I've heard Lincoln was gay...

[catnhatnh]

...And that Washington had slaves. And that Jefferson had at least one. Teddy Roosevelt wasn't your daddy's liberal. And yet they all wound up on a mountain...

FDR had a mistress, Kennedy was a womanizer, Carter fought a rabbit, and Clinton parsed words.

Wasn't a single one who was a super hero, yet each in his own way advanced America. Nixon was the villain of my youth yet he founded the EPA, went to China, and ended the Vietnam war.

I guess politicians are mostly neither better nor worse than you or I. I pride myself that among myself and my three siblings there were divorces but at least no friggin' beneath the sheets....Maybe the bigger ego it takes to get elected makes for bigger mistakes....

Let us please put all the nonsense to bed. Politicians have, for better or worse, signed on to run this country. People here are hungry and homeless and sick without care through no failing of their own. If Vitter came up tomorrow with a plan to aid our fellow citizens we should support him. If Craig were to plan to prosecute thieves in high places we should elect him to congress. And If Gingrich had a plan to revitalize our economy we should draft him for the Presidency.

But they don't. They are merely small men with foibles large or small. We need large men with great dreams and if we believe that what they say is what they will try with all their might to do, then and only then will they deserve our support.

In the coming race, the Republican contenders are small minded people. We will be presented with stories of rectitude without vision and virtue without compassion.

I'll take the human.

[MyUncle]

1. Whether or not any or all of the above is true, they were not ridiculed in their time..

When you are a politician, it is over when you are laughed at and the butt of jokes. Ask Sarah Palin, she is on the same bus as Weiner.

[DJ13]

2. If that was true half the GOP would be unelectable

[pnwmom]

5. Carter was ridiculed in his time

and he didn't get re-elected.

:shrug:

[catnhatnh]

7. Yep-exactly the same...

except I never said Weiner but merely pointed out we have larger problems than twitter photos. If laughing was enough than why are Newt and Rick Santorum back? I'm WAY past stains on blue dresses and losing money on real estate. I have things I want my country to be and personal flaws won't keep me from supporting actual liberals because they are human.

[MyUncle]

9. Newt and Rick are RUNNING, they will not win. PERIOD.

[marzipanni]

23. Sarah could have saved a bundle

shoulda hitched a ride on the Wienermobile-

[thewiseguy]

3. and why would it be an issue if Lincoln was gay?

[MrModerate]

4. Quite so. However . . .

"Sinning" is one thing. Getting caught in a coverup demonstrates really bad judgement and rightfully ends political careers.

I insist that the politicians I support have good judgement, which is why I seldom find myself supporting Republicans.

[Zen Democrat]

6. Nixon went to China, but he didn't end the Vietnam War.

That happened in 1975 when Saigon fell because the Congress cut out funding for it. Nixon and Kissinger negotiated a prisoner of war exchange.

And I think it would be cool if our greatest President in history was gay. Totally cool.

[apocalypsehow]

13. The last American combat forces departed South Vietnam in March, 1973. No fan of Nixon, but it's

undeniable that American involvement in combat operations ended on his watch.

[catnhatnh]

15. TY

And exactly on point. A monster and yet...

[Hippo_Tron]

25. He pulled them out years after he could have in order to get a ceasefire agreement with the North

That would make it so there was a certain amount of time between the withdrawal of US combat forces and the fall of Saigon. All of those dead soldiers just to save face.

[catnhatnh]

8. My point was

That Lincoln MAY have been gay and it didn't make the slightest bit of difference. Except to Mary Lincoln who expressed no disappointment.My point was that almost any person may be perceived as flawed and that almost all will be a cause of disappointment if held to a standard of perfection from a "Christian" point of view. Jimmy Carter is held as a failure based on lies and innuendo and yet to my mind was the most morally pure President in my lifetime. At very least no extramarital rumor attaches to him. At most he works for world peace and builds houses for the disadvantaged...not a bad thing.

[RKP5637]

10. I always feel politicians are a cross section of those that elect them. The good,

the bad and in between. I'm willing to bet most Americans would have a lot of embarrassing stuff revealed if they had the spotlight of MSM on them and their private affairs exposed, picture or not.

[Zenlitened]

11. Unrec for lumping "being gay" in with owning slaves. - n/t

[catnhatnh]

14. Yes

Obviously that was my agenda...

[Smarmie Doofus]

18. +1. Will it ever get better? nt

[FreeState]

24. +1 n/t

[femrap]

12. Actually, he was quite melancholy. nt

[Pterodactyl]

16. Just for the record. Lincoln was not gay.

From what I've seen of the history, claiming he was gay is a stretch.

[catnhatnh]

17. Personally

I doubt it also. But he IS on Rushmore and I needed an accusation of non-Christian perfection and the "history" channel gave me one...

[xfundy]

22. The concept of gay orientation arrived long after Lincoln's death.

In the 1890s, in Germany, I believe.

But, to you and the below from the OP, so what? Does not every woman have some masculine qualities, and men the same but opposite?

Guys are horndogs, and will get sex wherever they can get it, and every man and woman needs to spend some time with their own sex, socially or otherwise. This is natural, is it not?

The concept of homo- or heterosexuality represents black-or-white, binary thinking, which, of course, is antithetical to reality. Unfortunately, social "norms" force everyone to claim a point on an invisible scale, usually with no greys, let alone COLORS, considered. Thank you, Victorian Error.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

19. Carl Sandburg used the word "lavender".

[JI7]

20. you shouldn't put being gay in the same as owning slaves or adultery and other wrongs or mistakes

[demwing]

21. I don't want a hero

heroes fall

I want 150 million pissed off workers, each ready to stand toe to toe against a club weilding corporate fascist.

I wnt a fucking movement. I want an army.