In Ireland A Gay Senator's Career Stalled By His Past Words...

... In Massachusetts, PC Voters Keep More Dangerous Congressman In Office

By Alicia Colon

What on earth does a Hispanic New Yorker know about Irish politics even though she writes for an Irish newspaper? Absolutely nothing so when an Irishman wrote me recently and told me what's been happening on the Emerald Isle I just had to check if that country's politics is as messed up as the good old U.S. of A. Apparently it is.

Although I've never been to Ireland the Irish are no strangers to me as I live in a city that, according to an old beer commercial, has more Irish than Dublin. I don't know if that's still true but being a Catholic educated by Irish nuns and whose family hosted priests and religious for dinner, my life has been enriched by a multitude of wonderful friends of Irish heritage.

My correspondent wrote me in dismay lamenting his disappointment in a man at that time running for president, David Norris, whom he had always defended thinking he was honorable and decent. According to my reader, Mr. Frost is a senator and in Ireland senators are not voted into office by the people but rather appointed or elected by special groups. I found this fact interesting along with the information that Senator Frost was openly homosexual in this largely Catholic country.

Apparently, Mr. Norris was a rather flamboyant character who was nonetheless very well liked and seemed a shoo-in for the top spot. Then the rumors hit the fan and what some have called a "smear campaign" began to tear at his candidacy so that even former supporters pulled away from him.

My friend wrote," However... having initially supported him I was disturbed when he called the present Pope a Nazi and the previous one, John Paul II 'evil'. I'm all for one airing their views but I felt that this disqualified him from ever greeting Benedict in an official capacity as President of the country. You can't have it both ways and this does remain a Catholic country."

Those comments however were not the poison pill that cost Norris the race since the Catholic Church has lost much of its influence in wake of the priest sex scandal report. It was rather the discovery of previous supportive statements made by him on the subject of sex with minors. An old interview emerged of Norris defending this sexual relationship by remarking that these acts were quite acceptable in ancient Greece. He spoke of how he would have been delighted if an older man had taken him under his wing when he was a kid and introduced him, "gently" as he put it, into the real world.

What ultimately doomed Norris's candidacy forcing him to withdraw from the race was the disclosure of a letter he wrote supporting his former lover Ezra Yitzhak Nawi who was arrested in Israel for the statutory rape of a 15-year-old boy. His influential supporters abandoned him and in a press conference announcing his withdrawal Frost said, "Yes, his actions were terrible, but my motivation to write the letter was out of love and concern. I was eager to support someone who has been very important and continues to be important in my life. It is very sad that in trying to help a person I loved dearly, I made a human error."

Well, truth be told, that statement doesn't seem very credible given his previous statements embracing those "terrible actions" in the past.

This introduction to the political arena in Ireland made me ponder on the successful career of our own openly gay congressman, Barney Frank, (D-Massachusetts) and compare the public's acceptance of his sexual life to that of Norris's.

I personally do not care a whit about a public officials' private sex life unless it affects their public duty or shows flawed judgment making them vulnerable to illegal influence. Despite the scandal David Norris will likely remain in office but removing Rep. Frank seems to be an impossible task and it makes me think that tolerance of his homosexuality has blinded voters to the real harm he has done to not only this country but to the world.

Had a Republican politician as many personal scandals erupt as Barney Frank's it's unlikely that they would have remained in Congress since 1981 as Frank has. In 1989, ABC News reported, "Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank, an acknowledged homosexual, today confirmed that his Washington apartment had been used as a callboy headquarters by a male prostitute (Stephen L. Gobie) for a year and a half until late 1987. Responding to a story in today's Washington Times, Frank said he had hired the prostitute out of his own funds as a personal aide and fired him when he found out what was going on."

For Massachusetts voters, that was no biggie and Frank was soundly reelected. More scandal followed with Frank being accused of fixing 33 parking tickets for Gobie and writing a "misleading memo" to secure his probation. Then in 2007, Rep. Frank was present when his partner James Ready was arrested at his home in Ogunquite, Maine and was charged with marijuana possession, cultivation, and use of drug paraphernalia. Marijuana plants were found in Ready's backyard. He claimed not to know what was going on just as he claimed he had no idea Gobie was operating an escort service out of his home. Voters accepted his ignorance as credible and ignored the damage Frank was doing to the housing market that ultimately led to the crash of the global economy.

In 2003, while the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank opposed a Bush administration proposal to transfer the oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Congress and H.U.D. to a new agency. Now why did he do that?

Even the New York Times finally admitted his malfeasance in a recent column by David Brooks who wrote, "Only two of the characters in this tale come off as egregiously immoral. [Fannie Mae CEO James] Johnson made $100 million while supposedly helping the poor. Representative Barney Frank, whose partner at the time worked for Fannie, was arrogantly dismissive when anybody raised doubts about the stability of the whole arrangement."

The Housing collapse here led to the banking crisis and foreclosures and ultimately to worldwide economic disaster. It makes perfect sense for the Irish to reject a presidential candidate who professes acceptance for actions that the country is now condemning the Catholic Church for. What will it take for PC Massachusetts voters to finally oust Barney Frank not for his personal life but for the damage to the country he has done because of it?

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com