Larry Craig is BuzzFlash.com's GOP Hypocrite of the Week

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

We try to avoid overexposed -- excuse the pun -- GOP Hypocrites, but we just couldn't let Larry Craig go by.

Here is an epicenter of GOP Hypocrisy: the pro-family, pro sanctity of marriage, NRA Board member, and point man in Congress who gets caught trying to arrange a gay sexual encounter in a Midwest airport washroom. This is not a case of alleged lascivious behavior: Craig pled guilty to the charge.

Since we've started the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrites.com site in September 2003, we have highlighted many Republicans who heterosexually, bisexually, or homosexually betray their overheated self-righteousness when it comes to "family values."

Democrats and BuzzFlash readers are not always comfortable when we point out how deeply disturbed and repressed these Republicans are. Furthermore, they are the rule rather than the exception, we suspect, based on how many we come across in the mainstream media. (Just think of all those who are never caught or who are protected as Mark Foley was.) Progressives like to think of themselves as tolerant and not judgmental when it comes to lifestyles, so they tend to let these "indiscretions" pass.

But gross hypocrisy is dishonesty taken to a higher level -- and it should be called out at every opportunity.

The Republicans jumped all over Clinton for a blow job, nearly got him kicked out -- and Clinton was no one who claimed to be a prude when it came to sex.

For the past few weeks, we have brought up several GOP sleazy sexual run-ins* with the law by individuals claiming to be upholders of the highest in moral values. It is not an uncommon occurrence among Republican leaders, although the incidents are often hushed up.

In Middle America, there are many people who take these moral hypocrisies seriously. It is our duty to make sure that they hear about them -- and that they don’t get left behind in a washroom stall in the Twin Cities airport.

We suspect Larry Craig will be leaving the Senate soon. Unlike Senator "Hooker" Vitter, who apparently regularly visited prostitutes while espousing the inviolable nature of marriage and monogamy, homophobia runs deep in the grassroots of the GOP (although generally tolerated on Capitol Hill among Republican elected officials and staffers). The GOP knows that their white male Southern, Midwestern, and Western constituents just aren’t going to cotton to a senator who trolls for gay sex in public washroom stalls, while they are glad to give a wink and a nod to a senator such as Vitter, who tomcats with prostitutes.

No doubt, Larry Craig was claiming to be technically correct when he welcomed reporters to his news conference with the sentence: "Thank you for coming out today" and then declared, after many pokes in his numb wife's backside, that "I am not gay." His escape hatch for that claim is that he is apparently bisexual, not exclusively gay.

Yes, the GOP, like many repressed priests, has a monstrously large hypocrisy and violation of the public trust problem. It's almost become an axiom that the more self-righteous the Republican or Fundamentalist, the more likely he or she is to be a hypocritical sinner of the flesh.

Until next week, remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.

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This is the second HOTW Award for Larry Craig with a span in between of almost 3 ½ years. Craig won the award on March 5, 2004.

* Some of these GOP sleazy sexual run-ins include Liam Michael Golden, Michael Flory, Glenn Murphy Jr., Bob Allen (twice), Coy Privette, Wendy/David Vitter, and Ted Klaudt.