Republican affairs

People fight very hard against their own demons. Larry Craig has been well known for many years as a staunch defender of the family but his fight seesm to have been out of a self-loathing. This is not new news about Senator Craig. Perhaps he can peel off the political scales and be honest with himself. I dislike the feeding frenzy that we get into over such matters. His family - who could not have been unaware of his activities - suffers humiliation and confusion. His constitutents - confusion, anger, and cynicism must be there. His friends suffer for him. It's not about him being a homosexual. It is about lying to himself, to his family and about persecuting those very people he would use sexually. I once knew a family where this very issue was under ths surface of all things. The father was a homosexual, the children knew "something" was wrong and the wife - well she died early and I must think that grief and rejection had a part in that. He was rigid, conservative to a fault, judgemental, and self absorbed. After he came out - he became the person he had been all along. Still pretty much himself, but less self absorbed, much less judgmental, more loving toward children and grandchildren and anxious to right the wrongs he had committed against other gay and lesbian people. At any rate, we can hope that Senator Craig becomes an honest man who no longer needs to loathe himself and people like him. Otherwise he is a clown, a figure to be ridiculed on the Daily Show, a person to be pitied and avoided. It is altogether a sad scenario.

Hypocrites who fail to recognize their own shortcoming, but never fail to point out these same sins in others are the true leader of our moral decline.

It's cheap and easy to stand for rectitude in public and more difficult to live honestly. So it has been and will be. I would be tickled if people in the movement would look at the string of hypocrisies as systemic to the movement and those who oppose the movement would understand that we are talking about individuals who are broken like the rest of us. Well, more surprised than tickled but definitely tickled.

Doug: What "movement" are you referring to? The movement of the angry, hate filled, anti-everything culture war promoted by many evangelical leaders as a way to raise money and increase their power by promoting fear? The issue with Craig and Vitter is hypocricy. What makes the "left" angry is that these guys are trying to impose on America a taliban like vision of society that does not allow for the differences among individuals. (It also reinforces the belief in many that those who protest the loudest, ...) Somehow we need to celebrate diversity, asking only whether one is a kind individual who helps those less fortunate, takes care of God's green earth and loves his fellow man.

paul, any movement. Anger, division and hypocrisies aren't scarce in any party, in any movement or among any peoples. I'm a scoundrel, myself.

Today the state of Idaho announced that the slogan on its license plates has been officially changed to FAMOUS POTATOHEADS.