Classical Values :: Gay American? Or corrupt Governor?

Gay American? Or corrupt Governor?

Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey is a man who wants to be taken seriously. Apparently, that's why he's hit the Oprah circuit. From what I can discern with the few facts that are being made available, what matters is that he is gay, and was governor.

Never mind that he's considered one of the most corrupt governors in New Jersey history. What matters is that he's gay!

And on Oprah!

Liberal columnist Monica Yant Kinney thinks the fuss is too much, and I completely agree with her:

Normally, I prefer not to dwell in the past. New Jersey politics is sleazy enough in the present, and I couldn't care less whom these creeps sleep with.

But with McGreevey flooding the zone to hawk his book, The Confession, it seems someone ought to remind Oprah and Amazon.com that "Jim" is not the innocent he appears.

His truth may well be that he is, was, and forever shall be "a gay American." Ours is that he is, was, and forever shall be one of the worst governors in modern Jersey history.

And yet people forget. Because in or out of the closet, he's a master manipulator.

And if I didn't know any better, I'd swear that the people he's manipulating love being manipulated!

While McGreevey's sex life is something you wouldn't think most people would really want to know about, in McGreevey's case it seems to be the only thing most people know about. As Kinney points out, the ignorance of her fellow New Jerseyites is appalling:

In a Monmouth University poll released last month, 77 percent of respondents said McGreevey resigned in 2004 because he is gay, as if our blue-state constitution forbade it.

Thirteen percent couldn't recall what had led to the governor's downfall.

Just 9 percent guessed "ethics" had anything to do with it.

Think hard: When's the last time you put a lover (of either gender) on the public payroll, naming an unqualified foreigner - a poet! - to lead the state's homeland-security effort only to wind up fearing he'd sue, ruin your fake marriage, and dash your White House dreams? (Just as outlandish? The man denied being McGreevey's lover, accusing the governor of sexual harassment.)

While my hat's off to Ms. Kinney for a great column, I don't think McGreevey's corruption merits a long essay in this blog. It sickens me that corruption can be obscured by fake victimhood, only to morph into a grotesque claim to political legitimacy -- perhaps national "leadership"? -- as a "Gay American." (I'd rather save my energy for something important, like the urgent and breaking news that George Washington owned slaves. Why, it wouldn't surprise me if his status as a slaveholder is at least as well known as McGreevey's homosexuality!)

However, those who want the scoop about the sleaze and corruption that was Jim McGreevey should read Kinney's entire column.

Excellent job.

I'd like to think that there'd be a bit more outrage among the self-styled "gay leaders," but there are a lot of things I'd like to think.