War Room - Salon.com

Tuesday, Aug 28, 2007 10:15 PDT

Rogers: Craig "should be open and honest"

The activist who first outed Craig says his party affiliation may explain his behavior.

As the Mark Foley sex scandal was breaking last year, Weekly Standard editor and Fox News pundit Bill Kristol said Democrats shouldn't try to make a political issue of it. "It's not credible to tar a political party with the misdeeds of one person," he argued.

Before any right-wing talking head makes a similar argument about the Larry Craig scandal, Mike Rogers has one word of advice: Don't. The online activist who first outed Craig last October says Craig's party affiliation is entirely relevant to -- and indeed may explain -- the predicament in which the Republican senator finds himself now.

In an interview with Salon, Rogers says that "lesbians and gays are welcome to be honest and open in the Democratic Party," while "the culture of the Republican Party, from the top down, has always been, 'If you're gay you have to remain in the closet.'"

"When somebody is found out that they're gay, not only are they pushed out of the closet, but they're pushed out of the party in most instances," Rogers says. "And I think that's unfortunate. I mean, I think that with Sen. Craig, I think he should stand up, he should be open and honest with people in Idaho. Had he been open and honest with people, who knows where his career might be today? Who knows what he might have done? Who knows what he might have accomplished?"