Page scandal exposes GOP's gay identity crisis (Check Photo)

[RamboLiberal]

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, right, swears in Mark A. Dybul, left, as the new coordinator of the U.S. Global AIDS Office during a ceremony at the State Department in Washington. First lady Laura Bush and Dybul's partner, Jason Claire witness the ceremony.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-11-gop-gay-identity-crisis_x.htm

At a State Department ceremony this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warmly acknowledged the family members of Mark Dybul, whom she was swearing in as the nation's new global AIDS coordinator.

As first lady Laura Bush looked on, Rice singled out his partner, Jason Claire, and Claire's mother. Rice referred to her as Dybul's "mother-in-law."

The celebratory moment for a gay couple was emblematic of the political identity crisis facing the Republican Party, two years after an election the GOP won in part by making gay marriage an issue and less than two weeks after revelations about a Republican House member's advances toward teenage boys.

For Republicans, the most difficult problem posed by the e-mail exchanges that former congressman Mark Foley had with pages is not necessarily the flagrant misbehavior of one member. Rather it's the fact that the investigation is exposing a politically awkward fact of life: some GOP leaders practice a more tolerant brand of politics in their office hiring than some in the party have preached on the campaign trail.

"They play somebody different on TV than they are in person," says John Aravosis, a gay blogger who used to work for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

[central scrutinizer]

1. fuck those opportunists

Let's see. A repug on the campaign trail basically says, I hate gays so much that I will do everything possible to deny them their basic rights. So a gay person willingly works for such a pig? Is there a gay equivalent for Uncle Tom?

[DeeDeeNY]

2. In other words

They are lying hypocrites.

[al bupp]

3. Breaking News, Republican Party Full of Hypocrites...

...OK, it's not really breaking news here

[David Zephyr]

4. "Mother-In-Law" Laura believes they are married? Dobson must be choking.

Now, the only question is: who is Condi's mother-in-law?

[KurtNYC]

5. Prejudice = profit

They do the same stuff with undocumented workers. Big western agribusinesses and restaurants want the labor and they want it cheap so by both fomenting prejudice AND hiring the objects of the prejudice they profit from prejudice.