Monday, Apr 19, 2010
Really, only a gay person (or maybe a Muslim) would be enough of a deviant to disagree with these folks, right? Video
By Gabriel Winant
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has had an uneasy relationship with his party's purists for years. Even in his own home base of South Carolina, the right wing has long thought of Graham as a squish on an array of crucial issues, including campaign finance, immigration and environmental regulation.
There's also, however, always been a nastier undercurrent. For years, unsubstantiated but persistent rumors have swirled about the sexuality of the unmarried Graham. What's unsettling is how some on the right seem eager to connect one complaint about Graham to the other.
At a Tea Party rally in Greenville, S.C., last week, a speaker tried to figure out just what, exactly, is wrong with Graham. "Barney Frank has been more honest and brave than you. At least we know about Barney Frank, nobody’s going to hold it over his head."
He continued, "Look, I’m a tolerant person. I don’t care about your private life, Lindsey. But as our U.S. senator, I need to figure out why you’re trying to sell out your own countrymen, I need to make sure you being gay isn’t it." (Video is at bottom.)
What's interesting here is the thought obviously running through the speaker's head: that something about the personal features of a politician like Barney Frank or Lindsey Graham explains their otherwise disagreeable behavior. The argument isn't that Frank and, supposedly, Graham, are horrible liberal traitors, and gay to boot. It’s that they are, or might be, horrible liberal traitors because they're gay.
remainder:
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/04/19/tea_party_graham_gay