Media 'hid" news that Cal. Rep. David Dreier (R) is gay. - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

host · 09-22-2004, 11:08 AM

Congressman David Dreier (R) California, chairman of the powerful house rules
committee lives with his male chief of staff, who is the highest paid chief of
staff in congress. Dreier, unmarried, has apparantly hidden the fact that he is
gay during his 24 year political career. Dreier has supported or sponsered
republican anti-guy legislative intiatives.

Quote:

The mainstream press continues to deny that they had any hand in helping keep Dreier's secret from the public. Hmmmm... While the independent press, Low Magazine, wrote the piece on Dreier in 1997! Yet no local daily has covered the fact that Dreier is a homophobe and gay. Could it be that the paper did not know? Could there be a cover-up? Were reporters told what they could, and could not, ask Rep. Dreier?

If you'd like to see the letter that Hustler Magazine wrote to one of the local papers in Drier's district click here.

Now how is this for some interesting connections: The papers in Dreier's area are all owned by the same company that owns the Denver Post...run by Dean Singleton. Of all of the papers in Congressman Dreier's district owned by Singleton's company, not ONE of them thought it important enough to report on the contradictions of the Congressman's public votes and private life.
http://www.blogactive.com/

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune is the Medianews paper in Dreier's district.

Drieir is the second republican congressman with an anti-gay voting record
that has been exposed by blogactive.com just in this past month.

Why is the media enabling these dangerous (as in easily blackmailed),
"conservative" closet gay republican politicians by refusing to cover their
political and personal lives with the same "fair and balanced" even handedness
that they exhibited in.....say....their coverage of Bill Clinton ?

Supporting links:

Kitty Kelly book excerpt:"Page 491-92: Barbara Bush is upset that her daughter Doro, a divorcee, is getting nowhere with Rep. David Deier after a year of dating. "Never laid a hand on her," Bar says."

Homophobic Republicans Set Sights on Dreier

Anti-gay GOP Rep. outed, 'lived with' highly paid chief of staff

Note: I can understand that some of you may want to wait to comment
until this story becomes more "mainstream". IMO, that is exactly the point
of this thread. This thread is about the curious media double standard in
not covering the hypocricy of David Dreier and his use of public funds to
authorize an unusually high government salary for his gay live-in lover, and
about the control of the news that Medianews monopoly of local California
newspapers allows it to exert. Sit back, watch this unfold, and thank Hustler
magazine for performing as journalists while the rest of the media establishment allowed Dreier to play homophobic congressional committee
chairman, pander to the christian right, and then go home and sleep with his
male chief of staff, protected from exposure by the same media who publically
pledge to champion the transparency envisioned by our founding fathers to
serve as the fourth "check and balance" of our constituitional government!

filtherton · 09-22-2004, 02:23 PM

I wonder if he was trying to "make up" for being gay by working against his own best interests?

OFKU0 · 09-22-2004, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by host

Congressman David Dreier (R) California, chairman of the powerful house rules
committee lives with his male chief of staff, who is the highest paid chief of
staff in congress. Dreier, unmarried, has apparantly hidden the fact that he is
gay during his 24 year political career.

I wonder what they know and what they've been hiding to protect themselves that long not to mention the dirt they may have on an array of people that probably could ruin careers if not lives.

host · 09-22-2004, 10:30 PM

Still no mainstream press coverage on the David Dreier outing; we'll monitor
developments at this wire services link, courtesy of Drudge's site........
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=David+Dreier

However.....as predicted on Wednesday morning, LA Weekly has picked up
the Dreier story and added some info on his anti-gay voting record. Watching
the press ignore this story may shift to a phenomena not unlike a dam
suddenly bursting.......

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/44/news-ireland.php
<div align="left">
The latest target of a Capitol Hill outing campaign — designed to expose closeted homosexual Republicans who oppose civil rights for gay people — is San Gabriel Valley Congressman David Dreier.

The powerful 12-term congressman — chairman of the House Rules Committee, chairman of the California Republican House delegation, co-chairman of Californians for Bush, chairman of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s transition team — is in the cross hairs of Mike Rogers and his Blogactive.com Web site, whose outing campaign has already forced one GOP congressman out of politics. Representative Ed Schrock, a reactionary from Virginia, ended his re-election campaign last month after Rogers put on his Web site an audiotape of Schrock trolling for tricks on a gay chat line.

Now, Rogers — a former development director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force — has given Dreier the “Roy Cohn Award, in recognition of 24 years of working against gay and lesbian rights while living as a gay man yourself.” He is pummeling Dreier with almost daily revelations as a response to the GOP’s anti-gay crusade for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.

Rogers’ campaign against Dreier got a major boost when it was taken up by Raw Story, the hot new liberal gadfly newsblog. Raw Story — which is edited out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, by 23-year-old John Byrne, who is also gay — last week published an interview with Dreier’s Democratic opponent in 1998 and 2000, Dr. Janice Nelson, who said she was aware during her 2000 campaign that Dreier was living with his chief of staff, Brad Smith. “Brad was like an invisible presence,” she said. “They really have the routine down slick.”

Nelson, a professor of pathology, says she came forward when she read on Raw Story that Hustler — the Larry Flynt magazine — was working on an exposé of Dreier’s secret gay life. Mark Cromer, the mag’s features editor in charge of its outing of Dreier, is a former reporter for a string of Valley newspapers in Dreier’s district, including the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and the Pasadena Star-News. Cromer said his mag’s exposé on Dreier — part of a package on sexual hypocrisy by Republican spear-carriers in the “culture wars” — will be published in November. And he accuses the papers in Dreier’s district, all of which spout a conservative, anti-gay editorial line, of having a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy toward the congressman and his relationship with Smith. These papers are all owned by Media News Group (MNG), whose CEO, Dean Singleton, is a major contributor to Republican campaigns. Opinion pages editor Steve Scauzillo said he could not comment on the Dreier matter without the approval of MNG higher-ups.

Raw Story has provided some fascinating details about Smith. It appears that he is the highest-paid chief of staff to any House committee chair. Smith’s $156,600 salary is just $400 less than that of White House chief of staff Andy Card and Bush political commissar Karl Rove. By comparison, the chief of staff to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee makes $126,000, while the chief of staff to the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee makes just $100,696. New Jersey Democratic Governor Jim McGreevey was recently forced to resign when it was about to become public that he had put his boyfriend on the public payroll at a salary slightly less than the one which Dreier pays Smith.

Neither Dreier, Smith, nor the congressman’s press secretary would return several telephone calls and detailed voice mails seeking comment. A staff member on Monday hung up the phone when I called back.

I have always taken the view that outing a gay person should be approached with caution, and that in doing so one should strictly adhere to the Barney Frank Rule. As articulated by the openly gay Massachusetts congressman during another anti-gay GOP witch-hunt over a decade ago, when Frank threatened to out a number of gay-baiting Republican fellow congressmen, the rule insists that outing is only acceptable when a person uses their power or notoriety to hurt gay people.

Dreier clearly meets that standard, for his voting record is strewn with anti-gay positions. To cite just a few: He voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would have banned discrimination against gay people in hiring; voted for the gay-bashing Defense of Marriage Act; voted for banning adoption by gay and lesbian couples in the District of Columbia (3,000 miles away from Dreier’s district); voted to allow federally funded charities to discriminate against gays in employment, even where local laws prohibit such bias; and voted against the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Dreier is not just a political homophobe but a heartless AIDS-phobe as well, voting against the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program designed to give shelter to the impoverished sick, and against funding for the federal ADAP program that furnishes the poor with the AIDS meds they need to stay alive.

Dreier can probably survive outing in his district and be re-elected, and it won’t hurt him much with Arnold and his cronies either. But Dreier’s days as a key member of the ultra-homophobic Hastert-DeLay House GOP leadership may be numbered. The telegenic Dreier has often served as the GOP leadership’s spokesman on the TV chat-show circuit. It will be interesting to see whether, the next time Dreier shows up on Crossfire or Chris Matthews’ show, he’s asked about the contradictions between his anti-gay voting record and his hitherto-secret life.

Doug Ireland can be reached through his blog, <a href="http://direland.typepad.com/direland/">DIRELAND</a>.

98MustGT · 09-24-2004, 10:02 AM

Political Human Sacrifice -
Drier has been selected by Republicans to be sacrificed due to his voting record re: illegal immigration.

http://www.johnandkenshow.com/
http://www.firedreier.com/
http://www.dojak.net/

student · 09-24-2004, 01:55 PM

Ahhh, the old adage....Practice what you preach.

Ustwo · 09-24-2004, 02:42 PM

Since the only people saying he is gay appears to be Hustler mag and some gay websites, perhaps the reason the mainstream press isn't picking up on the story is that there is no story to pick up?

It seems the gay groups really hate him, and of course would delight if they could show he was gay and wouldn't mind using Hustler as a source.

Maybe he is gay, maybe he isn't, I don't know nor do I care but if your source material comes from one of the more vile porn mags out there its best to be cautious.

vpbar73 · 09-24-2004, 04:22 PM

Is being gay wrong? well, if you are a christian, yes. That doesnt mean that christians are all free of sin. We are ALL sinners. As a christian, I dont ignore gays, I think of them just as I would anyone else. Like I said, we are all sinners. I wouldnt want a gay person judging me for my sin. Do you watch porn?, use foul language?, JUDGE others?, etc.. What changes this particular sin is that gay folks ask for more than acceptance, they want the extras. i.e.- marriage rights, and others. Lets try to get over judgement and leave that for God. Its hard, but its what we need to do. I really am not trying to offend anyone here but this is my belief and I ask that you respect it just as you would a gay persons, addicts,or any other sinners.

OFKU0 · 09-24-2004, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vpbar73

Is being gay wrong? well, if you are a christian, yes. That doesnt mean that christians are all free of sin. We are ALL sinners. As a christian, I dont ignore gays, I think of them just as I would anyone else. Like I said, we are all sinners. I wouldnt want a gay person judging me for my sin. Do you watch porn?, use foul language?, JUDGE others?, etc.. What changes this particular sin is that gay folks ask for more than acceptance, they want the extras. i.e.- marriage rights, and others. Lets try to get over judgement and leave that for God. Its hard, but its what we need to do. I really am not trying to offend anyone here but this is my belief and I ask that you respect it just as you would a gay persons, addicts,or any other sinners.

Is it more a sin to be heterosexual or homosexual based strictly on a human nature?

Gays want extras? Do you think? Gays just want what straight people take for granted, at least on some level, some anyway.

Let God decide what? God fucked up big time when he created the world. Kinda makes me think God was decidedly right lobe. Creative. Intelligent. Artistic. But no concept of the real world he was creating at least quantifiably speaking. If so there would be peace on earth for all mankind without indifference and intolerance regarding who is or who isn't a 'sinner'. But then again, factoring in population control indexes he probably figured death should be random, if not unmerciful for sinners and non sinners alike.

mattevil · 09-26-2004, 05:02 PM

damn liberal media!
/sarcasm

Ustwo · 09-26-2004, 07:18 PM

So far we have that he shares a house with his chief of staff and that the chief of staff is highly paid.

I'd think we need a bit more before we put them in the 'homosexual' arena.

Superbelt · 09-27-2004, 04:23 AM

Say what you want about Hustler Mag, but it has a stellar record of exposing hypocritical politicians.

That Gay activist website is doing a damned good job of building a rep as well.

martinguerre · 09-27-2004, 05:41 AM

*sigh

i don't think this fits the barney frank rule. those votes were questions of political disagreement...this outing was not in response to a witch hunt. if someone outed me for as spurious of reasons...i'd take it awfully personally.

at the core...outing is using your own idenity as an insult. i don't think it's right, i don't think it's sucessful, either.

oh...and for "Is being gay wrong? well, if you are a christian, yes."

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
John 3:16

SaltPork · 10-01-2004, 07:30 PM

So what...

Locobot · 10-01-2004, 08:53 PM

well the Daily Show wasn't too shy, they played a message he left on a gay-friendly phone service in which he stressed repeatedly the need for secrecy.

09-22-2004, 10:30 PM	#4 (permalink)
host Banned	Still no mainstream press coverage on the David Dreier outing; we'll monitor developments at this wire services link, courtesy of Drudge's site........ http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=David+Dreier However.....as predicted on Wednesday morning, LA Weekly has picked up the Dreier story and added some info on his anti-gay voting record. Watching the press ignore this story may shift to a phenomena not unlike a dam suddenly bursting....... http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/44/news-ireland.php <div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <B>The latest target</B> of a Capitol Hill outing campaign — designed to expose closeted homosexual Republicans who oppose civil rights for gay people — is San Gabriel Valley Congressman David Dreier. The powerful 12-term congressman — chairman of the House Rules Committee, chairman of the California Republican House delegation, co-chairman of Californians for Bush, chairman of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s transition team — is in the cross hairs of Mike Rogers and his Blogactive.com Web site, whose outing campaign has already forced one GOP congressman out of politics. Representative Ed Schrock, a reactionary from Virginia, ended his re-election campaign last month after Rogers put on his Web site an audiotape of Schrock trolling for tricks on a gay chat line. Now, Rogers — a former development director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force — has given Dreier the “Roy Cohn Award, in recognition of 24 years of working against gay and lesbian rights while living as a gay man yourself.” He is pummeling Dreier with almost daily revelations as a response to the GOP’s anti-gay crusade for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. Rogers’ campaign against Dreier got a major boost when it was taken up by Raw Story, the hot new liberal gadfly newsblog. Raw Story — which is edited out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, by 23-year-old John Byrne, who is also gay — last week published an interview with Dreier’s Democratic opponent in 1998 and 2000, Dr. Janice Nelson, who said she was aware during her 2000 campaign that Dreier was living with his chief of staff, Brad Smith. “Brad was like an invisible presence,” she said. “They really have the routine down slick.” Nelson, a professor of pathology, says she came forward when she read on Raw Story that <I>Hustler</I> — the Larry Flynt magazine — was working on an exposé of Dreier’s secret gay life. Mark Cromer, the mag’s features editor in charge of its outing of Dreier, is a former reporter for a string of Valley newspapers in Dreier’s district, including the <I>Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, </I>the <I>San Gabriel Valley Tribune</I> and the <I>Pasadena Star-News</I>. Cromer said his mag’s exposé on Dreier — part of a package on sexual hypocrisy by Republican spear-carriers in the “culture wars” — will be published in November. And he accuses the papers in Dreier’s district, all of which spout a conservative, anti-gay editorial line, of having a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy toward the congressman and his relationship with Smith. These papers are all owned by Media News Group (MNG), whose CEO, Dean Singleton, is a major contributor to Republican campaigns. Opinion pages editor Steve Scauzillo said he could not comment on the Dreier matter without the approval of MNG higher-ups. Raw Story has provided some fascinating details about Smith. It appears that he is the highest-paid chief of staff to any House committee chair. Smith’s $156,600 salary is just $400 less than that of White House chief of staff Andy Card and Bush political commissar Karl Rove. By comparison, the chief of staff to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee makes $126,000, while the chief of staff to the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee makes just $100,696. New Jersey Democratic Governor Jim McGreevey was recently forced to resign when it was about to become public that he had put his boyfriend on the public payroll at a salary slightly less than the one which Dreier pays Smith. Neither Dreier, Smith, nor the congressman’s press secretary would return several telephone calls and detailed voice mails seeking comment. A staff member on Monday hung up the phone when I called back. <B>I have always taken the view</B> that outing a gay person should be approached with caution, and that in doing so one should strictly adhere to the Barney Frank Rule. As articulated by the openly gay Massachusetts congressman during another anti-gay GOP witch-hunt over a decade ago, when Frank threatened to out a number of gay-baiting Republican fellow congressmen, the rule insists that outing is only acceptable when a person uses their power or notoriety to hurt gay people. Dreier clearly meets that standard, for his voting record is strewn with anti-gay positions. To cite just a few: He voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would have banned discrimination against gay people in hiring; voted for the gay-bashing Defense of Marriage Act; voted for banning adoption by gay and lesbian couples in the District of Columbia (3,000 miles away from Dreier’s district); voted to allow federally funded charities to discriminate against gays in employment, even where local laws prohibit such bias; and voted against the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Dreier is not just a political homophobe but a heartless AIDS-phobe as well, voting against the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program designed to give shelter to the impoverished sick, and against funding for the federal ADAP program that furnishes the poor with the AIDS meds they need to stay alive. Dreier can probably survive outing in his district and be re-elected, and it won’t hurt him much with Arnold and his cronies either. But Dreier’s days as a key member of the ultra-homophobic Hastert-DeLay House GOP leadership may be numbered. The telegenic Dreier has often served as the GOP leadership’s spokesman on the TV chat-show circuit. It will be interesting to see whether, the next time Dreier shows up on <I>Crossfire </I>or Chris Matthews’ show, he’s asked about the contradictions between his anti-gay voting record and his hitherto-secret life. Doug Ireland can be reached through his blog, <a href="http://direland.typepad.com/direland/">DIRELAND</a>.</P>

09-24-2004, 02:42 PM	#7 (permalink)
Ustwo Pissing in the cornflakes	Since the only people saying he is gay appears to be Hustler mag and some gay websites, perhaps the reason the mainstream press isn't picking up on the story is that there is no story to pick up? It seems the gay groups really hate him, and of course would delight if they could show he was gay and wouldn't mind using Hustler as a source. Maybe he is gay, maybe he isn't, I don't know nor do I care but if your source material comes from one of the more vile porn mags out there its best to be cautious. __________________ Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

09-26-2004, 07:18 PM	#11 (permalink)
Ustwo Pissing in the cornflakes	So far we have that he shares a house with his chief of staff and that the chief of staff is highly paid. I'd think we need a bit more before we put them in the 'homosexual' arena. __________________ Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

10-01-2004, 07:30 PM	#14 (permalink)
SaltPork Everything's better with bacon Location: In your local grocer's freezer.	So what... __________________ It was like that when I got here....I swear.

09-22-2004, 02:23 PM	#2 (permalink)
filtherton Junkie Location: In the land of ice and snow.	I wonder if he was trying to "make up" for being gay by working against his own best interests?

09-24-2004, 10:02 AM	#5 (permalink)
98MustGT Crazy Location: San Diego	Political Human Sacrifice - Drier has been selected by Republicans to be sacrificed due to his voting record re: illegal immigration. http://www.johnandkenshow.com/ http://www.firedreier.com/ http://www.dojak.net/

09-24-2004, 01:55 PM	#6 (permalink)
student Crazy	Ahhh, the old adage....Practice what you preach.

09-24-2004, 04:22 PM	#8 (permalink)
vpbar73 Upright	Is being gay wrong? well, if you are a christian, yes. That doesnt mean that christians are all free of sin. We are ALL sinners. As a christian, I dont ignore gays, I think of them just as I would anyone else. Like I said, we are all sinners. I wouldnt want a gay person judging me for my sin. Do you watch porn?, use foul language?, JUDGE others?, etc.. What changes this particular sin is that gay folks ask for more than acceptance, they want the extras. i.e.- marriage rights, and others. Lets try to get over judgement and leave that for God. Its hard, but its what we need to do. I really am not trying to offend anyone here but this is my belief and I ask that you respect it just as you would a gay persons, addicts,or any other sinners.

09-26-2004, 05:02 PM	#10 (permalink)
mattevil Addict Location: Virginia	damn liberal media! /sarcasm

09-27-2004, 04:23 AM	#12 (permalink)
Superbelt This vexes me. I am terribly vexed. Location: Grantville, Pa	Say what you want about Hustler Mag, but it has a stellar record of exposing hypocritical politicians. That Gay activist website is doing a damned good job of building a rep as well.

09-27-2004, 05:41 AM	#13 (permalink)
martinguerre whosoever Location: New England	sigh i don't think this fits the barney frank rule. those votes were questions of political disagreement...this outing was not in response to a witch hunt. if someone outed me for as spurious of reasons...i'd take it awfully personally. at the core...outing is using your own idenity as an insult. i don't think it's right, i don't think it's sucessful, either. oh...and for "Is being gay wrong? well, if you are a christian, yes." For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone* who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John 3:16

10-01-2004, 08:53 PM	#15 (permalink)
Locobot is awesome!	well the Daily Show wasn't too shy, they played a message he left on a gay-friendly phone service in which he stressed repeatedly the need for secrecy.