Speaking of TBogg luv, I thought this was a joke at first, but apparently it’s on the up-and-up. Or down-low:
Lindsey Graham challenger calls SC senator “ambiguously gay”
COLUMBIA, SC — Four of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s announced challengers in June’s Republican primary pledged support for each other Thursday if any of them end up in a runoff with the Seneca incumbent.
But a news conference announcing their alliance on the State House steps took an unexpected turn when the most minor of the candidates, Dave Feliciano of Spartanburg, took the podium and called Graham “ambiguously gay.”
Feliciano said, “It’s about time that South Carolina (says) hey, We’re tired of the ambiguously gay senator from South Carolina. We’re ready for a new leader to merge the Republican Party. We’re done with this. This is what it’s about, all of us coming together and saying, one way or the other, one of us is going to be on that ballot in November.”
If you click through to The State article, Graham’s accuser is pictured, looking perhaps a bit less butch than expected. Open thread.
Note: The image above has been Photoshopped.
maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor
Well, let’s just get this out of the way.
Proceed, Mr. Senator.
scav
Come on SC, step up the plate, grow up and take off the training wheels: go for an unambiguously gay Senator!
DougJ
Why “ambiguously gay” and not just gay?
Renie
The clown show has started. Do any of them have a chance to unseat Graham?
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
It’s unfortunate that homophobia will likely hound Graham out of office but man is this ever funny.
Color me conflicted.
MomSense
The SC Republicans are having a fous fight!! This could be entertaining!
c u n d gulag
I really don’t care if he’s gay or not, but if he is, then he’s just another Judas-goat for other people just like him.
Of course, the position of Judas-goat pays well, has great benefits, and opportunities to make money for life, via Wingnut Welfare.
See:
Schlafly, Phyllis.
Cain, Herman.
Carson, Ben.
Cabin, Log.
Etc…
BGinCHI
A bigot from Spartanburg?
No way.
Randy Khan
I am loathe to defend Lindsay Graham for any reason, but I see no reason not to attack the jerks who are trying to out him this way.
piratedan
in this kind of pie fight, we all might be victors…. whocoulddanode?
PaulW
@DougJ:
Because that’s the difference between free-speech mudslinging and courtroom-worthy defamation.
BGinCHI
How long before it’s required at a GOP primary debate to wear a Gestapo uniform?
You know they want to….
geg6
@DougJ:
I guess because Aunt Pittypat hasn’t yet sashayed out of the closet. If he’s in it. It’s ambiguous, see?
Sad_Dem
What qualifies someone for membership in the ambiguously straight community?
SatanicPanic
This kind of sucks.
muddy
@BGinCHI: I’m surprised that with a name like Feliciano that he is not considered black in SC. Name suggests Catholic cult activity as well.
Trollhattan
Love the crawl improvements, Betty. You forgotted to change the (R) to (D), however.
tBone
It sucks that this is still considered an effective tactic, but I’d feel worse if Lindsay weren’t such a colossal asshole.
@DougJ: Non-ambiguous would be Lindsay going on Meet the Press in a rainbow clown wig and leather vest and pants.
Can’t wait for the gifs of Lindsay driving the car from the Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoons.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@tBone: Assless chaps.
tBone
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: I was going to go there, but didn’t feel like dealing with the pedantics who would point out that chaps are, by definition, assless.
? Martin
The value of a life in the south.
Lawmakers in the south cares so much about freedom that they’ll pay minimum wage to take it away from you.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@tBone: Let ’em argue with Urban Dictionary. I live and die by that internet tome of hip knowledge.
Hunter Gathers
He’s not gay. He’s just South Carolina’s answer to Troy McClure:
He’s going to Sea World!
fidelio
@DougJ: I think he may be striving for plausible deniability, in case someone asks for proof. I would say the smoking gun, but it hardly seems safe to do so. You know how news reports says someone allegedly held up a bank, unmasked, in front of twenty witnesses and a handful of video cameras? I think he’s trying for theh same thing, but either got the word wrong, or wanted to get the shelter from confrontation without being quite so obvious as to use “allegedly”.
Also, is it just me, or does that orange-faced fellow in the screencap, resemble (official Senate photograph, suitable for inscribing to well-wishers here) a certain small, notorious villain of the cinema? I realize supplanting Pierce’s designation for the gentleman from South Carolina is an uphill struggle, but I’ll always think of him as Senator Chucky.
BGinCHI
Cue the Graham campaign ad where he makes sweet hot love to a woman for 10 seconds and then rails on Obama for 20.
Poopyman
@BGinCHI: This is South Carolina! Confederate uniforms only!
(Of course, no rules on the Gestapo undies.)
kindness
Lindsey does set off my gaydar. But I don’t think being gay is wrong. Hypocrisy is wrong.
@Sad_Dem:
See Lindsey Graham and bold the ambigous.
tBone
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
I’m just glad there’s someone out there fighting for the integrity of terms like “assless chaps.” And “c*ck itch.”
catclub
“all of us coming together”
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
tBone
@BGinCHI:
I bet Lindsay would love to rail on Obama. If you know what I mean.
boatboy_srq
@DougJ: Because there’s no such thing as an out gay Teahadist, and because Graham has never made any comment one way or the other. Also because any SC Teahadist worth his hetero pants has sixteen young’uns already.
Mike in NC
@muddy: Dude should consider self-deportation. SC is a great place to leave.
Trollhattan
@BGinCHI:
Seconded, provided it ends with Austin Powers bursting on screen to yell, “That’s no woman, that’s a MAN, baby!” [tugs at wig]
Spankyslappybottom
There ain’t a thing wrong with this. Graham has voted and speechified against equality all his public life.
If he’s gay, I’m glad someone finally had the stones to out him.
If he’s not, then let him deny it by describing in detail all the premarital heterosex he’s been having in SOUTH CAROLINA.
I’m a fifty-something gay dude, which means my adult life tracks perfectly with nearly the entire arc of the equality struggle.
And all these (mostly) men who were hateful, vile, smug, who either tacitly (or not) supported violence against gay people, who said we were childfuckers, who said we would poison the military, who turned a blind eye when gay men died by the thousands…not one of them has had to pay any price for the harm they caused. Not. One.
So, yeah, I’m fine with outing one of these disgusting cumfunnels*.
*Not always a bad thing, but in Graham’s case…
muddy
He strikes me as someone how thinks gay sex is unholy and probably icky, and thus he is a virgin, preserving his principles priggishly.
muddy
@Mike in NC: When I was in Asheville I was careful not to go that far downhill.
BGinCHI
@muddy: No amount of alliteration is going to make that true.
Hal
One thing I find interesting about South Carolina is the ability of it’s people to keep a secret. The entire state seemed to know Strom Thurmund had a bi-racial daughter even though he was a racist POS, and I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone knows Lindsay Graham is gay. Interesting how many tried and true conservatives are willing to look the other way as long as he doesn’t talk about it.
Bobby Thomson
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: That phrase is redundant and the words both mean the same thing.
muddy
He really does come off to me more virginal than gay! Or rather, virginal because gay, in his case I guess it would be.
Unlike most of his cohort he is against the death penalty as well as against choice. Usually they like to split that difference.
tBone
@Bobby Thomson:
Well played.
Betty Cracker
@Spankyslappybottom:While the outer is a disgusting prick who thinks being gay is something to be ashamed of, I’m finding it impossible to feel sorry for Graham too. Any petard in a storm, or something like that…
Old Dan and Little Ann
Are there people who don’t think Lindsey Graham is gay? Not that there’s anything wrong with it.
BGinCHI
@Betty Cracker: Don’t look a gift hoist in the mouth?
Petorado
Lindsay will remain under a cloud of suspicion until he shows his long form heterosexuality certificate to the base.
beth
@tBone: I actually don’t get any gay vibe from Lindsay – I think he’s asexual. Now, have you seen our other senator, Tim Scott? He’s handsome, yet single and look at how fashionably he dresses! Don’t think this won’t happen when he runs. Some of my neighbors can’t wait to get rid of the black senator.
Bex
@piratedan: Pie fight for pi day. Very appropriate.
? Martin
We need a term for ‘the act of a Republican killing another Republican’. Reagancide or some such. I have no opinion of whether Graham is gay or not, but it’s always fun to watch Republicans reveal their inner asshole so publicly.
TooManyJens
@? Martin:
I don’t go to those kinds of sites.
SatanicPanic
@? Martin: Pratricide?
Gin & Tonic
And the headline at Boston.com is “Brown Out at Fox News” so naturally, I thought, at least Scotty is unambiguously gay now. But it turns out that’s not what they meant at all.
TooManyJens
@SatanicPanic: Nice!
Gin & Tonic
@TooManyJens: Never been goatse’d?
TooManyJens
@Gin & Tonic: Well, OK, I don’t go to them on purpose.
BGinCHI
@SatanicPanic: VictimWithoutaCrimeicide?
Gin & Tonic
Some dastardly Crimean Tatars.
tBone
@beth:
I dunno about asexual. Maybe there’s another possibility we’re missing here, and Linds is a real-world version of Varys from GoT?
J.Ty
@Spankyslappybottom: Heh, nice nym.
It’s not very christian of me, but I like seeing bad things happen to bad people. I’m also not very christian.
A politicain’s right to privacy ends at other people’s right to equality under the law, as far as I’m concerned. Would that Strom Thurmond had had to answer questions about knocking up the help, for instance.
Roger Moore
@BGinCHI:
Never. I wouldn’t make the same bet about a white robe and hood.
Betty Cracker
@BGinCHI & @SatanicPanic: Y’all are on a roll!
muddy
@Roger Moore: How could they have known that wearing a white satin gown with a pointy hat would be taken as racist, and not as a medieval princess as they intend it?
Doc Sportello
As Pierce said, Huckleberry Closetcase.
I’ll defend his right to marry a man, but I’ll attack him for his homophobic denunciations. That’s about right.
BGinCHI
I like it when they remind us on the TV that Graham is a Jag lawyer.
In my mind the voice says, “you forgot the second half of that word.”
Roger Moore
@Bobby Thomson:
The Department of Redundancy Department would like to invite you to their event for the hoi polloi held on the Rio Grande River. Please respond by RSVP.
Jay C
@? Martin:
We already have one: it’s called “primary campaign“
CONGRATULATIONS!
Oh my.
I guess the closet can really be a dangerous place to hide in.
JoyfulA
@Hal: As long as he doesn’t act out in public, nobody cares (except maybe in the Upstate), and they’ll keep throwing fund-raisers for him. And yes, everybody “knows.”
Gin & Tonic
Teevee alert: for those tired of the usual talking heads who know little or nothing about Ukraine or Russia, tune in to the Melissa Harris-Perry program tomorrow to hear intelligent conversation from Adrian Karatnycky and Nina Khrushcheva.
Gin & Tonic
Last one on the subject for now: sign in a bar/cafe in Simferopol, offering 10% discount to FSB and GRU members with ID.
Heliopause
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
Hypothetical: Suppose Eric Cantor was facing a primary challenge. Suppose a farther-right primary challenger used Cantor’s Jewishness as a campaign issue and was polling well amongst GOP primary voters as a result. Suppose further polling revealed that a centristy Democrat would win the general against the far-right challenger. From a left perspective, what would be justified in terms of getting Cantor out and the Democrat in? What lines would you not cross?
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
Teabagging.
scav
@Roger Moore: The area of The La Brea Tar Pits location wasn’t available for Redundency Backup? Need to keep up with their upcoming next event — I always shop their clothes wear department for belts and braces.
Cervantes
@Gin & Tonic: Any thoughts re this comment and the one after?
Cervantes
@Heliopause: Hypothetical #2: How funny would it be if the “ambiguously gay” candidate were a Democrat?
Robert Sneddon
@scav: Torpenhow Hill was overbooked, I expect.
GregB
@Roger Moore:
Lipton-cide.
Roger Moore
@scav:
Sorry, but LACMA* was booked solid and no openings were available.
*Note for non-Angelenos who don’t live in Los Angeles: both the La Brea Tar Pits and LACMA are located right next to each other in adjacent sections of Hancock Park.
Villago Delenda Est
@BGinCHI: Well, I noted in the thread earlier that Ben Carson is right about America resembling the Third Reich because Rethuglicans are languishing in FEMA camps guarded by gays dressed in FABULOUS uniforms.
So wearing an SS uniform (which the Gestapo actually did) has an unintended, I’m sure (snicker) subtext that the vehemently homophobic are unaware of.
Or are they?
I’ve also noted before, scratch a virulent homophobe, find a deeply closeted queer.
Villago Delenda Est
@Heliopause: Crushing fascists, regardless of their religious/ethnic backgrounds, is a good thing.
Go for it.
AxelFoley
@? Martin:
Whoa, whoa, whoa…we don’t need to see that shit. There’s laws against that.
Mnemosyne
@Heliopause:
So far, I haven’t seen anyone advocating anything stronger than pointing and laughing as the Republicans fight amongst themselves. I admit I haven’t read the thread all that closely, but has anyone been advocating taking any action stronger than that? Do we really need to denounce Republicans for bashing other Republicans?
Frankensteinbeck
@Hal: and @JoyfulA:
All that matters in the South is who you hate.
Gin & Tonic
@Cervantes: Yes, but not now.
J.Ty
@Mnemosyne: I’m for winning. Sure, it’s no good for a man to gain everything if he loses his soul or whatever, but politics is a blood sport and political parties don’t have any souls to lose anyway. It’s also good to keep in mind that your opponents are willing to do things like sabotage treaty negotiations to make you look bad (Nixon/Kissinger, ’68) or less awful but still bad stuff like voter caging, ‘accidentally’ kicking people with brown names off the rolls, engaging in a decades-long plutocratic con game and propaganda mission….
Calling Lindsey Graham a fag is child’s play and if it helps dems win I’m for it.
Cervantes
@Gin & Tonic: At your convenience; just let me know.
(Particularly interesting would be opinions from Ukraine.)
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne:
Can you imagine one situation in which you might do that?
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore:
Is that anywhere near, or close to, the La Brea Tar Pits? Can you see Mount Fujiyama on a clear, cloudless day?
ETA: Curse you, scav, for getting in there 50 minutes — nearly an hour — before my comment!
Russ
This will explode when the gays come to his defense and they should. Freedom bitches!!!
Russ
This will explode when the gays come to his defense and they should. Freedom bitches!!!
ericblair
@SiubhanDuinne:
Do they have an ATM machine there? Off of El Camino Way?
Anyways, there’s a list from the Source of All Knowledge here.
Most of this happened I assume because of this situation:
Foreign devil: What do you call this place?
Local (in devilish local tongue): It’s a lake, dumbass. Ever seen a lake before?
Foreign devil: Ah, its name is Lake Tahoe!
Heliopause
@Mnemosyne:
Would you vote for the anti-semite in a crossover primary? Would you go door-to-door for him if the polling difference were razor thin? Contribute to the campaign? Phone bank? Casually drop into conversations with evangelical Christian co-workers that Cantor is Jewish? I’m just curious, based on the comment I was responding to, and my general sense that liberalish blogs have been waiting with bated breath for some nut to drop the gay-bomb on Lindsey Graham.
Heliopause
@Villago Delenda Est:
See my previous comment: which of those things would you be willing to do?
Geeno
@SatanicPanic: Win in one! You may collect your internets at the cashier’s stand.
SiubhanDuinne
@ericblair:
Thank you for the list of tautological redundant pleonasms.
jon
Skinny English men are assless chaps. If you really want to be pedantic about chaps, ask a guy from the Southwest who will tell you at length that the “ch” sound is more of a “sh” as in shape than a “ch” as in “chapstick”. You can learn the entire history of chaperejos from such folk, who will then tell you that “buckaroo” comes from “vaquero” rather than some 80s cult movie.
Geeno
@Heliopause: The thing is, WE’RE not crossing those lines. THEY are.
I would never suggest that a Democrat use Cantor’s “jewishness” against him, but if he gets taken out by some yahoo – that he, himself, has helped empower – on such terms, I call that a teachable moment. Though I doubt Cantor would learn.
Seanly
@tBone:
A$$less chaps or stay home.
shelly
“What are you all looking at?”
“Nothing!”
Geeno
@Heliopause: No to any of them. I do not believe in polluting the electoral system with that kind of rat-fucking. I believe all primaries should be closed; the party is picking its representative; others should have no input.
If they want to go scorched earth on each other – that’s not my issue to intervene in. It’s their issue if they want to let their freak flag fly, not mine.
Heliopause
@Geeno:
So I take it you wouldn’t do any of those hypothetical things.
Ian
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
If he wasn’t voting for bigoted things, anti-gay rights, and anti-choice positions I too would feel bad about the smear campaign waged against him.
That being said, I’m still waiting for Lindsey Graham and a wide stance moment.
Geeno
@Heliopause: I do not intervene in my enemy’s self destruction. Not even to try to make it more certain. Though I cheerfully welcome his self destruction, I won’t hasten it – I’ll just take on the weakened survivor.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Ian: We’re still sending the signal that there is something wrong with being gay, regardless of what a douchehat Graham is. South Carolina democrats should put out a statement denouncing the smear by Feliciano and affirming Graham’s right to be a closeted homosexual.
geg6
@Geeno:
This. Exactly.
Heliopause
@Geeno:
Okay. I’m genuinely curious, because just a couple of comments below yours we see someone wishing for Lindsey Graham to be caught soliciting gay sex in a public restroom.
Bjacques
@Heliopause: Just Some Fuckhead is right. As liberals, we should be publicly reassuring Graham that gay is okay.
Geeno
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: See – THAT is the kind of thing I would countenance. As long as WE are clear that this shouldn’t be an issue in our statement.
C.S.
I disagree. He looks exactly as butch as I would expect someone who feels the reflexive need to attack another man’s perceived butchness to look.
Ian
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
I would call that a double whammy. 100% behind that.
Betty Cracker
@C.S.: Good point.
BobS
@Gin & Tonic: I may have to miss that. I’ve seen, heard, & read both of them in recent weeks and came away pretty unimpressed. They seem to adhere closely to the standard American media narrative that downplays the significance of the Ukrainian far right nationalists of Svoboda & Pravy Sector who (with generous financial and logistical assistance from the US NED and cheered on by the same old neo-conservative assholes like John McCain and William Kristol) provided the boots on the ground for the coup and who now head important ministries as well as the police and military in the illegal government.
But you watch and report back on how they soft pedal fascism.
Lyrebird
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: I share that conflicted feeling, so much so that I felt conflicted about reading this thread… This totally made my evening, though — a response I can get behind!!
@scav:
Villago Delenda Est
@Heliopause:
As far as I’m concerned, what happens in the GOP stays in the GOP. The Dems just sit back and let them knife each other and watch them bleed to death.
No skin off my ass if they canibalize each other. Fuck them both (or all of them)