By the time I arrived back in New Jersey — where, by the way, we know from this kind of thing, from the years of whispered is-he-or-isn’t-he to the dramatic press conference to the shell-shocked wife looking on — Sen. Larry Craig was reconsidering his decision to step down and now says he plans to stay away from D.C.
Even here in the Jerz, where our to-the-left attitude is part drag queen, part gangsta lean,
people are like, “Yo, good luck with all that.” I never thought I’d say this, but compared to the what the folks in Idaho are dealing with, we had it easy with Jim McGreevey. The threatened lawsuit that pushed our former governor out of the closet and out of office never did materialize, but when the pork roll hit the fan, his response was shockingly honest: I’m gay, I cheated on my wife and I’m stepping down. McGreevey’s relative clarity on those issues — he looked almost relieved as he declared himself “a gay American” — gave the whole thing a weird kind of logic. It certainly didn’t excuse his adultery, or the serious ethical lapse he committed as governor by giving his crush a homeland security job. And though McGreevey is now in a committed relationship and about to enter the seminary (no, really), people still think he’s a sleaze. But in the larger sense, all of the lying, the covering up and the misbehavior made a bit of sense when you looked at them in the context of a closeted man grappling with his sexuality.
Idahoans aren’t so lucky. Craig can protest his innocence and heterosexuality with his words, but the only way any of his actions — from the airport bathroom to that podium in Boise — make any sense is if he really is gay. Otherwise, he’s just a sleaze. [via MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS]
