Who's Homophobic Now? [left has started insinuating that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts is gay]

Reasoned Audacity ^ | July 21, 2005 | CharmaineYoest

[John Jorsett]

John Roberts
Circa 1972ish
La Lumiere High School

Just a caution for my male readers: if there are any extant photos of you from the '70's in plaid pants, better get rid of them now. And it's not just the evidence of questionable fashion sense. Apparently now that's the goods on being gay.

Call it the Mary Cheney Strategy. Call it desperation. Some on the Left have started a "maybe he's gay" whisper campaign against John Roberts.

It started with Manhattan Offender in a post yesterday asking "How Gay is This Guy?" and then he quoted Wikipedia's entry for Judge Roberts. He zeroed in on some really damning evidence from Roberts' youthful past: the all-male boarding school, studying French and Latin (gasp!), being a wrestler and, oh the horror, participating in choir and drama.

So, it was only one silly post. Today, however, Wonkette picked up the ball and ran with it:

We're not making any conclusions here -- we wouldn't want to comment on an ongoing investigation -- we're just laying out the facts: He is a graduate of an all-boys Catholic school where, as a member of the wrestling team, he regularly grappled with other sweaty, repressed boys. That is when he wasn't the drama club playing Peppermint Patty, for God's sake.

What's that about Peppermint Patty?!? Yes, well, that's where the story starts to get interesting. That's a reference to a point raised in today's New York Times profile of Roberts, "Court Nominee's Life Is Rooted in Faith and Respect for Law," written by Todd Purdum, Jodi Wilgoren and Pam Belluck. In the midst of a very lengthy profile, Purdum, et.al. just throw in the little factoid that Roberts' yearbook records that "he played Peppermint Patty in the production of 'You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown.'"

Did I mention that this was when he was in high school?

So maybe that snarky little bit is just there for a little color? Ann Althouse has picked up the story and she thinks otherwise:

I do think the NYT piece was subtly constructed to plant this idea. Just look at the series of photographs they chose: young John in plaid pants, young John with his boys' school pals, young John in a wrestling suit with his fellow wrestlers, John with footballers, and -- the final pic -- John smiling in an all-male wedding photograph.

I think she might have a point.

Of course it is the height of hypocrisy for the (allegedly) pro-tolerance crowd to start questioning someone's sexual preference. It's a strange and twisted tactic for those who are allied with the gay rights movement to try to make an issue out of someone supposedly being gay.

Who cares?

Well, that's just the point: they think we do. They think that they can undermine support for someone among conservatives if they can dredge up some sort of homosexual connection -- or, in this case, just the manufactured whiff of a question.

If it weren't so cruel and small, it would be funny. (It's not just the plaid pants. Some of the commenters on these other sites have been questioning the Roberts' marriage, and even referencing their adopted children. That's just beyond the pale.)

The Left didn't learn their lesson when they tried this with Mary Cheney and it backfired. John Roberts may have played Peppermint Patty back in the day, but here and NOW, the Left is playing Lucy with the football . . .

***

[exile]

I've never read Wonkette, and never will. But, for someone from the party of "Tolerance," she's an incredible bigot. She's also guilty of the only cardinal sin in liberalism, hypocrisy. Un-freaking believable.

[Zacs Mom]

This type of projecting behavior is typical of sniveling cowards and text book of criminals.

[ConservativeDude]

I'm just wondering what Souter's take onthis is?

[mware]

Heck look at the Brady Bunch, everyone dressed like that.

[Rebelbase]

IMO, Wonkette is a ratings whore who will say anything for publicity.

[Eva]

Hey, plaid pants were all the rage back then, very preppy. The guys at the University of PA used to wear the plaid pants with Johnston and Murphy tassel loafers that they had wrapped with duct tape, to make them look old. Yes, I kid you not.

[Hand em their arse]

"I thought the running joke was that Peppermint Patty liked chicks. "


"Maybe...sir" but who knows? ;o)

[Trimegistus]

You see this a lot. The Left loves to have it both ways: blasting people for homophobia and sniggering about their enemies being gay. Look at how they've turned J. Edgar Hoover into the poster boy for transvestism.

[BaBaStooey]

Of course she did.

But I've heard jokes in reference to her tomboyish ways. I've also heard Paula Poundstone referred to as "Peppermint Poundstone"

[NeoCaveman]

I thought the running joke was that Peppermint Patty liked chicks.

So, he played a "butch" character. Maybe he's a lesbian....

Nothing wrong with that, I'm a lesbian trapped in a man's body myself.

[DJ Taylor]

The heck with his sexual orientation, what's his opinion on the Second Amendment?

[The_Victor]

Doncha just love the way the left trots out the possible homosexuality of conservatives as if there is something wrong with being gay.

[eyedigress]

Jerry Falwell has always known that gays can be brought back from the grasp of their evil demons. The left will corroborate this for us. :)

[dfwgator]

Fashionwise the 70s were a hideous time all around.

[7thson]

That may have been the joke but she was stuck on Charlie Brown. Many, many strips of them together.

[pointsal]

Is Blarney Frank leading the charge?

[NCC-1701]

This is a challenge to locate any picture of any lefty wearing similar clothing from the '70's. If "they" are going to imply that Roberts is gay based on the criteria mentioned in the article, then turn about is fair play. Let's examine "their" past. Wasn't Swimmer seen wearing similar attire back then? What about Sheets Byrd? They know better than to bring this insinuation up. Our side can fight back with vigor. Let's make the internet work for us in this. Quid pro quo.

[E Rocc]

I've never read Wonkette, and never will. But, for someone from the party of "Tolerance," she's an incredible bigot. She's also guilty of the only cardinal sin in liberalism, hypocrisy. Un-freaking believable.

This originally came from Wonkette? She's usually more or less an equal opportunity offender, I recall her picking on the Dem smear campaigns regarding Mary Carey as especially lame.

Whoever started it, its a classic example of the kind of desperate bottom dredging (pun not intended) we've come to expect from the modern left.

-Eric

[dfwgator]

I thought the running joke was that Peppermint Patty liked chicks.

And Marcie was her gay lover, why do you think she called her "sir."

[notigar]

Well, Wonkette's site is about jokes, Manhattan Offender is a self-described "mo" who probably thinks everyone is gay and just doesn't know it, and the NYT reported a fact, that he was in the play. What's the big deal?