LIBERAL HOMOPHOBIA WATCH

Whether it’s Eric Alterman’s homophobic references to many resisters to the American Communist Party in the 1950s, or Paul Begala’s casual references to “butt-boys” on the right, or the long-standing socialist notion that homosexuality is a product of decadent capitalism, or Bill Clinton’s love of lesbian jokes, liberal gay-baiting is not unknown. It is not as prevalent as conservative gay-baiting, and if you want proof, there’s a few dozen recent emails I can forward to you. But it’s still there. So the fact that the Democratic Party in South Carolina is trying to wound Congressman Lindsey Graham’s chances of succeeding Strom Thurmond by insinuating he is gay shouldn’t come as too big a surprise. State Democratic chairman Dick Harpootlian recently put out a press release, saying Graham was “a little too light in his loafers,” to succeed Thurmond. Proof of the sincerity of the attempted slur was Harpootlian’s hilarious attempt to say he didn’t know what the phrase usually means. Graham is single and says he’s not gay. Harpootlian is married and says he’s not a redneck.