The Idaho Statesman, in its Sunday edition (Dec. 2, 2007), continued a series of articles detailing the legal, political, and, if the newspaper is to be believed, sexual problems of Republican Idaho Senator Larry Craig. Craig of course, continues to deny that he is a homosexual, and at this point, is still planning to serve out his term, though he says he will not seek re-election.

Whether or not Craig is really gay or not is probably not provable beyond a shadow of a doubt, but it is clear that he did plead guilty to a public disturbance charge in Minnesota for allegedly seeking gay sex from an undercover police officer in an airport men’s room. Both nationally and in the Pacific Northwest, the Republican Party has suffered from several gay sex scandals recently.

Florida Republican Mark Foley resigned in 2006 after questionable communications with Congressional pages. Though he denied any illegal actions, (and none of his actions were proven illegal), Foley admitted he was gay and resigned from Congress.

In Washington, conservative Republican Jim West lost his Mayoral position in Spokane after a recall election in 2006. This recall followed his outing by the Spokesman-Review and details of how West offered internships to young men in exchange for sexual favors. Allegations also arose over possible sexual abuse of minor from his time as an elected Sheriff in the 1970s.

In 2007, conservative Republican State Representative from the 18th District, Richard Curtis, resigned after an incident where he admitted having sex with a man he met at a Spokane adult bookstore.

In each of these incidents, plus the ongoing Craig issue, the leadership of the Republican Party, whether at the state or federal levels, essentially casts the alleged sexual offender out to the wolves when gay sex is the basis of the scandal in question. Even Trent Lott, whose only public sin was to speak perhaps too honestly in public about how he truly would like America to look like, feels that the Republican Party is too quick to cast out its own to avoid the embarrassment of prolonged scandals.

So, what does all of this mean? To GOP officeholders, it means that you better not screw up in public, or your party leaders will offer to open the exit door for you. For the voting public, this means that the Republican Party is very skittish about any attempt to broaden the coverage of its "Big Tent," (which by the way is a term used by former Vice-Presidential candidate Jack Kemp, who himself was subtly smeared with claims of a non-hetero sex scandal–never proven) to try to pull away some of the diverse groups that make up the chaotic Democratic coalition. There are plenty of gays, blacks, Jews, Hispanics, and other groups who firmly believe in the GOP’s core values–fiscal conservatism, strong law-and-order, pro-life, gun rights, and strong national defense–who are otherwise turned off by the party’s straight, white, Evangelical, native-born appearance and attitude.

To become the true majority party, the GOP must learn to include a majority of voters, gay, straight, or otherwise.