AS returns. Thanks for Hilzoy, Clemens, and GD. Jamie ... *sigh*. My 'brotherly-gay' advice is for him to slow down, stop trying to be AS in a day, and to push thoroughness to the top of his self-critique, for a time. My second observation is that he probably doesn't take brotherly advice, so someone he trusts implicitly ought to sit down with him about why he may have immunized himself to that before it torpedoes him. There, I've done my duty.
On Larry Craig, AS writes, "My guest-bloggers said a lot. I have not much more to add, ..."
Oh, child, the aftershocks of this quake are just getting started. JR was onto something (at least in spirit, if not in detail) by pointing out
In a touching article memorializing a recently deceased gay friend, Steve Lonegan, the mayor of Bogota, New Jersey, provides a timely reminder that there's a very different way to be a gay Republican office-holder. ... openly gay and dedicated to the principles of the Open Society. Lonegan writes:
But the editor of the WaBlade isn't on the same page. His action-item has a different thrust:
What people need to understand is that living a double life in the closet makes you do strange and self-destructive things, like pleading guilty to crimes you later deny or refusing to answer a simple question about your sexual orientation.
Folks across the spectrum, gay and non-gay, are arguing about outing, with the latest dipstick with influence-beyond-his-capacities calling it akin to McCarthyism and perhaps a few obliging that characterization by coming close to setting the standard for serious-minded 'investigation' so low that people are meant to answer 'rumors', gossip.
McGreevey wants us to pray. Barney Frank wants us to put it to a vote.
All's just to say that the discourse has gotten a little rarefied and those with sense will keep their heads down, maybe, while the mud flies, or you'll end up like Robbie, totally discouraged:
The gay establishment really is completely broken. An extortionist and a serial liar are given prominent profiles in the Washington Post while our national organizations preoccupy themselves with Snicker’s commercials, the cast of Gray’s Anatomy, and a media dweeb who no one on planet earth thinks could rough up anyone in any bathroom ever.
