Gay governor

I haven't written anything about this yet because it was initially so confusing. Now, however, I know exactly what I think about New Jersey Governor James McGreevey's coming out of the closet, and the Houston Chronicle's editorial board verbalizes that view quite nicely:

However, McGreevey did not hold his stunning press conference last week because he realized the error of his ways and wished to make a clean breast of it. His announcement came as the object of his affection demanded a multimillion-dollar cash settlement and threatened to file a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment.

McGreevey's most serious lapse was in appointing this man, a former campaign aide and Israeli citizen, as his homeland security adviser. The alleged lover, Golan Cipel, who insists he is straight, had no obvious qualifications for the job. Later, McGreevey allowed Cipel to step down from that state job and take another that paid $110,000 a year but had no specified duties.

Because this daytime drama is unfolding in New Jersey, it is inevitably accompanied by undercurrents of campaign contributions and possible influence peddling, this time on behalf of a private medical college.

At this point, McGreevey's experience seems to say more about inappropriate use of the state payroll and work force than about sexual orientation.

Click here for the rest.

What infuriates me most about this is that McGreevey cynically used what ordinarily is a good thing, a public coming-out which takes a strong stance in favor of gay rights, and twisted it for political purposes that have nothing to do with gay rights. Most reports seem to indicate that McGreevey is just your plain, ordinary corrupt politician engaged in plain, old-fashioned cronyism. The really sad thing is the liberal knee-jerk reaction that seems to have bought into his ploy. Make no mistake about it: McGreevey does not deserve any sympathy; indeed, he should be strongly condemned for making a mockery of the gay rights movement for his own political gain. I'm not particularly happy about siding with conservatives on this, but when they're right, they're right. McGreevey is a crook.

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