According to a mainstream media “opinionator,” prostitute shopaholic David Vitter was embraced by members of Congress upon his return from brief exile. One can imagine the scene where some of those good ole boys, welcomed Dave with a high five, a wink, and, of course, sidled up to ask if he really did wear a diaper during his appointments. Can’t you hear the snorting and guffawing?
And now we have this entire week’s career-breaking news-Sen. Larry Craig’s soliciting an undercover police officer for sex, playing “shoesie” under the restroom stall at an airport. Larry “I’m not gay and I don’t do these kinds of things” Craig spoke later, his wife Suzanne at his side. Her sunglasses most certainly hid puffy eyes, red and swollen from crying. There was no defiance like we saw from Vitter’s wife when she announced that she is proud to be Wendy Vitter.
There is something rotten in the state of the land of opportunists. There is something smelly in the halls of Congress.
Seems that straying from the marriage for a little or a lot of opposite sex sex, even if you laud the sanctity of marriage-no, especially if you laud the sanctity of marriage, at every campaign stop and stump speech, is round-of-applause acceptance when you are chumming it up with your fellow lawmakers.
Furthermore, all those policymakers who are the loudest about denying rights to gay and lesbian Americans appear to be the very ones who are caught up in tawdry e-mail exchanges or restroom stings as they skulk through cyberspace or lavatories for some same-sex nooky. Suddenly, that special, fraternity handshake from their colleagues is out of reach. Instead, these guys face and hear the gathering voices of former friends who are shouting, “Resign.”
So, here’s my idea. If you’re a member of Congress, stop with the condemnation of same-sex this and that. If you don’t, some blogger is going to say, “Hmm, the Congressman doth protest too much.”
Isn’t it time, now, to practice tolerance? After all, most of us are here, on this planet, simply searching for love, acceptance, and fulfillment.
Missy Beattie lives in New York City. She’s written for National Public Radio and Nashville Life Magazine. An outspoken critic of the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq, she’s a member of Gold Star Families for Peace. She completed a novel last year, but since the death of her nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Chase J. Comley, in Iraq on August 6,’05, she has been writing political articles. She can be reached at: Missybeat@aol.com