Jim McGreevey writes about Larry Craig in today’s Washington Post. Despite McGreevey’s flaws, this is a beautifully written piece. He writes, about the shame he felt as a gay young man:
How do you live with this shame? How do you accommodate your own disappointments, your own revulsion with whom you have become? You do it by splitting in two. You rescue part of yourself, the half that stands for tradition, values and America, the part that looks like the family you came from, and you walk away from the other half the way you would abandon something spoiled, something disgusting. This is a false amputation, because the other half doesn’t stop existing.
He even touches on his own real misconduct, the hiring of Golan Cipel onto his staff.
Excellent.
My attitude toward Sen. Craig has moderated; at first I was enraged by his hypocrisy, but now I am enraged at the cultural conditions which, in my view, lead to this behavior. This is a really nice, open, gutsy piece by Mr. McGreevey.
That’s a nice letter — it’s very good condensation of his book.
My opinion on Craig has not moderated and will not moderate until he publically acknowledges his sexuality — whether he’s gay or bi — and apologizes for the harm he’s done to queer people through his political career and commits himself to working to undo the damage he has caused.
Social conditions can only explain the options available to us and the reasons that would urge us to choose one option over others. They cannot condone or absolve moral responsibility. Craig always had a choice of how to vote, what to sponsor. He chose evil.
I assume that his choices were motivated by projection and self-loathin — I can relate to that. But while I can understand the motivation that doesn’t change the fact that evil has been committed.
Through his actions in the Senate, Craig has hurt all of us. I cannot forgive him until he demonstrates that he is worthy of forgiveness.