The Pot & The Kettle (one of whom is also “PatriotPal”, a loyal GP commenter and friend) has the dirt on New Jersey’s favorite corrupt gay ex-Governor.

McGreevey will be on Oprah in September.  The Pot isn’t impressed..

Oprah, girl, what were you thinking? Jimbo’s fifteen minutes were up a few hours ago and his book isn’t going to change that. Plus, do you really need to be chit chatting about another memoir filled with lies?

P&K also tell us that the McGayvenator has a new beau.

Are we sure these guys are gay?  Who picked our their clothing combos?  Dear God!

And to top it all off, the Advocate gives us some “TMI” dirt on the former Guv.  He cruised truck stops.

A much-anticipated memoir from the nation’s first openly gay governor is due out this fall. But excerpts from the book by former New Jersey governor James McGreevey are already causing a small storm of media hype.

In the book, titled The Confession (ReganBooks), McGreevey reveals that he once resorted to anonymous sex at highway rest stops. McGreevey, who proclaimed himself “a gay American” in 2004 while announcing his impending resignation as governor, engaged in the secret encounters because he feared having a relationship with a man would ruin his chances of success as a politician.

“So instead I settled for the detached anonymity of bookstores and rest stops as a compromise, but one that was wholly unfulfilling and morally unsatisfactory,” McGreevey writes in the book, according to the excerpts published Sunday in The [Newark, N.J.] Star-Ledger. The excerpts do not mention whether the activities took place during his tenure as governor.  

What a great role model for young gay Americans, right?  I wonder if our friends over at the HRC and NGLTF still stand behind their praise of McGreevey as “courageous” and “honest and straightforward”?

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to spend my money this summer on this book by a true gay American role model.  It is written by someone who believes in all that is good about America and stands up for her beliefs and stands behind her family.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Oh, come on.  The hysteria here by the Georgia Gays is just a riot. 

After all, Howard Dean — the head of the Democrat National Committee as well as the 2004 Democratic Presidential candidate (*snapping fingers to try to remember his name*) all have the same position on gay marriage as this Democrat candidate for Governor of Georgia…..

Georgia gubernatorial candidate faces ire of gay voters - Advocate.com

Gay voters in Georgia are threatening to boycott the state’s upcoming Democratic gubernatorial primary after one of the two candidates reversed position regarding the state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Cathy Cox, Georgia’s secretary of state, had been expected to carry the gay vote in her closely contested primary July 18 with the state’s lieutenant governor, Mark Taylor, but that was before she announced her support for a special legislative session to reinstate Georgia’s anti–marriage equality amendment, recently invalidated by a court, reports The Macon Telegraph.

Previously, Cox had said that a constitutional amendment was unnecessary because Georgia law already prohibits same-sex marriage. However, she now supports the amendment, explaining in a letter to Georgia Equality that she agrees with the state legislature’s effort to convene a special session to resolve the amendment’s legal problems so that it won’t “overshadow all other important issues” in the future, according to the Telegraph.

This should be an important message to those delusional gay Americans who think the Democrat Party actually wants to advance gay rights.  They are not.  If they believe they can win an election by pandering to the religious right, or by simply reinforcing a position most Americans hold on gay marriage… they will stab you in the back with their left hand as they take your campaign donations with the right hand.  You are just the fools that continue to write the checks while you bleed.

I am a Republican because I believe in most things the Republican Party stands for.  But gay Democrats seem to be under the increasingly false illusion that the Democrat Party is pro-gay.  No way, Jose.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Earlier this month, Log Cabin stood alone among gay groups praising Mary Cheney for telling her story and acknowledging her father’s (Vice President Dick Cheney) outspoken opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment, noting that it was “the only time since being sworn in as Vice President that he publicly expressed disagreement with the President.” A state Log Cabin leader reminded me that yesterday Log Cabin once again praised a Republican, this time applauding the president for signing legislation banning protests at military funerals.

Fred Phelps, an anti-gay pastor, not satisfied just to protest at funerals of gays, had begun to protest at the funerals of servicemen and women who died fighting the war of Terror. That Kansas Democrat claimed “the fallen service members deserve their fate because of this country’s tolerance of gay and lesbian people.” Log Cabin President Patrick Guerriero said that the new law, the Respect for America’s Fallen Heroes Act, “gives the families of America’s fallen heroes the dignity and respect they deserve.”

The law bars protests within 300 feet of the entrance to a national cemetery as well as within 150 feet of a road leading to the cemetery. It’s unfortunate that crackpots like Phelps have to make spectacles of themselves by dishonoring the dead in order to attract media attention. This creep makes Madonna’s publicity stunts seem banal by comparison.

While I’m always skeptical of laws designed to limit protest, even those of creeps like Phelps, in this case, legislation seemed necessary in order to allow the families of our fallen heroes a chance to mourn their loved ones in a dignified manner. Given that this new law has been narrowly tailored, it should mass constitutional muster.

Congress and the president did the right thing. Kudos to Patrick Guerriero and Log Cabin for praising the president on this one.

-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com

I saw The Da Vinci Code last night was pretty underwhelmed by the flick. That said, it had a number of commendable qualities, notably the ever-amazing Ian McKellan as rather oddly named Sir Leigh Teabing. I also enjoyed the historical flashbacks, even if I didn’t always agree with the interpretation of history — and was delighted they did show the goddess Athena at the same time I’m finishing up a proposal to do my dissertation on that gray-eyed Olympian. I did cringe, however, when Roman Christians pulled her statue down.

And while I believe the movie got the Grail wrong and while Christians are upset that its misrepresented the history of their faith, I don’t think those misinterpretations accounted for the success of the book. I think its success had to do with the fact that it’s a good thriller which uses symbols from history, ancient faiths and classic art. And Dan Brown (the author) dared to say what too much modern scholarship has attempted to obscure — that these symbols have meaning.

I believe, particularly in this increasingly rational society, people hunger for such meaningful symbols in their lives.

I doubt that all the fans (perhaps not even a majority) of the book (and now movie) believe Teabing’s theories on Christianity, that is, that Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife and was herself the Grail. They just liked the fast-paced story and shared Landon’s (Tom Hanks) fascination with ancient (and still meaningful) symbols. And perhaps, the same thing drew readers to this book that drew fifteenth century readers to Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, the first best seller in the English language, the archetypal fascination of the Grail quest.

Sir Leigh’s insistence on exposing how he believes the Catholic Church misrepresented its own history seems a bit nonsensical to me. He seems to want to expose the church for the atrocities it committed. To be sure, many of his accusations are historically accurate. But, they’re just that — history. The faithful did torture and execute many who did not accept the doctrines they espoused. But, this atrocities began to fade once Christianity began to reincorporate Græco-Roman elements during the Renaissance.

Today, we rarely (if ever) hear of Christians committing such atrocities. Findng the Christian myth to be a fraud wouldn’t undo those crimes — nor would it do much to prevent them in the present day.

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Sometimes the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) surprises me by doing (or saying) something with which I agree. Indeed, it seems I more regularly hear of positive developments coming from that socialist-inclined group than from its more mainstream liberal counterpart, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

In November, citing a column by Dale Carpenter, I noted how NGLTF distinguished itself from the folks leading the campaign against a Texas referendum to amend the state’s constitution to ban gay marriage when it released a series of TV ads, making the positive case for gay marriage. Other groups seemed more interested “in attacking Republicans than in defeating this pernicious proposal.”

Today, NGLTF seems to be alone among gay groups in condemning “state-sanctioned attacks on Moscow Gay Pride participants.” Local police there joined anti-gay protesters in attacking the parade. 100 gays and lesbians were arrested. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhov said that he believed such parades should be “inadmissible in our country above all for moral considerations. People should not make public their deviations.“

I’m also pleased that in calling on the Administration to condemn the attacks, NGLTF’s Executive Director Matt Foreman refrains from attacking the president himself or making other allegations against that good man and his team.

Kudos to NGLTF for getting this one right. Too bad more gay groups are so focused on attacking the president that they ignore real abuses committed against gays in other lands.

-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com

This is one of my favorite songs and last Veterans Day I posted it. I’d like to do the same today in honor of our fallen men and women who have given the ultimate price so that we can live free in the greatest nation on Earth.

I’m just trying to be a father,
Raise a daughter and a son,
Be a lover to their mother,
Everything to everyone.
Up and at ‘em bright and early,
I’m all business in my suit,
Yeah, I’m dressed for success from my head down to my boots,
I don’t do it for money, there’s still bills that I can’t pay,
I don’t do it for the glory, I just do it anyway,
Providing for our future’s my responsibility,
Yeah I’m real good under pressure, being all that I can be,
And I can’t call in sick on Mondays when the weekends been to strong,
I just work straight through the holidays,
And sometimes all night long.
You can bet that I stand ready when the wolf growls at the door,
Hey, I’m solid, hey I’m steady, hey I’m true down to the core,
And I will always do my duty, no matter what the price,
I’ve counted up the cost, I know the sacrafice,
Oh, and I don’t want to die for you,
But if dyin’s asked of me,
I’ll bear that cross with an honor,
‘Cause freedom don’t come free.
I’m an american soldier, an american,
Beside my brothers and my sisters I will proudly take a stand,
When liberty’s in jeopardy I will always do what’s right,
I’m out here on the front lines, sleep in peace tonight.
American soldier, I’m an American,
An American,
An American Soldier

Here’s a link to the video of the song by Toby Keith.

Please remember those today who have stepped up to the plate to protect us. And remember the families of those who won’t be coming home.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

To all of our awesome readers. Dan, John, Nick and I are taking a brief holiday this weekend. In addition to the rest we probably all need, our Webmaster Jay is making some needed changes to the Patriot WebHouse in order to make sure our roof isn’t leaking.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and a hearty salute to our brave men and women who have died in the cause of freedom, as well as the families who love them and miss them.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

As a gay conservative, I have been disappointed by Patrick Guerriero’s failure to stand up to the leftist tilt of the major gay organizations. As a Republican, I wish he had more frequently promoted conservative ideas — and developed a message on gay issues consistent with Ronald Reagan’s positive vision of an inclusive and optimistic America. And while I’ve been critical of many of Patrick’s policies as head of Log Cabin, as a former club president, I appreciate how he has been more responsive than his predecessor to the clubs.

With Patrick’s depature from Log Cabin, we hope the Board of Directors will pick as his successor someone more eager to build bridges to the GOP than to the gay groups. And while many gay Republicans delight in his departure, as our posts on Log Cabin have shown, his record has not entirely been a bad one.

On a number of levels, he did much to improve the organization. I witnessed this firsthand last April at Log Cabin’s convention in New Orleans. Almost from the moment I arrived, I experienced a welcome warmer than that I experienced at conventions in the late 1990s as president of the then-fastest growing club in the nation. Just from talking from club leaders (including the president of the club I founded), under Patrick, the national office has been more committed to building the grassroots.

During my era, club presidents were among those complaining the most about the national office. It did not consult us before making major policy decisions, often releasing letters addressed to Log Cabin’s membership to the media before they released them to us. Lately, however, whenever I hear from club presidents, even those who differ with Patrick on policy, they praise him for the warmth of his conversation (in person and on the phone) and his alacrity in responding to their concerns. (Even his critics in the organization have praised his personal qualities.)

I experienced his warmth when I met him. I wrote in a post last year:

I understand better now why so many people in Log Cabin like [Patrick]. He has better political skills, better political savvy, than all but a handful of gay leaders I have met. He handles his critics, at least publicly, far better than his predecessor, a good quality in someone in the public eye.

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If there were any doubt that Ted Stevens rules Alaska, my trip here has put it all to rest.  His name even came up in a business meeting that involved healthcare services.   Good heavens.

The symbol of Stevens’ power and influence begins as soon as your plane touches down in Anchorage.  Keep in mind that only 400,000 people live in Anchorage and only 1 million total in the whole state.  But ladies and gentlemen, Ted Stevens International Airport is the finest and most expensive-looking airport I have been in for quite some time.

I haven’t seen the Bridge to Nowhere yet, however. 

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Kathryn Lopez wrote a column at NRO testing the waters for Jeb Bush for President in 2008. (Stay Out of the Bushes?  Not So Fast)

Readers at The Corner @ NRO have negatively responded so far.

E-mails (other than expletive-ridden ones), look typically like:

You better get out and talk with the grass roots.  I would prefer to see Hillary elected than vote for another Bush. After all if you are going to be betrayed and ignored by your elected officials it is much more emotionally acceptable to be betrayed and ignored by those you would expect it from. It is much more difficult to be betrayed and ignored by those you trusted and supported.

PatriotPartner is a Jeb fan, so we diverge on this point.  But for crying out loud… if Jeb or Hillary is elected in 2004 that means by 2009 there will have been a 24-year period where either a Bush or Clinton was our President.

Stop the madness!

Rudy or Condi in 2008.  Please.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

In his snarky attempt to rebut my hypothetical question from yesterday…

I’m personally curious which happened more often in the past 4 years of Guerriero’s Reign: President Bush saying the word “gay” publicly … or Patrick publicly supporting the President on any issue.

…BoiFromTroy actually proved my point!  LOL

It is routinely stated by the Gay Left that Bush only said “gay” once during the 2004 campaign.  (Bush Score - 1)

And, in the five throughouly researched examples stated by BFT, Patrick Guerriero only praised President Bush himself one time. (Guerriero Score - 1)

BFT Example One - LCR praises Andy Card….not President Bush
BFT Example Two - LCR praises its own member…not President Bush
BFT Example Three - LCR applauds Sen. Coburn…not President Bush
BFT Example Four - Score One!  LCR commends President Bush
BFT Example Five - President Bush never mentioned at all, so very odd example to use.

I was curious if Bush said “gay” more than Patrick publicly supported the President.  BFT proves it was a tie!  Thank goodness for those Guerriero supporters doing my research! 

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Its not just AOL. On Monday, Yahoo! included a slanted article in its list of the day’s top headlines. And that article, noting that Secretary of State Condoleezza “Rice faces silent protest in Boston,” led by focusing on the losing team’s score.

Despite this headline, the reporter noted that the protest “was smaller than had been expected and those among the 25,000 crowd who gave her a standing ovation outnumbered those who sat in silence.” Seems that this title, “Despite scattered protests, Rice gets standing ovation in Boston,” would more accurately describe the event.

Even as the reporter notes that more students gave the Secretary of State a standing ovation than protested, he focuses on the protesters. Here’s a protest that doesn’t meet its organizers’ expectations — and those of the media. But this reporter just couldn’t let go of the story he want to tell.

It’s also interesting to note that conservative speakers at college commencements frequently draw protests from left-wing students and faculty, more often the latter nowadays than the former. Conservative students, however, seem more tolerant of left-wing commencement speakers. We just don’t hear of conservatives protesting such speakers. Maybe it’s just that we’re less well represented on university faculties.

This story shows two kinds of bias — the media eager to make conservatives look bad and left-wing professors (and their student followers) eager to prevent them from addressing university commencements.

Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com

Over at Instapundit, Glenn quotes a must-read article from Jonah Goldberg showing how “badly the press bungled Katrina coverage. . . . And yet, an ubiquitous media chorus claims simultaneously that Katrina was Bush’s worst hour and the press’s best.” Like Glenn, I recommend that you read the whole thing. And I agree with him that what the MSM learned from all this is “that if they all shouted lies in unison they could drive Bush down in the polls.“

Seems they’re doing the same thing in Iraq by highlighting the opposition’s “score,” our side’s failures, while downplaying, if not just plain ignoring, our successes.

And some people still deny the MSM is biased.

UPDATE: Glenn has more here on the media failures on Katrina, indicating that media “mis-reporting hampered rescue efforts” and wondering if it “cost lives.” Read the whole thing and follow the link.

There is something poetic that beleaguered Log Cabin Chieftain Patrick Guerriero announced his departure on the same day I arrive in Alaska (the last frontier) for the first time in my life.  Dunno, just found it oddly fate-like. (*cue music* …..A New Day, by Celine Dion.)

Here’s the scoop direct from the Log Cabin spin-meisters.

May 23, 2006     

Patrick Guerriero Leaving Log Cabin after Four Years of Record Growth

(Washington, DC)—Log Cabin Republicans President Patrick Guerriero will assume new responsibilities as the first-ever Executive Director of the Gill Action Fund.   By the time Guerriero leaves Log Cabin in September, he will have traveled over 750,000 miles, visiting over 300 cities and towns in all 50 states.  “It has been a humbling experience leading Log Cabin Republicans during the past four years,” said Guerriero.  “I’m proud of what thousands of courageous Log Cabin members across America have accomplished as we work to build an inclusive Republican Party and a better America.”

    

“The entire Log Cabin Republican family is profoundly grateful for Patrick Guerriero’s inspired leadership,” said Log Cabin Chairman Tim Schoeffler.  “Patrick led the organization through unprecedented growth, including dozens of new chapters, thousands of new members, and a 400% increase in our annual budget.  We will miss him greatly, but we wish him the best of luck and we look forward to working with him as Executive Director of Gill Action.”

Where, oh where, do I start? 

First, Patrick will definitely be at home at the liberal-leaning Gill Foundation.

Second, there is a golden opportunity with the Massachusetts liberal gone that we can Put the “Republican” Back into Log Cabin at long last!  The fluttering praise of Patrick’s outreach to the Gay Left is highlighted in the LC(R) press release.

In the words of former HRC Executive Director, Elizabeth Birch, “Patrick has reached out extensively to Republicans and Democrats alike.  He has been among the most principled leaders of our movement for equality.  Patrick is a good person of good character and does not ever take the easy road.  He takes the heat but stays the course.” 

Third, I enthusiastically nominate MARY CHENEY to lead the new era of Log Cabin REPUBLICANS.  She’s probably too smart to hop on the Titanic.  *sigh*

Fourth, maybe the LC(R) Board will finally see how much their decision to hire Patrick in the first place drained their coffers.  They will soon find out if the “400% increase in the budget” was due to increased contributions, or outlandish spending.  *cough* — First Class seats — *cough*

Lastly, I’m personally curious which happened more often in the past 4 years of Guerriero’s Reign:  President Bush saying the word “gay” publicly … or Patrick publicly supporting the President on any issue.

More later…. I’m just settling into my hotel in Anchorage tonight.

UPDATE:  Here’s another take from Log Cabin apologist and consultant, BoiFromTroy.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

UPDATE (from GPW): Having spent the day learning about Buddhism and presenting on Vimalakirti, I’m blown away by the news. I think Patrick’s departure gives Log Cabin an opportunity to reaffirm its Republican principles. I hope the Board picks someone who supported President Bush in the last election — and who has a history of backing other Republican candidates — and promoting conservative ideas. (Of course I will have more to say this anon.)

Well, I assume so at least.   I’m leaving this evening for a flight to Seattle.  But my stay will be short as tomorrow it is off to Anchorage, Alaska.  Yep, I’m excited… it is for work through.

However, in the past couple of days I’ve been told that the mosquitos in Alaska are the size of birds.  I assume the Alaska Tourism Commission has kept this sinister secret from me just like the Australian Tourism Commission kept their traps shut about the Fly Swarms From Hell before my trip there two years ago.

I do hope I run into one of these guys though…..

Hopefully I’ll be back into the blog routine more this week since I’ll be at hotels in the evening.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Imagine, if you will, a newspaper whose editors so hated the owner of the town’s baseball team that when publishing articles on its games, they headline all stories by highlighting the number of runs the opposing team scores. Deep in each article, they might bury the news of the home team’s victory. Now, imagine that the local TV networks, whose producers, anchors and sports department, all have a beef with this owner, so they join the paper in focus on the opposing team’s score and downplaying the home team’s success.

Local sports fans who attended the games would surely protest this biased coverage. They would know that there’s more to the games than the opposing team’s score — especially as their team was enjoying a winning season. And if the paper and the TV stations continued to highlight the opposing team’s scores, most local sports fans would cancel their subscriptions (unless they so liked the paper’s news and features section) to the paper and would no longer turn to those stations for sports news.

People in town who didn’t go to the games would assume their team was having a losing season. They would surely be surprised when they learned that, the local media notwithstanding, the team had made it to the playoffs. Just as the naysayers are surprised that the Iraqis this weekend swore in its first elected constitutional government in well over a generation.

Perhaps you now understand why I let my subscription to the Los Angeles Times lapse. I was fed up of reading negative headlines (& articles) on the war in Iraq. It seemed that every piece of bad news there found its way to the front page (above the fold) of the paper while the good news was buried at the end of those front-page articles (with negative headlines) or hidden in the middle of the paper — if it was reported at all.

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Give me a break.

Howard Dean Says He’s Sorry - Advocate.com

Q. At a time when your opponents have perfected the art of mobilizing their base to win close elections, what’s the chairman of the DNC doing on The 700 Club?

Dean: We’re also trying to mobilize our base. We have people in all 50 states knocking on doors, and we’re doing specific [organizing] with the LGBT community for the first time. We’re paying for these organizers in every state—there’s 200 of them around the country—and when we train them, among all the other things they have to [learn], specifically, is how to empower our friends and family in the LGBT community. We talk to them about how to talk about LGBT issues, with the straight community and with the LGBT community. We also have an arrangement with Stonewall Democrats—they were very active in our million-household canvass two weeks ago. We’re really trying to integrate the LGBT community so they don’t just talk to each other, they also speak to the straight community—because ultimately, I think, that’s how we’re going to start converting folks to understand that gay Americans are Americans first, who happen to be gay.

Never…answers…the…question…

Okay, let’s try again…

Q. Gay voters supported your presidential campaign [in 2003 and early 2004] because they saw you as cutting through the bullshit and speaking your mind. Now you appear to be pandering to the antigay far right. Why should gay voters trust you with their issues when you’re on The 700 Club?

Dean: Well, to be honest with you, I was hurt a little bit by the reaction, because I certainly made a mistake in misstating the party’s platform.

Wow, he has certainly figured out the whole “gay victimhood complex”, hasn’t he?  He blamed all of YOU for his appearing on The 700 Club.

I just made a mistake, and it was a bad mistake, but if you look at what else I said on [the Christian Broadcasting Network]—and it’s not the last time I’m going to go on CBN—I went on and I said gay people need to be included. We stand up for equal rights for every American and the belief that everybody deserves to live with dignity and respect. That wasn’t sent around in all those e-mails, but that was part of the transcript too. Look, I don’t defend the mistake I made—I made a mistake and I misstated the party’s platform, but I also stood up for gay and lesbian Americans on that show. Look, with my history, there’s no way I’m going to back away from the LGBT community.

So there ya have it gay liberals.  Howard Dean’s “big tent” will now include the Christian Coalition and LGBT.  Can you live with that?  Kinda self-loathing, huh?

UPDATE:  I was just thinking…. Dean’s comments and his tone reinforce the fact there is little difference these days on gay issues at the national level between Republicans and Democrats. 

Oh… one difference, the Dems have tricked the gays into believing they actually do care.  I forgot that part.  You’d think in their decades of absolute power between Stonewall and 2001, the Democrats would have actually moved gay rights forward not backward….(*cough* DOMA, DADT, Christian leader pandering, no Hate Crimes laws passed, no Non-Discrimination laws passed *cough*)

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I just finished Mary Cheney’s book Now It’s My Turn: A Daughter’s Chronicle of Political Life and recommend it as the most important book addressing a gay topic of the year, if not the past few years. Indeed, it is must-read book for anyone who wishes to talk honestly about the Bush Administration’s record on gay issues.

While I will not, at this time, write a complete review of the book, I expect this to be a continuation in a series of posts on the significance of the book — and what it reveals about the Vice President of the United States. I have already noted how it shows what a good man Dick Cheney is and how few gay leaders and activists are willing to acknowledge his positive record on gay issues.

Because he is our nation’s Vice President, widely respected in conservative circles, even by social conservatives who know about his relationship with his lesbian daughter, I wish to focus on what this book tells us about this good man and what its release shows about the narrow-mindedness of gay activists. Perhaps you will say that I have said this already. But, as the comments to my recent posts indicate, some of our critics don’t seem to be listening, so, in the words of André Gide, “it is ever necessary to start again.”

What emerges from reading Mary’s book is that the Vice President is an exemplar of how a parent should treat his gay child. When Mary first came out to her father, she writes, “the first words out of his mouth were exactly the ones I wanted to hear: ‘You’re my daughter and I love you and I just want you to be happy.’”

About fifteen years later, when then-Governor Bush, the Republican nominee for president in 2000, was considering Cheney as his running mate, the former Secretary of Defense talked with his daughter about what his selection might mean. Mary notes that he “was concerned that people would target me and my sexual orientation in an attempt to attack him. He wanted to make sure I understood exactly what this decision could mean.”

In order words, this man showed great sensitivity to how his career choice might affect his lesbian daughter’s life.

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If you want (yet) another sign of media bias, all you needed to do was to sign onto AOL. For the past twenty-four hours, during the same period the Iraqi parliament confirmed that nation’s first full-term elected government, AOL l”Top News” headline was about the Pentagon Probe of an alleged massacre by Marines. The sub-title to the article includes a quotation from Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha, a longtime critic of the Iraq war. As AOL’s leading with an article about an investigation long underway (but not yet concluded) call its objectivity into question, Murtha’s remarks call his own commitment to the troops into question.

To be sure, we may find out that such a massacre occurred. But, by claiming that it happened while the incident is still under investigation, this Democrat shows that, in his hunger for headlines, he assumes the worst about our armed forces. As Smash reports (via Instapundit), Murtha’s comments are most improper given that providing “inside knowledge of an ongoing UCMJ investigation . . . might prejudice it.”

Other bloggers have been less sparing in their condemnations of the Pennsylvania Democrat. Gateway Pundit finds it “sad that this “war crimes conspirator” is the best the democrats have to offer on Defense.” Hugh Hewitt agrees with Smash, being unable to imagine “a more irresponsible statement . . . given that the investigation is still open.” California Conservative simply calls him a “traitor.”

It is clear that Murtha wants to spin this story not as one faulting the Marines in question for what would be (if his allegations are accurate) despicable conduct, but as one faulting the Bush Administration for deploying them. If the investigation shows that the Marines in questioned murdered innocent Iraqis, I pretty much agree with Flopping Aces that “they should all be hung and quartered” for dishonoring the Corps.

When we look more closely at the investigation — and the alleged crime — we find, however, it does not fit into Murtha’s interpretation of nearly everything coming out of Iraq — i.e, that it is (yet) another sign of America’s failed policy there. In fact, what comes out is the story the media missed about Abu Ghr