Tea Party Homophobia Surfaces

Whenever Tea Party people are accused of being racists and homophobic, their answer is always that they're not, uh, racist. Gosh, how they were offended by the accusation that some used the N-word on black leaders walking to the Capitol for the health care bill vote, and yet nobody from the TP even cared enough to deny they used the F-word in the same incident.

Either way, they want to insist that the Tea Party movement is solely focused on America's financial circumstances and governmental spending. But their hatred for the gay creeps in every so often, as in this email I got today.

Dustin Stockman, the chair of the Western Representation PAC, a major Tea Party funding source, blasted an email today titled, "Breaking News: Barney Frank Can Be Defeated!" and linking to a Facebook group called "The Campaign To Defeat Barney Frank." While I'm finding it hard to imagine that Frank, well-liked in his liberal Massachusetts district, is vulnerable -- and even the internal, undoubtedly skewed poll Stockman is touting shows Frank up 10 points -- I was intrigued what their beef was. And here's the best sentence:

Barney is the most despicable person in government, but the main reason we began targeting Frank more than a year ago was his disturbing association with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Hmm. So sure, many have it in for Barney over mortgage regulations and all that jazz, and that's their right even though it's been pretty well debunked that Frank did in the housing market. Steve Wynn, for instance, talked my ear off not long ago about Frank's involvement with the Fannie/Freddie debacle, and he's no gay hater.

Yet I love the first part of this sentence for all that it says about why they would hate Frank even if they didn't think he'd wrecked the housing market. He's "the most despicable person in government" -- BUT! They're two separate thoughts! His involvement in the housing bust, such as it may be, isn't what makes him "the most despicable" person in government, see. Then what? Because 20-something years ago, he had a sex scandal? Other than that, why the personal attack? I mean, Tea Party people don't care about sex scandals when their team's in on them in, say, the cases of Newt Gingrich, John Ensign or David Vitter. So that can't be it.

Oh, that's right. Barney's a gay. In fact, he's the most powerful elected gay in the history of America. Well, unless you're an Abe Lincoln conspiracy theorist, anyhow.

Election Day in Nevada

It's primary election day in Nevada, which should get interesting. In the past 12 hours, I've penned two new pieces for AOL News on the Senate race:

* Tea Partiers Swap Nasty E-Mails in Nev. Senate Race: An inside look at some pretty torrid emails exchanged by Tea Party activists aimed at one another in the waning days of the race.

* Nevada Senate Race: Obama vs. Tea Party?: A look beyond today to note that Nevada will be unique this year as a state in which a tea party candidate -- and all three leaders will claim the mantle but especially Sharron Angle -- takes on a Democratic incumbent who can't run away from Obama. In Nevada, we learn for sure whether the Tea Party creed is mainstream or not. Telling quote from Tea Party Nation chairman Judson Phillips: If Sen. Harry Reid wins in November, "there will be perception that the tea party movement has run its course and its power is fading."

Beyond the Senate race, which is the only one AOL News cares about, we're likely to see the first Nevada governor ever to be bounced from office in his party's primary and if Mark Manendo beats Grandmother Kathy McClain in that State Senate race it could be the first sign of some political muscle in the Vegas gay community. While some have said my coverage of the gay-baiting in that race was inappropriate, I got indirect acknowledgment that I wasn't crazy from Las Vegas CityLife editor Steve Sebelius in this week's print column.

Right now, I'm heading down for a nap -- I was up at 4 a.m. to write that second AOL piece and my LVW column -- but I'll be Tweeting from the Republican Party's party at The Orleans later tonight. Should be fun.

Before I go, though, I leave you with this amusing little TV ad by a carpetbagging candidate who never had any relevancy other than his checkbook and who will be gone from the state by sun-up tomorrow. Not sure when Sue Lowden started sounding like Dina Titus, but it's clever anyway: