"They could not do much more, because it would be viewed as gay bashing within the party."
You wrote that with a straight face?
Gingrich said the same thing, in so many words. I heard him say it.
he said, because of the sexual orientation of the congressman, it caused some discussion as to potential blow backs from making the original counseling public, so they kept it quiet, private and within the leadership. The inference was that they did not want to upset the gay republican groups any further than they had already, in 2003-04 election cycle.
Your surprise at this, simply tells me you have no idea what you are talking about and are acting all insulted when you don't have a clue as to the politics of this and how it has been played by the Dem's.
Had the republicans had anything at all that could have hurt the party, they would have acted. They did not.
But the Dem's did, and they saved it for this rainy day.