BIG GAY RUDY'S BIG GAY SENATE DEBATE: In a recent debate between South Carolina Senate candidates Alex Sanders (Democrat) and Lindsay Graham (Republican), Sanders took Graham to task for running ads that featured an endorsement by America's Mayor, Rudy Giuliani. Here's Sanders: "[Giuiliani] is an ultra-liberal- His wife kicked him out and he moved in with two gay men and a Shih Tzu... Is that South Carolina values? I don't think so."
Let's try find all the things we can that are wrong about that statement:
- Considering the Democrats are by far the more pro-gay of the two parties, isn't Sanders a hypocrite for assigning Graham guilt by association?
- The statement was likely an indirect allusion to long-simmering (but always denied) rumors that Graham is himself gay, though Sanders obviously didn't have the guts to say so directly. So therefore Alex Sanders is gay-baiting two different people (Rudy Giuliani and Lindsay Graham) who are not in fact gay. He doesn't even bother accusing Lindsay Graham of "having a girl's name."
- So Rudy Guiliani is an "ultra-liberal" all of a sudden? That's an interesting theory... I'm sure all the people Rudy threw off welfare and the propriators of those porn shops he closed (not to mention NYC's entire African-American population) wholeheartedly agree. New York is a city with quite a large population of "ultra-liberals," but rather than recognize Rudy as one of their own, most of them despise him with the fire of a thousand suns.
- If you must insinuate that Rudy is gay/gay friendly, why not refer to all those times he dressed in drag for the Inner Circle Revue and "Saturday Night Live"?
- Since Graham is running for Strom Thurmond's seat, couldn't he have scored political points by pointing out that Rudy was the guy in office for the Diallo, Louima, and Dorismond incidents?
- Did Sanders forget that Rudy is by far America's most popular political figure and is almost universally seen as a hero post-9/11, isn't it stupid to rip him in such a conservative state? I'd think Rudy's 9/11 heroism would perfectly exemplify "South Carolina values." And I guess only in South Carolina can a Democrat score political points by attempting to run to the right of a conservative icon like Rudy.
- And finally, as Andrew and Mickey have pointed out, why is it okay for Democrats to gay-bait their opponents with impunity (i.e. the now-famous Mike Taylor ad)? When Republicans do it, they're labeled hatemongers.