A new ad, set to debut at 3:30 today will parody an ad accused of race-baiting Tennessee Democrat Harold Ford by gay-baiting Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. An advanced copy of the ad has been acquired by RAW STORY, and is viewable below.

The ad, produced by Proud of Who We Are and BlogActive, is a parody mocking the the RNC's now-infamous 'call me' ad. That spot, which the RNC eventually pulled this month, showed a scantily clad white actress saying she met Ford at 'the Playboy party.' It ended with her asking the congressman to call her. Many analysts believe it was produced to play on racist fears of interracial relationships.

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) - Just three days after he was 'outed' Bill Maher was talking about Craig by name on his show with Barney Frank.


Ex-Rep. Mark Foley - The site first reported that Foley was a danger to the gay community in March of 2005. His former Chief of Staff, Kirk Fordham was one of the very first cases reported on the site. At the time, Kirk, a gay man, was working to elect Mel Martinez to the US Senate. Martinez is a vehement homophobe.


Ex-Rep. Ed Schrock - BlogACTIVE posted seven audio recordings of Schrock seeking sex with men. At the same time he was doing that -- a felony at the time in Virginia -- Schrock was beating up gays and telling constituents that Don't Ask, Don't Tell was too lenient!

In addition to blogACTIVE, I've established Proud Of Who We Are, an organization which calls upon closeted gay officials to come out of the closet and be proud of who they are and to be honest with the American people.

As head of Proud of Who We Are, I am spending hours each day calling evangelical and social conservative leaders to inform them just howmembers many membrs of what they call the "homosexual lifestyle" are asking them for their support and votes on Election Day. I take my message to leaders like James Dobson, Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer. I've also spent time calling such leaders in places like Idaho (home of Larry Craig).

It's odd being one of the people on the left engaging the far right. But trust me, when they have a chance to hear audio confirmation of a gay man who had sex with an elected GOP official, they become very concerned. Of course, most of them are truly surprised to learn how many closeted gay men are in the highest echelons of the Republican Party they are being asked to support next week. It's quite an education for them.

A blogACTIVE.com response to Ken Mehlman and his race baiting of Harold Ford:

Hey, Ken, two can play your game, pal. By late Tuesday afternoon BlogACTIVE will have produced and posted a response to your ad, which I suspect will get as much play as the original ad you used to interject your own brand of hate into the election.

I have engaged a writer, director, cameraman, actors, actresses, post production team and a publicity team to help push this top-notch video into the mainstream as quickly as possible.

Here are some of the screenshots. The original RNC is on the left... My response ad is on the right:

How you can help:

1. Blog, Blog, Blog - When the ad comes out tomorrow, tell everyone about it. Blog and email about it.

2. Email, email, email - Help me push the ad far and wide. I've seen the final draft. It's fantastic!

3. Support the ad with a donation via PayPal - Every penny helps. The creative team behind the ad hopes you will have trust in the accomplishments of blogACTIVE and Proud Of Who We Are to take a gamble on this response ad. The video will be made widely available, for free, in multiple formats. We are researching placing the ad on in selected media markets as well.

It would ruin the effort to give too many specifics away, but you can see a couple of screenshots above that we're taking the fight right back to the on their home turf. I hope you will take a moment to help this effort out with even small gift toward the ad. To donate via PayPal, click here.

Thanks!!!

All this is, as everyone knows, just a show for rousing the base. If the last month has taught us anything about the Republican Party, it is that homophobia is campaign strategy, not conviction. Congressmen who trust their careers to gay staffers vote for laws to enshrine second-class citizenship for gays in the Constitution. Gay appointees and their partners are treated as married people at official ceremonies and social gatherings. Then whenever an election rolls around, the whole team pretends it’s on a mission to save America from gay marriage.

Mr. Bush and his faithful acolytes seem perfectly willing to stoke fears that create division and sorrow in a country that doesn’t need any more of either. The president has just a little more than two years left in office. You’d think that for once he’d want to consider devoting his time to making things better instead of worse.

"[You] have asked a question people shouldn't have to answer"
- Gay People's Chronicle (Cleveland), 3/25/05

"I'm not gay. But those stories did a number on my dating life for six months."
- NY Daily News, 5/2/06

[WMV]
[MOV]

Today, I challenge to James Dobson to ask Ken directly: Are you a member of the so-called "homosexual lifestyle" and do you expect my followers to support you at the polls?

Update: Who is Phil Berg? Phil Berg is an out gay attorney who Mehlman is friends with. In other words, he has no problem being close friends with gays personally, as long as they don't mind him beating he crap out of gay people at the office. Oh, his friend from law school also went to the 2004 Inaugural events with Ken.

The Boise e-mail lines were already buzzing last Wednesday afternoon, when gay activist Mike Rogers decided that he was ready to accuse Sen. Larry Craig of having sexual relations with other men. Rogers made his allegations on a nationally-syndicated radio talk show. BW had already gone to press, so a brief story about the accusations went onto our Web site.

Former Gov. James McGreevey, who resigned after acknowledging a gay affair, said he would tie the knot with his partner if state lawmakers decide to allow gay marriage.

Marriage would offer the ability to bless our relationship in a committed way,' McGreevey, 49, told The New York Times.

A young rising star in the Republican Party has boasted to witnesses of his sexual relationship with Charlie Crist, the frontrunner in the Florida governor's race who has repeatedly denied that he is gay.

The GOP staffer, 21-year-old Jason Wetherington, told friends at separate social functions in August that he had sex with Crist, according to two credible and independent sources who heard Wetherington make the claim first-hand.

Wetherington, who recently worked as a field director for U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris and currently works for state representative Ellyn Bodganoff's reelection campaign, also named a man whom he said is Crist's long-term partner, a convicted thief named Bruce Carlton Jordan who also recently worked for Harris in her long-shot Senate bid.

Jordan made headlines recently when the Miami Herald learned that the felon was working as Harris's travel aide. The newspaper noted that Jordan, 42, was reported to be close friends with Charlie Crist, whom he convinced to attend an annual Florida Funeral Directors Association meeting in 2003."

Senator, have you any sexual encounters with one or more men in the past ten years?

You have to separate the marketing from the reality. The reality is, these members are not homophobic. For the most part, they're using this marketing to play to our base and stay in power. They have to turn out the votes,' said David Duncan, once a board member of the Lesbian and Gay Congressional Staff Association and a former top aide to Rep. Robert Ney (R-Ohio), who last week pleaded guilty to corruption charges linked to the Abramoff scandal.

Andrew Sullivan, the openly gay conservative columnist, calls the Republican leadership 'closet-tolerant.'

'They're tolerant of gay people but they have to keep quiet about it because their base would go crazy if they ever express it. That's the bottom line,' Sullivan said. 'They have this acute cognitive dissonance, which is a polite way of saying hypocrisy.'"

SJ Mercury News: Foley scandal no excuse to tear holes in Republicans' `big tent':
Gay blogger Mike Rogers upped the stakes by appearing on radio to accuse a married Republican senator of having sex with men. The senator denied it.

Proceed at your own risk: QUEEN FOR A DAY 2006:
Mike is the present day Jack Bailey, a man none of you remember because you're all so fucking young. Bitches.

The trouble with growing older--other than falling apart and dying-- is the 'nothing new under the sun' syndrome blues. And all Mr. Rogers has done is delivered yet another remake of yet another classic American TV show in the tradition of The Addams Family, Bewitched and Charlie's Angels.

Bill Maher: I was looking at what is going on in Washington these days and now I see a lot of these gay Republicans being outed. This Larry Craig character from Idaho. You must have met him at least, what does your gaydar tell you about him?

Barney Frank: I actually served in the House with him and my sense tells me...

For the rest, watch the video:

The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power. ... That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda.

Until the Foley scandal broke, there wasn't even a mathematical possibility of a Democratic takeover of either body of Congress,' South Dakota-based campaign consultant Paul Erickson said. 'But Foley introduced a concrete voting-base suppression factor that is immeasurable until election night.

Murmurs
Building on his claimed success in "outing" gay congressional Republicans, including ex-Rep. Mark Foley of Florida, Washington blogger Mike Rogers says he will name another prominent GOP official before the November 7 election. "I will have documents" on the next one, he added. A Democrat, Rogers said he will continue to oust Republicans from the closet so "we can have an honest political dialogue." He is eager to force a showdown with the Christian Right, whose leaders have said that they don't want gays in the GOP.

I don't know whether this is true or not. This is why I believe this "votes like he hates the gays" Senator should go on Meet the Press Sunday to discuss the matter.

Here are some potential questions for Tim Russert.

1) Senator, welcome to Meet the Press. What's your favorite Madonna album?

A file allegedly suppressed by Congresswoman Heather Wilson (R-NM) has been obtained by RAW STORY.

In 1995, just three days into her tenure as Secretary of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, Wilson removed a routine working file alleging that her husband had engaged in inappropriate contact with a minor. The file was then transferred to the department's attorney in her own Albuquerque office, where it soon went missing.
...

More than ten years later, RAW STORY has uncovered and confirmed the authenticity of the police incident report believed to be contained in the missing dossier. Filed as a case of child abuse in 1993, it contends that Wilson's husband Jay Hone, an Albuquerque attorney, touched a then-16 year old boy 'in a manner that was not welcome.'

On Wednesday, the Spokane Spokesman-Review made the controversial decision to run a story about rumors swirling around Idaho Senator Larry Craig -- a story that likely never would have seen the light of day a few short years ago. The basics of the story are as follows: Gay-rights activist Mike Rogers claimed on his blog and a syndicated radio program that confidential sources had provided him information concerning consensual homosexual relationships involving Craig. The senator responded to the story through a spokesperson, calling it 'completely ridiculous.'

Gay Republicans: An article in Section A on Wednesday about friction in the Republican Party between gays and religious conservatives said Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) had a campaign manager who is gay. The Allen staff member who is gay is his communications director."

[Family research Council president Tony] Perkins said the GOP shouldn't worry about losing votes of gays because their numbers are dwarfed by Christian conservatives. He predicted that any GOP presidential hopeful deemed a gay-rights supporter would be denied the 2008 nomination.

"Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, vigorously denied the claim made by self-described gay rights blogger Michael Rogers that Craig has had sex with men for years. Rogers claimed, on his blog , that he interviewed four men who said they had sex with Craig. Rogers said it was a legitimate posting (he also made the claim on the nationally syndicated liberal talk show of Ed Schultz) because Craig supports an anti-gay rights agenda. But Rogers did not identify the men he talked with. Still, despite Craig's denials and the anonymity of the accusers, some bloggers immediately accepted Rogers' assertion as fact."

America's strength is found in the spirit and character of our people. During National Character Counts Week, we renew our commitment to instilling values in our young people and to encouraging all Americans to remember the importance of good character.

The long-simmering tension in the GOP between gays and the religious right has erupted into open conflict at a sensitive time, just weeks before a midterm election that may cost Republicans control of Congress.

'The big-tent strategy could ultimately spell doom for the Republican Party,' said Tom McClusky, chief lobbyist for the Family Research Council, a Christian advocacy group. 'All a big-tent strategy seems to be doing is attracting a bunch of clowns.

If our reporters had uncovered this information, it's unlikely we would run a story. However, because this information is already circulating through other media, it's a different situation.

'We can't ignore it,' said managing editor Gary Graham. 'If we start ignoring that kind of discussion in a media context, we take ourselves down a slippery slope.'

The story will include a reaction from Sen. Craig, who denies the assertions.

'We actually do Craig a service by letting him respond in print,' Graham said."

Robert F. Bennett (R-UT)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Richard Burr (R-NC)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Norm Coleman (R-MN)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Larry E. Craig (R-ID)
Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Jim DeMint (R-SC)
Michael B. Enzi (R-WY)
James M. Inhofe (R-OK)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Mel Martinez (R-FL)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Richard C. Shelby (R-AL)
John Thune (R-SD)
David Vitter (R-LA)
George V. Voinovich (R-OH)

Political Radar: "Two Democratic sources confirm to ABC News that former Gov. Mark Warner (D-VA) will announce today that he will not be a candidate for president in 2008. "

Mike Rogers Holds His Own Against O'Reilly / Queerty

"Dear Mark Foley,

It really is a shame that as an out gay man you are spending your first National Coming Out Day today in 'rehab' (wink, wink). But really, Mark, perhaps it's best that you stay out of the limelight for now, because besides the fact that gays don't want to claim you, your coming out story is a tragic tale."

"A former Foley aide noted that the congressman, who switched from the Democratic Party early in his political career..."

Like soldiers in the winter's night
With a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender

That era has passed, despite the fondest wishes of some conservatives, and it is time that the American media -- and, yes, the closeted culture of official Washington -- awakened to that fact. It is time, in short, to end the hypocritical double standard that shields gay politicians from the implications (and the promise) of who they are. Let the doors open wide.

Do I mean 'outing'? Yes -- within limits. I hold no brief for those hysterics on the far right who want every homosexual working in the Republican Party to be called out by name -- as a precursor, presumably, to being expunged. Nor do I think that gay congressional staffers forfeit all rights to privacy simply by virtue of their jobs. But I do believe that every man or woman who courts public office must be held to some public standard of honesty -- of coherence.

Several gay Republicans who worked for other lawmakers found his [Foley's] suite of offices to be a safe zone and would drop by to kibitz. Others benefited from his advice. He counseled one in his dealings with blogger Mike Rogers, who publicly disclosed the identities of a dozen gay Republican staff members.

One senior House Republican tells CBS that there's a lot of anger at what he describes as 'a network of gay staffers and gay members who protect each other and did the speaker a disservice.''

The New Republic's Michael Crowley picks up on Borger's comment. He argues that 'it's becoming clear that some people on Capitol Hill are promoting a storyline that involves gay Republican staffers--apparently led by [Tom Reynolds's chief of staff Kirk] Fordham--covering up for Mark Foley.' Crowley suggests 'maybe this is how Dennis Hastert and his compatriots are explaining themselves to the base.'

He also notes David Corn's report on 'The List' – a document being passed around political circles of high-level Republican congressional aides who are gay.

'I don't actually call it outing. I call it reporting,' explained Michael Rogers, whose Web site, www.blogactive.com, has reported on Foley's homosexuality for three years.

'I put it there because Foley had a record that was against the gay community. He refused to denounce his vote on the Defense of Marriage Act. It's not about being gay. It's about the hypocrisy.'

Rogers also believes that alleged sexual advances toward underage boys could have been circumvented if Foley wasn't in the closet.

'I do believe that he had unhealthy sexual advances to these guys because he was living his life as a closeted gay man,' Rogers said. 'And that's what informs his actions. Had he lived his life honestly and openly and been proud of who he is, this would never would have happened.'

Your psyche is so split by decades of lies and deceptions and euphemisms that integrity and mental health suffer. No one should excuse Foley's creepy interactions; they are inexcusable, as is the alleged cover-up (although we shouldn't jump to conclusions yet about who knew what when). But there's a reason gay men in homophobic institutions behave in self-destructive ways.

Or think of it another way: what do the Vatican and the RNC have in common? Here's one potential list: entrenched homophobia, psychologically damaged closet cases, inappropriate behavior toward teens and minors ... and cover-ups designed entirely to retain power. The parallels are looking a little creepy. And the source is the same."

I’m deeply disappointed the High Court sided with pedophiles over children. This decision has set back years of work on behalf of the most innocent of Americans.

This was my immediate reaction on April 16 when the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling struck down a bipartisan congressional ban on virtual child pornography. The 1996 law I voted for banned all child pornography, real or virtual.