses Dreier's political future in this first discussion of the outing in the print media. Already Ireland's story has caused a stir. Several radio stations have called Ireland for comment and many are debating whether Ireland should have kept the story on the Internet. "I have not the slightest doubt that the outing campaign initiated by Mike Rogers' blogactive.com and supported by Raw Story's reporting is accurate in exposing Dreier," Ireland insists. "Moreover, in the course of reporting this story, I talked to a gay member of Congress who has observed Dreier in gay behavior and is 100% sure, as this member told me, that Dreier is gay. And, clearly, Dreier's demagogic political homophobia justifies reporting the outing campaign targeting him."

[kcvl]

Tolman, a senior aide for the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, chaired by conservative Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, was about to become the first Capitol Hill staffer publicly outed through a campaign led by two activists.

20 offices said targeted
Not likely, say Mike Rogers and John Aravosis, the two men loosely heading an ongoing outing campaign on the Hill. As the date nears for a Senate vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would ban gay marriages in the Constitution, Rogers said the outings have picked up steam — from 13 documented offices to nearly 20 currently on a target list provided by Rogers to the Blade.

In addition to Tolman, Rogers and Aravosis, working in tandem but not together, claimed in the last week to have outed via the Web Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida.

While Tolman confirmed he is gay, the Mikulski’s office refused to comment on speculation she is a lesbian, something Aravosis implied last week on his site.

A spokesperson for Congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.) also declined to comment after Aravosis specifically asserted that Foley is gay on his Web site last week.

Both members of Congress have long been the subject of rumors about their sexual orientation.

Aravosis continued to defend the outing campaign.

“An acquaintance of mine, a Southern Republican, worked for a member who was not anti-gay personally, but he signed on to the amendment [banning gay marriage],” Aravosis said. “My friend quit. I’m basically saying, ‘You know what, you have a choice. It’s 2004. You can work for pro-gay Democrats, and now you can work for pro-gay Republicans.’”

Aravosis said he decided to target Mikulski after the 67-year-old senator, who has never married, declined for months to state her position on the Federal Marriage Amendment. The Washington Blade has made repeated requests for Mikulski’s position on the issue without a response until this week.

Within days after Aravosis claimed on his Web site that Mikulski is a lesbian, the Maryland Democrat issued a statement declaring her intention to vote against the amendment. But Mikulski’s staff declined to otherwise remark on any other aspect of the controversy, according to spokesperson Amy Hagovsky.

“A constitutional amendment is not about helping families. It is about helping George Bush get re-elected,” Mikulski said in a statement. “Congress has already spoken on this issue. There is a federal law — and state law in Maryland — that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. With our country at war in Iraq, we do not need a cultural war here at home.”

[Howlin]

The Christians of 25 years ago weren't so strident and judgmental.

[ApesForEvolution]

Republican Civil War

First Shot Fired By RINO

MARKER BTTT

[Kryptonite]

Judge me on the answer to your question then. I'm heterosexual, as I believe the vast majority of FReepers are.

President Bush called for a constitutional amendment to prohibit altering traditional one man, one woman marriage in this country. That move was not designed, IMO, to achieve his stated goal, but to re-emphasize that he stands ready and willing to push the anti-gay agenda button at any time during his Presidency because he knows that when offered on state referendums among people who will actually vote on that issue, his position on one man, one woman marriage will be decidedly validated. That gives him additional power to wield when he appoints justices to the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary, which is my #1 reason for voting for Bush.

As I said many months ago, the two biggest reasons to vote Bush are

(1) the courts, and (2) the terrorists. My view has only been strengthened through the radicals causing all the shenanigans with gay marriage *licenses* crawling back into their holes.

Anyone with any political sense would be wise to do likewise.

[radicalamericannationalist]

I second that emotion. Or, I guess, more accurately I'm thirding it.

[Lurking2Long]

I fear you are correct...it is at that time that all the RINOs here will see their revamped "party" begin the same downhill slide to obscurity that the Democrats are now on, as voters of values take their votes elsewhere...

[BJungNan]

Who cares! My gosh. The libs make such a big deal out of what Republicans think about someone being gay. Who cares! It is their business as long as they keep it theirs and not mine or my children's.

[Lurking2Long]

Perhaps you should look for another party if you don't feel you fit in the GOP anymore. Naw, I just prefer to "out" RINOs like you...

[BurbankKarl]

I think its time for new blood period. And how about someone in CA that gives a crap about the invasion going on. I am going to have an illegal immigrant lounge going up down the street from work pretty soon. I see people buying food with food stamps and driving away in Lexus SUVs.

It is madness...and I expect people like David Drier and Asa Hutcheson not to pay short shrift to my concerns.

[ApesForEvolution]

It appears to be 'business as usual' to some; but it's now everyone's business it appears...way to go Mr. Representative! Wasn't Gay David a big Arnold boy during the recall? Figures...

[radicalamericannationalist]

Hey Howlin', what was your opinion on Clinton's adultery in office?

[TomasUSMC]

You don't have to be a fundamentalist Christian to be a Republican.

---

Apparently you don't have to stand for anything to be a republican. Heck, lets invite ole Cat Stevens into the big tent too.

If this guy is homosexual. Kick this queereye out. What does he say, has he answered the accusation?

[Lurking2Long]

Republican Civil War First Shot Fired By RINO MARKER BTTT

May it become much like another famous "shot heard round the world"...

[Howlin]

I am against Constitutional Conventions, period. Once one is called there is absolutely NO way to stop what they do.

And marriage between a man and a woman would NOT be the only issue.

How do you feel about the Electoral College?

[wardaddy]

The religious right makes up more than one in five in the South...especially the Deep South....they may be the majority of Conservative voters.

Folks deride social conservatives like myself without really thinking it out too much. The battle in this country between right and left is not about taxes or Iraq.....it's about the social agenda and how the left utterly despises Christian (and a few Jewish) Conservatives who have what they view as intolerant views on social and cultural issues.

It is why they loathe genuinely born again George W Bush....perhaps some segments of the Left like union workers or rural southern blacks don't hone in on the social issues but the rest do. It defines them.

To brush off social conservatism as unimportant for our victory is foolhardy and ignorant of what mostly motivates us and our foes here at home.

The WOT has admittedly diluted this a hair....as is evident by many new socially liberal freepers who consider themselves zealous conservatives since they want to crush the Islamists....glad to have them....we can argue later...lol...after the moon rockies are vanquished.

[kcvl]

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.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Joe .. I realize you don't like Drier for his immigration stance .. how about sticking to that and not getting into his private life

Private life?

Celebrities and political celebrities have no stinking private life? You wanna run for office pal? Fine, they'll be looking at how much dope you smoke when you were 16, if you've ever been divorced, ever been arrested, cheated on your taxes, made false statements, and who you gave money to, if you are or were a bar jockey etc etc.

I got big news for you. They have no stinking private life.

[ApesForEvolution]

Oh, it surely could...

[Howlin]

There's more of "me" than there is of "you," which I presume accounts for your attitude.

[radicalamericannationalist]

If he is leading a double life doesn't that 1. Open him up to blackmail or 2. Question his integrity in general? Clinton should have taught you that the private life does count.