-By Warner Todd Huston
Michael Rogers has made an unsavory name for himself “outing” gay politicians. Today he has targeted for his next “outing” operation GOP Illinois Senate candidate Congressman Mark Kirk. It’s something Rogers says he’s known since 2004.
Why has Rogers waited some six years to “out” Kirk? Because, Rogers says, Kirk recently announced his support for the Pentagon’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that keeps gay members of the military serving under a cloud of silence about their sexual preferences. Kirk has said that he does not want DADT repealed and Rogers thinks that is an affront to Kirk’s supposed gay compatriots.
In an effort to move the base in the Illinois Senate race, Kirk decided to tack right and that means throwing the gays (like him) under the bus.
Rogers claims he’s spoken to some of Kirk’s old acquaintances and they’ve assured him of their opinion on Kirk’s sexuality. But his biggest claim is that he, himself learned of Kirk’s proclivities first hand in 2004.
It was at that party that I met Mark Kirk. I was introduced to him by the person I came with and at the time did not realize he was a member of the House. As my friend walked away, Kirk asked me if the man who introduced us was “single or attached.” When I said that he had a partner, Kirk replied disappointingly, “oh, well.” At the end of that interaction I walked away and didn’t think much of it at the time.
You might recall that during the past primary a Kirk opponent raised this story and was roundly criticized for it.
The question is, if it’s even true does it matter?
Even if Kirk is gay, does it matter to his election this time around? Will this hurt his chances? Will he lose support from Republicans? Will he pick up support from Moderates and conservative Democrats?
It will certainly matter if Kirk really IS gay. It will matter that he’s lied to the military about it and he’ll be nabbed by the very DADT he’s trying to save. But how much credence can we give this outrageous gay blogger? Is his word any good? In fact, am I giving him too much credit even reporting his story? time will tell, and I assume it’ll tell rather quickly.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 200 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDailyReview.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
Huston has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Huston’s work has appeared on Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neil Bortz, and Michael Savage. He has appeared on the G. Gordon Liddy show, dozens of local shows from coast to coast, and many blogtalk radio shows.
Mr. Huston has appeared on local TV news to discuss his writing, has been a guest of CNN’s blogger lunch, and has appeared on Breitbart TV’s B-Team show.
Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com and has a blog on the Tribune-Owned http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/publius-forum/ChicagoNow.com website. He is a well known writer on Illinois politics.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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