I don't know if this is true...but WOW if it is.
Al
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9/21/2004
LA Weekly to out anti-gay GOP congressman David Dreier for first time in print media
Filed under:
DEVELOPING TONIGHT: RAW STORY has acquired the congressional travel records for Dreier and his alleged partner. Expect more later this afternoon and evening, on the main page (http://rawstory.com).
By John Byrne | Raw Story Editor
The left-leaning alternative newspaper, LA Weekly, is set to launch a major piece formally outing anti-gay California Republican congressman David Dreier for the first time in print media, RAW STORY has learned.
Titled “The Outing,” the 900-word piece penned by veteran investigative reporter Doug Ireland, will formally blast Dreier for his extremely anti-gay voting position and its apparent conflict with the relationship he is said to be having with his male chief of staff.
The piece begins by citing activist Mike Rogers, whose site, blogACTIVE, first intimated that Dreier might be gay.
“Rogers’ campaign against Dreier got a major boost when it was taken up by Raw Story, the hot new liberal gadfly newsblog,” Ireland writes. “Raw Story–which is edited out of Cambridge, Mass., by 23-year-old John Byrne… 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, adding ‘They really have the routine down slick.’”
Ireland also cites the fact that Dreier’s alleged live-in lover receives an extraordinarily high salary.
“Raw Story has provided some fascinating details about Smith,” Ireland writes. “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.”
New Jersey’s governor, James McGreevey, was recently forced to resign for paying his boyfriend from taxpayer funds at a salary slightly less than what Dreier pays Smith, Ireland notes.
He adds that neither Dreier, Smith, nor the congressman’s press secretary would return telephone calls or voice mails seeking comment.
Ireland takes Dreier to task for nearly every anti-gay vote he has cast, and lambastes Dreier’s home newspapers, controlled by a conservative media conglomerate, for participating in a deliberate effort to quash any questions about the congressman’s sexuality.
The article will be published on the LA Weekly website late Wednesday, and appear in Thursday’s print editions of the paper.
To read the full story, detailing all of the evidence and reportage RAW STORY has presented to date, click here. |
