Ben Stein cannot grasp what the GOP's problem is with Larry Craig:
What I don't understand is why the GOP is tossing Senator Craig overboard as if he were a terrorist.
Even if it turns Senator Craig is gay, so what? Barney Frank is gay and he's one of the best members of the Congress. There are lots of fine gay public servants.
But Ben, Barney Frank is not a Republican. The list of prominent members of the Log Cabin Republicans is very brief, and entirely devoid of members of Congress.
If the GOP treats a gay member as a terrorist, it should hardly be surprising. Many Republicans seem to live in terror of gay people.
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Because Republicans just know that Teh Gay is going to catch them next. If the #1 Repub's "gut reaction" is good enough to invade a country, it's damn good enough to use for life-style choices!
Any of them Republican legislators, Ben?
Ben Stein said:
"What I don't understand is why the GOP is tossing Senator Craig overboard as if he were a terrorist."
Really Ben? You don't understand that? Have you met the GOP base?
I'm sure he's met the GOP base in Los Angles, but that is hardly representative of the broader base.
I think the problem here is that the vast majority of Jews are encouraged by their culture to be non-moronic, unlike fundamentalist Christians (well, except for the Haredim, but every culture has its nutjobs). Stein may be a conservative on the wrong side of the ID debate, but he's not a complete fool, unlike the GOP base. (It's sort of like the stories I hear from the McGovern-Nixon election where liberals were surprised Nixon won because everyone they knew voted for McGovern. If you don't know what's going on around you, you tend to look pretty foolish when your applecart is upset.)
Actually, there was a gay Republican congressman, Jim Kolbe of Arizona. He retired in 2006 and was fairly unawful. He opposed gay marriage, but was a strong supporter of civil unions. He was a centrist who also supported aborion rights and other issues that put him at odds with the extreme right positions that define today's Republican party.
Ben Stein, of course, is still an idiot.
So, tell me again why I should care what a game show host says?
The main problem with the Larry Craig situation is that he wasn't openly gay, had to sneak around, and is still lying about it.
tharding: Thanks for reminding me about Kolbe. I'd forgotten that he is openly gay. He also tacitly endorsed the Democratic candidate running to replace him when he retired. Whether issues of sexuality played into that decision, I don't know.
Kolbe was implicated in the page scandal (he'd already announced he was going to resign) with Mark Folley -- Kolbe had apparently been approached by some of the former pages who were creeped out by Folley's advances. Kolbe kept it under wraps.
The other thing is that the Governor of Idaho is Republican, so Craig will be replaced with a Republican.
Villers - the one from Louisiana - had a democratic governor, so *he* couldn't be ejected.
tell me again why I should care what a game show host says?