DAVID DREIER AND HIS STRAIGHT HYPOCRISY (OR HOW
ANOTHER WINGNUT REPUG U. S. CONGRESSMAN OUTED AS
A GAY!)

the outing

by doug ireland

the latest target of a capitol hill outing campaign — designed
to expose closeted homosexual republicans who oppose civil
rights for gay people — is san gabriel valley congressman
david dreier. the powerful 12-term congressman — chairman
of the house rules committee, chairman of the california
republican house delegation, co-chairman of californians for
bush, chairman of governor arnold schwarzenegger's
transition team — is in the cross hairs of mike rogers and his
blogactive.com web site, whose outing campaign has
already forced one gop congressman out of politics.

representative ed schrock, a reactionary from virginia, ended
his re-election campaign last month after rogers put on his
web site an audiotape of schrock trolling for tricks on a gay
chat line. now, rogers — a former development director for
the national gay and lesbian task force — has given dreier the
"roy cohn award, in recognition of 24 years of working
against gay and lesbian rights while living as a gay man
yourself."

he is pummeling dreier with almost daily revelations as a
response to the gop’s anti-gay crusade for a constitutional
amendment banning same-sex marriages. rogers’ campaign
against dreier got a major boost when it was taken up by
raw story, the hot new liberal gadfly newsblog. raw story —
which is edited out of cambridge, massachusetts, by
23-year-old john byrne, who is also gay — last week
published an interview with dreier’s democratic opponent in
1998 and 2000, Dr. janice nelson, who said she was aware
during her 2000 campaign that dreier was living with his
chief of staff, brad smith.

"brad was like an invisible presence," she said. "they really
have the routine down slick." nelson, a professor of
pathology, says she came forward when she read on raw
story that hustler — the larry flynt magazine — was working
on an exposé of dreier's secret gay life. mark cromer, the
mag's features editor in charge of its outing of dreier, is a
former reporter for a string of valley newspapers in dreier's
district, including the inland valley daily bulletin, the san
gabriel valley tribune and the pasadena star-news. cromer
said his mag's exposé on dreier — part of a package on
sexual hypocrisy by republican spear-carriers in the "culture
wars" — will be published in november. and he accuses the
papers in dreier’s district, all of which spout a conservative,
anti-gay editorial line, of having a "don't ask, don't tell"
policy toward the congressman and his relationship with
smith.

these papers are all owned by media news group, whose
ceo, dean singleton, is a major contributor to republican
campaigns. opinion pages editor steve scauzillo said he could
not comment on the dreier matter without the approval of
mng higher-ups. raw story has provided some fascinating
details about smith. it appears that he is the highest-paid
chief of staff to any house committee chair. smith’s $156,600
salary is just $400 less than that of white house chief of
staff andy card and bush political commissar karl rove. by
comparison, the chief of staff to the chair of the house
judiciary committee makes $126,000, while the chief of staff
to the chair of the house ways and means committee makes
just $100,696. new jersey democratic governor jim
mcgreevey was recently forced to resign when it was about
to become public that he had put his boyfriend on the public
payroll at a salary slightly less than the one which dreier
pays smith.

neither dreier, smith, nor the congressman's press secretary
would return several telephone calls and detailed voice mails
seeking comment. a staff member on monday hung up the
phone when i called back. i have always taken the view that
outing a gay person should be approached with caution, and
that in doing so one should strictly adhere to the barney
frank rule. as articulated by the openly gay massachusetts
congressman during another anti-gay gop witch-hunt over a
decade ago, when frank threatened to out a number of
gay-baiting republican fellow congressmen, the rule insists
that outing is only acceptable when a person uses their
power or notoriety to hurt gay people. dreier clearly meets
that standard, for his voting record is strewn with anti-gay
positions. to cite just a few: he voted against the
employment

non-discrimination act (enda), which would have banned
discrimination against gay people in hiring; voted for the
gay-bashing defense of marriage act; voted for banning
adoption by gay and lesbian couples in the district of
columbia (3,000 miles away from dreier's district); voted to
allow federally funded charities to discriminate against gays
in employment, even where local laws prohibit such bias;
and voted against the hate crimes prevention act.

dreier is not just a political homophobe but a heartless
aids-phobe as well, voting against the housing opportunities
for persons with aids (hopwa) program designed to give
shelter to the impoverished sick, and against funding for the
federal adap program that furnishes the poor with the aids
meds they need to stay alive. dreier can probably survive
outing in his district and be re-elected, and it won't hurt him


but dreier's days as a key member of the ultra-homophobic
hastert-delay house gop leadership may be numbered. the
telegenic dreier has often served as the gop leadership's
spokesman on the tv chat-show circuit. it will be interesting
to see whether, the next time dreier shows up on crossfire
or chris matthews’ show, he’s asked about the
contradictions between his anti-gay voting record and his
hitherto-secret life.

doug ireland can be reached through his blog, direland.

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/44/news-ireland.php