Kirk Fordham won't be the last closeted gay Repug outed by Folie scandal

The LA Times has outed Kirk Fordham -- Today's NY Times has a chart that outlines the "key communications" in the House of Representatives about Mark Foley's inappropriate contact with pages. More than one of the names in the chart, which includes Kirk Fordham, are rumored to be closeted gay Republicans who have been working at the highest levels of the Republican leadership.

Are ambitious closeted gay Republican officials, the most reliable people Speaker Hastert could have delegated the Foley problem to last year? Obviously not. Heat on a closeted gay Republican in the House is heat on all closeted gay Republicans in the House.

The most innocent Foley emails were enough to worry the parents of the recipient. They were enough to worry the closeted gay Republicans too. But the closeted gay Republicans were perfectly positioned in the House to make the problem disappear.

Now two Republican staffers are locked in a credibility contest: it's Kirk Fordham v. Scott Palmer, Hastert's chief of staff. Palmer flatly denies that Fordham warned him about Foley. Hastert's political life depends entirely on Scott Palmer's credibility. I can't find anyone in Washington who knows Palmer who thinks his credibility can survive this test.

The Republican base--the Evangelical get-out-the-vote troops--are going to be devastated when they discover how many closeted gay Republicans were involved in policing Mark Foley in the House of Representatives. Republican House members know this. That's why momentum is building for a very quick House cleaning and a new Speaker by next week.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-odonnell/closeted-gay-republicans-_b_31040.html

I'm all for it.

zalinda

This will reduce the conservative Christian turnout.

See this chastisement from Mike Rogers from 2004: http://www.blogactive.com/2004/07/action-write-to-kirk-fordhamat-mel.html

Monday, July 12, 2004
ACTION: Write to Kirk Fordham,
at the Mel Martinez for U.S. Senate campaign
Please take a moment to read my open letter to Kirk Fordham, Finance Director Mel Martinez's U.S. Senate Campaign. Once you've read it, be sure to write Kirk an email to tell him how you feel about an openly gay man serving on the staff of a homophobe....

than he says here but his Cheshire Cat-like grin was fun to watch.

It's all about 'Republican politics'. Their anti-gay stance is now going to turn around and bite them with the 'values' voters.

Good.

He was also relishing the fact that the Pukes have no one "clean" enough to replace Hastert as speaker.

Loved his shoe store in DC comment when referring to all the shoes that were waiting to drop on this one.

:-)