Memo to HillBuzz: Stop the Outing

I think I can speak for a lot of libertarians and conservatives in saying that we’re glad to have the folks at HillBuzz on our side. They proved themselves to be a force to be reckoned with during Hillary Clinton’s primary campaign, and afterward they jumped the Democratic ship and worked hard for the McCain-Palin campaign against Barack Obama (whom they refer to as “Dr. Utopia”). Right now they’re working against Obama’s radical agenda and are insisting that every Democrat who voted for ObamaCare needs to be purged from Congress.

We’re glad to have them onboard, but this has to stop:

[Florida Gov. Charlie] Crist is, of course, a former patron of the Green Iguana [gay] bar in Tampa, Florida, whose recent marriage to novelty products and fake beards heiress Carole Rome fools no one. . . .

The MSM does not want Dr. Utopia to squeak by with a win, they want him to have a blowout. So, the MSM will push whatever man they think could flame out most spectacularly in 2012. Ain’t no bigger flamer than Charlie Crist. At least that’s what they say down at the Green Iguana.

This is just the latest in a series of HillBuzz posts that have cited so far unsubstantiated rumors that several prominent Republicans — Crist, Illinois Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk, and Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock — are in fact gay. HillBuzz insists that they are citing such rumors for the good of the Republican Party because, they say, Democrats are planning to out these guys. HillBuzz argues that Dems are going to out Kirk as soon as he wins the Illinois GOP primary, that they will do the same to Crist if he runs for president, and that they’re planning to out Schock if he challenges Dick Durbin for his Senate seat in 2014.

The problem here is that by spreading these rumors, HillBuzz is actually doing the Democrats’ work for them. They are the ones who are outing these guys right now and drawing media attention to rumors that they are gay. In fact, Democrats didn’t have to wait to out Kirk; a wacko primary opponent, Andy Martin, has already done it for them. From CBS News:

Candidate Andy Martin launched a radio ad on Monday against Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), the current frontrunner for the GOP nomination in the 2010 Illinois Senate race. The ad calls into question Kirk’s sexuality. Martin claims Kirk “lives in some kind of ‘Animal House’ in Washington with another gay congressman,” reports CBS 2 Chicago.

Martin says his ad is based on a “solid rumor on the Internet,” CBS 2 reports. . . .

Emphasis mine. We can’t know for sure where Martin found his “solid rumor on the Internet.” But it’s clear that the content of Martin’s ad is virtually identical to the claims that HillBuzz made here:

Kirk not only has infuriated conservatives and moderates in Illinois by supporting Cap & Tax, but he’s a fatally flawed candidate who Democrats are going to expose as a liar and adulterer in the general election. It is an open secret in Illinois that Kirk is gay, and just about everyone in Republican circles has heard the salacious details of his nocturnal antics, as revealed by his own wife in what’s been a nasty divorce. . . .

Voters don’t care if you are gay, but they do care if you are a sleazeball who cheats on your wife with men and gets up to all manner of shennanigans while you are in Washington, typically involving the other closet case you share your Washington condo with.

Again, all emphasis is mine. HillBuzz posted the above on December 28, the same day that Martin released his radio ad. They made identical claims less than two weeks ago on December 18, also writing the following about rising star Aaron Schock, the youngest member of Congress who is currently serving a district once served by Abraham Lincoln:

It is an open secret he is gay…and we finally got confirmation that Democrats do, indeed, have photos of Schock out in Chicago with other men. We’ve been hearing for months this was true, and we’ve seen Schock with our own eyes out in Boystown, having very indiscrete times with Aberzombie sorts of guys. Apparently, he has a boyfriend back in Peoria everyone knows about too. Dems we know here in Chicago had asked us to try to get pics of Schock in MiniBar or other spots in Boystown, but we never got pictures of him. Well, we found out on Wednesday that others do have the pictures. But, they will be held for years until Schock tries to run for Senate himself.

By then, very foolish advisors in the GOP will have set him up with a fake wife, and maybe even a kid for a prop. But those pictures of Schock in bars will always be out there…and then when he runs for Senate…BOOM…another Jack Ryan, another Mark Kirk. It is widely expected Schock will run for Senate in 2014, to challenge Dick Durbin.

It may well be that Crist, Kirk, and Schock are all gay. That’s their business, and that’s the point. Gay Republicans (and our allies, like the guys at HillBuzz) should maintain a united front on this issue. It is always inappropriate to invade someone’s personal life and do personal damage for political gain. In the case of Mark Kirk, there’s a military career at stake. In Crist’s case, a marriage — whether it’s a sham, as rumored, or not. In Schock’s case? Who knows? If in fact he is gay, and these aren’t just rumors, has anyone stopped to think how friends and family members might react when he’s outed?

Gay Republicans and allies need to stand up to those who would out their fellow gays and lesbians and say: Enough, and no more. We need to make Democrats own their manipulation of sexual orientation, their blatant use of anti-gay discrimination for their own political gain. We need to point out that the party of supposed tolerance, acceptance, and welcoming of gays and lesbians is ready to destroy the lives of gays and lesbians who don’t toe the party line. Make them own their quiet bigotry.

That becomes a lot harder to do when people on our side are outing these guys before Democrats get the chance. So, memo to HillBuzz: Stop the outing. Make the Democrats own it instead.

UPDATE (1/26/10): I want to make clear that this post predates and has nothing to do with the recent left wing smear against HillBuzz. I’m posting this update because this post has been receiving more attention lately than it did when I actually posted it, and I don’t want what I’ve written above to be construed as in any way supportive of liberal attempts to silence the folks writing at HillBuzz.

This post was intended as constructive criticism of a blog that I, as a conservative, consider an important ally in the fight to take back America. I disagree with HillBuzz’s decision to publish rumors regarding the sexual orientation of certain politicians, but for the same reasons that I disagree with that decision I strongly oppose liberal efforts to reveal the identities of HillBuzz bloggers in an attempt to cause personal destruction and, ultimately, silence them.

Like most of the conservative blogosphere, I stand in solidarity with HillBuzz and I hope they will continue to fight for what they believe in despite liberal efforts to shut them up.