out on the political trail

It's supposed to be about the economy. And it's supposed to be about the wars (the tangible conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan that continue to cost the very real blood of young men and women, the less specific "war on terror" that the President admits can probably never be completely won, and, for reasons that continue to escape me, the war in Vietnam.) As the GOP begins their own quadrennial political pageant (again championing and highlighting, if only for 4 days, their "compassionate conservatism"), it was supposed to be about these things...and, of course, 9/11 (why else for the Republicans to chose fiercely Democratic New York City as the site for their shindig?)

And yet an issue that neither President Bush nor Senator Kerry really want to get mired in keeps insinuating itself into the periphery of the spotlight. The Gay issue is one on which the candidates actually have a fair amount of common ground (Bush is adamantly against extending marital/civil union rights to gay couples; Kerry's support of gay civil unions is so tepid...and opportunistic...as to be just this side of non-existent) and one they'd probably rather not spend a lot of time dealing with when they're trying desperately to position themselves as moderates (at least by their own unique definitions of that nebulous term.)

Following the New Jersey Governor McGreevey's decision to resign from his job after admitting that he was gay, Ed Schrock, a conservative Republican Congressman representing the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area of Virginia, has quit his own campaign for re-election after allegations surfaced that he might be gay. Schrock, a married 63-year-old, has campaigned actively and vehemently against gay rights issues and so if the allegation is true he is the worst kind of hypocrite.

But, that said, it remains just that...an allegation. Schrock was "outed" on a blog dedicated to routing out hypocrites in political office. As of this writing, the Congressman has neither confirmed nor denied the allegations about his sexuality, he has just said that he was quitting the political stage before his family was dragged into a public spectacle.

The timing of the release of this "news" as the Republican Convention was beginning is, of course, more than a little calculated...but that's par for the course in the take-no-prisoners way in which political campaigns are waged (both by the candidates and their partisan proxies.)

And so, sadly, it goes.