Put Up Your Dukes
Roll Call Staff
The office of Rep. Duke Cunningham (Calif.) proactively called HOH to denounce — and deny — a story in The Washington Blade newspaper suggesting that the conservative Republican is a closeted homosexual.
“The recent article in The Washington Blade is simply untruthful and irresponsible,” Cunningham told HOH in a prepared statement. “I am a heterosexual — always have been, always will be.”
He added that the story, which was sparked by statements made by Human Rights Campaign Executive
Director Elizabeth Birch in a recent speech, is “gutter politics, pure and simple.”
“The only lessons learned from this article are that Ms. Birch and the Washington Blade have zero credibility and will go to any level of personal destruction to further their cause,” fumed Cunningham. “I thought ‘human rights’ represented fairness. The Washington Blade has proven that they will never be a reputable news organization. They continue to maintain their status as a tabloid rag.”
The story was sparked by a rambling speech delivered last month by Birch, outgoing chief of HRC, at a town hall meeting held during a series of Gay Pride events in Washington. The Blade obtained a videotape of the meeting, which started with Birch saying she had “nothing” to lose by telling a provocative anecdote on the way out the door.
Birch claimed to the crowd of 200 people that she and another HRC official had a private meeting in 1995 with a conservative GOP Member who had “railed against gay people, calling us homos and went on and on, saying we’ve got to get those homos out of the military” on the House floor. Cunningham delivered just such a speech in 1995 and later apologized.
By way of explaining to the crowd how the organization tries to reach across the political aisle, Birch said she and HRC’s then-political director, Daniel Zingale, sat down with the unnamed Congressman and his staff for a productive meeting about their differences. And then it got interesting.
Birch charged that the Member let his staff leave, shut the door and asked the HRC officials to stay. She noted that the lawmaker in question had “three tours in Vietnam and there were a lot of guns on the wall. Whips and stuff like that.” Cunningham served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War but sharply denies having guns, whips or such on his walls.
Then the Member allegedly asked, “How do you know if you’re that way?”
The HRC officials then proceeded to explain what it’s like to grow up and figure out you’re gay. “You become well-adjusted and stronger and stronger,” Birch told him. “And you know you’re gay.”
Birch added: “And finally he said, ‘Because I’ve loved men.’ And I said, ‘Was that in a military setting?’ He said yes. He said, ‘yes, indeed, on the field of battle. But I’ve also loved men.’”
She closed by saying, “Since then, he has voted almost always wrong. But he’s still, I’m sure, still living in his own personal hell. But there was a moment when we touched each other.”
A Republican lobbyist, who is gay, called HOH to say he was outraged that Birch would deliver those remarks. “I think it’s appalling,” he said. “I think it tears down their credibility. I talked to a couple of [HRC] staffers [Monday] and they’re furious” with Birch.
The lobbyist added that it was an “abomination” for Birch to essentially “out” a Congressman.
But HRC spokesman David Smith insisted to HOH that Birch did no such thing. “She did not out him,” he said. “She did not name that Congressman. She did not imply that he was gay. The implication of the story was that he was curious, did not understand what it meant, and was curious.”
Cunningham insists that the “alleged meeting” never took place and he finds it curious Birch told the Blade that “more than one person” in Congress expressed curiosity about being gay. “I scrambled the facts,” she told The Blade of the anecdote she related to the crowd. “I created a composite.”
Smith told HOH, “I don’t know what she meant by that.” He added that the story is true “to my knowledge, yes.”
The Blade’s executive editor, Chris Crain, told HOH, “It’s clear that Congressman Cunningham doesn’t consider his sexual orientation a private fact because he says he’s heterosexual. We had the leader of the top human rights organization saying the Congressman had questions about his sexuality. All we did was report the facts.”
Arrested on the Fourth of July. Independence Day weekend turned out to be treacherous for several Members and former lawmakers, not the least being Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).
While behind the wheel of an antique fire truck in a July Fourth parade in his district, Hastert had to dodge a water balloon thrown by 33-year-old John Allen, who was promptly arrested on a felony battery charge.
Potts: Congress Must Not Allow Lobbying Efforts to Block Pro-Consumer Financial Planning Bill
March 18, 12:35 p.m.
Quietly hidden amid debates over which agency should house a consumer financial protection agency is a simple consumer financial protection proposal. It would safeguard Main Street residents from malpractice by people claiming to be financial planners. Read Full Article
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