The Dish

"If a religious leader has a personal inclination toward homosexuality – and nonetheless can look past his own inclination to defend the institution of marriage and to affirm its benefits for the raising of children – why should he likewise not be honored for his intellectual firmness and moral integrity?" – David Frum on National Review.

We’re seeing these people reveal themselves very clearly now, aren’t we?

I’m just beginning to absorb the full impact of the fact that Richard Perle and my good friend Ken Adelman have just unleashed a critique of the Bush administration that is as brutal as anything I have been writing for the past three years. Coming from them, it’s the equivalent of "no confidence" in the Bush administration. From the neocons. Money quote from Ken:

Fearing that worse is still to come, Adelman believes that neoconservatism itself ‚Äî what he defines as "the idea of a tough foreign policy on behalf of morality, the idea of using our power for moral good in the world"‚Äîis dead, at least for a generation. After Iraq, he says, "it’s not going to sell."

And if he, too, had his time over, Adelman says, "I would write an article that would be skeptical over whether there would be a performance that would be good enough to implement our policy. The policy can be absolutely right, and noble, beneficial, but if you can’t execute it, it’s useless, just useless. I guess that’s what I would have said: that Bush’s arguments are absolutely right, but you know what, you just have to put them in the drawer marked CAN’T DO. And that’s very different from LET’S GO."

Thanks, Ken. You’re a patriot. You’ve told the truth about men whom you know and care about. Because America comes first. And this country and its honor must be rescued from this incompetent cabal.

If you discover, as Mrs Haggard seems to have, that you have married a gay man or a lesbian woman and don’t know where to turn, the Straight Spouse Network does good work, trying to heal the wound of the closet. Until we achieve full gay equality and acceptance, families will continue to suffer terribly from the closet and those who defend and uphold it. But there is help out there. You’re not alone.

There’s a video stream here. It’s very painful, especially to see his wife exposed in that way. And I guess it may be possible he didn’t have a relationship with Jones, just that he saw him regularly for massages, and bought crystal meth from him. What happened between them in hotel rooms may never be knowable for sure. But I don’t know many straight guys who routinely get massages from the same man and also buy meth from him. And when Haggard was asked how he found Jones, he seemed very … well, see for yourself.

From religious right blogger Ben Witherington:

"The culture of patriarchal Evangelical leadership involves a lot of power and isolation at the top. Too often it involves a cult of personality kind of scenario, with the "pastor-superstar" model, and the pastor put way up on a pedestal– from which he is almost bound to fall. The isolation from normal accountability structures and peer correction leads to all sorts of abuses of power. It is quite simply too much power in too few hands. The minister begins to feel he is bullet-proof, can do no wrong. And if there is something not right in his personal relationships with his wife or family, then moral slippage tends to happen in various forms."

A patriarchal leader, isolated at the top, with a personality cult, and removed from normal accountability structures. The person "begins to feel he is bullet-proof, can do no wrong." Hmmm.

Here’s what you are being asked to believe: Haggard never had sex and never used crystal meth. Bush never ordered torture. The insurgency is in its last throes. Michael Brown did a "heckuva job." And Rummy is doing a "fantastic job."

These people cannot self-correct. They’ll lie and lie and lie to protect their psychic order. So they have to be corrected.

The election intervention is next Tuesday. Do them a favor, will you?

Pray for them. A reader writes:

I am appalled by the hypocrisy of Haggard’s behavior and his "story." But I am deeply moved by the pain his behavior has caused the innocent people in his life.

His wife and five children must be in excruciating pain as they watch their husband and father publicly disgraced in this manner.  I am truly concerned about more collateral damage to his family stemming from his behavior and the media coverage.

Christians often use the phrase, "What would Jesus do?"  I know for certain that Jesus would be putting His arms around Haggard’s wife and children as He healed their broken hearts.

Yes he would. And we should pray for them. But it is also important to remember that this is what the closet does: it is a dagger aimed at the heart of the family. It has wrecked so many marriages, destroyed so many families, traumatized so many kids. It must end. I should add I feel for Haggard. I’m not excusing him; but he too is in pain right now. He was politically more moderate than Dobson and probably somewhere in his psyche he was trying to do the right thing.

But he was lost. And he needs our prayers.

After compassion, there must be an accounting, and a deep one. In my view, the entire Christianist project that Haggard helped build must also be torn down. Christianity must be taken back from these power-grabbers and fear-mongers. Just as true conservatism must be rescued from this White House and Congress.

The real motivations behind Christianism are finally being revealed: power, money, and political control, abetted by lies:

Another prominent religious conservative leader blasted the media for reporting a "rumour" based on "nothing but one man’s accusation."

"Ted Haggard is a friend of mine, and it appears someone is trying to damage his reputation as a way of influencing the outcome of Tuesday’s election — especially the vote on Colorado’s marriage-protection amendment, which Ted strongly supports," said James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, also based in Colorado Springs.

Haggard, who is often credited with rallying conservative Christians behind U.S. President George Bush for his 2004 re-election, talks to Bush or his advisers every week, according to Harper’s.

Now isn’t that interesting? Someone needs to ask Karl Rove when he last spoke or met with Haggard. And the press needs to ask the president what his relationship is with Haggard as well. Like now.

(Photo: Erik Stenbakken/AP.)

In case you haven’t been keeping up with one of James Dobson’s right-hand men, Ted Haggard. He has now admitted that he bought crystal meth from a male massage therapist. He has taped a video about the joys of heterosexual marriage. He denies ever having sex with a man with whom he was naked in a hotel room. He says he threw the meth away. Here’s the hustler’s side of the story:

Jones claimed that Haggard, 50, paid him to have sex nearly every month over three years. He said he advertised himself as an escort on the Internet and was contacted by a man who called himself Art, who snorted methamphetamine before their sexual encounters to heighten his experience.

Jones said he later saw the man on television identified as Haggard and that the two last had sex in August.

He said he has voice mail messages from Haggard, as well as an envelope he said Haggard used to mail him cash. He declined to make the voice mails available to the AP, but KUSA-TV reported what it said were excerpts late Thursday that referred to methamphetamine.

"Hi Mike, this is Art," one call began, according to the station. "Hey, I was just calling to see if we could get any more. Either $100 or $200 supply."

A second message, left a few hours later, began: "Hi Mike, this is Art, I am here in Denver and sorry that I missed you. But as I said, if you want to go ahead and get the stuff, then that would be great. And I’ll get it sometime next week or the week after or whenever."

I have some simple questions: how many people who say they bought crystal meth out of curiosity but threw it away then call and ask a male hustler to get some more? How many legitimate massage therapists also procure crystal meth on the side for their clients? Do you think it’s going to help you relax?

The genius of Sacha Baron-Cohen – as himself:

Way sexy too. Can’t wait for the Bruno movie.

A video from Fareed Zakaria’s interview with me about the future of conservatism in America. It will air in full this weekend on PBS, on the show, "Foreign Exchange." Watch a short clip here.