I know I mentioned this earlier, but let’s take a moment to consider the Idaho Values Alliance’s statement on the Larry Craig sex scandal in a little more detail. The IVA is considered a fairly major player in Idaho Republican politics — it’s the state’s largest religious right group — and its decision to call on Craig to resign almost certainly reflects the opinion of GOP activists at the grassroots level in the state.
So, after explaining why it doesn’t believe Craig’s explanation — the IVA says the senator shouldn’t be able to “‘unring the bell’ his guilty plea has sounded” — the group explains its vision for which Republicans are qualified to hold public office.
One larger issue must be addressed. The Republican Party platform clearly rejects the agenda of homosexual activists. The Party, in the wake of the Mark Foley incident in particular, can no longer straddle the fence on the issue of homosexual behavior. Even setting Senator Craig’s situation aside, the Party should regard participation in the self-destructive homosexual lifestyle as incompatible with public service on behalf of the GOP.
No member of the Republican Party in the 1860s could represent his party and be a slaveholder at the same time. Nor can the Republican Party of today speak with authority and clarity to the moral issues that confront our society and at the same time send ambivalent messages about sexual behavior. It is time for the Republican Party to be the party that defends the American family in word, deed, and by personal example.
On its face, it certainly sounds as if the Idaho Values Alliance is equating being gay with owning slaves. But more to the point, as David Kurtz noted, the group is also demanding a very small Republican Party: “Let the purges begin. Presumably, in addition to homosexuals, the GOP must be cleansed of the divorced, adulterers, abortion recipients, gamblers … the list goes on.”
It does, indeed. If the party needs to “speak with authority” on issues pertaining to morality, and that’s impossible if the party includes those who are guilty of sex-related sins, the next Republican National Convention can be held in a phone booth, with room to spare.
Of course, if Craig can maintain the support of his colleagues, and wait for the storm to blow over in Idaho, he probably thinks he can survive this mess. On NBC’s Nightly News last night, Russert explained that Craig doesn’t have a lot of friends in DC right now.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: We’re joined by our Washington bureau chief Tim Russert. And Tim, in plain English, a lot of people looking at this story tonight, are wondering how to think about it.
TIM RUSSERT: Well Brian, I talked to Republicans today, and they have a simple answer. They just want Senator Craig to exit, to leave. Why? Because they believe the Senate seat in Idaho is a safe Republican seat. George Bush carried that state by 67% of the vote. Any Republican can hold on to it, except maybe Senator Craig. And then if he continues to try to hang on, and to brazenly fight the local newspaper, that he’ll become a poster boy, the way Mark Foley became a poster boy in the 2006 election involving a Congressional page scandal. Republicans understand, Brian, the issue of hypocrisy. The notion of a conservative Republican who constantly votes against gay rights, doing something contrary to that. They just don’t want the 2008 election to have those kinds of overtones, the way they did in 2006.
What’s more, some of his high-profile colleagues seem anxious to throw him under the bus.
The political fallout of the Sen. Larry Craig story is spreading far and wide – with some of Craig’s colleagues making very public declarations about his future.
Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain took to late night TV and expressed concern over Craig’s actions.
McCain was a guest on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno Tuesday night, and commented on Craig in front of the large national audience. McCain has served with Craig in the Senate for more than a decade.
“It’s disgraceful,” he said. “The people of Idaho that he represents I think will… reach a pretty rapid verdict in this situation.”
Interesting how these guys had a lot less to say when it was Vitter paying for prostitutes, isn’t it?