The Craig-Haggard Connection

By Michael J.W. Stickings

There may or may not be any truth to it, but Mike Jones, the male escort with whom fundamentalist hypocrite Ted Haggard had both sexual and drug-oriented relations, is alleging that senatorial hypocrite Larry Craig, he of the wide stance, came to see him. Literally: "[H]e came to see me," in Denver, said Jones, during an interview with a Palm Springs radio station.

Unsurprisingly, the response from Craig's office is one of denial: "Mike Jones' allegations are completely false."

To be fair, though, Jones didn't offer much in the way of detail, sordid or otherwise.

So what to make of the allegation?

Mike Rogers, the blogger who has done so much to expose right-wing hypocrisy, including Craig's, called in and challenged Jones on air to back up his allegation -- and then called him on it: "You didn't sleep with Larry Craig, and I think what you're doing is, you're trying to get some juice here, Mike, for the book... If you did, you would've put out the proof."

Personally, I tend to agree with Atrios and Shakes: "This just can't be true." It's "too good to be true". And Rogers is, likely, right.

But what do I know? It might be true -- but then again, as Bernard Woolley once put it, anything might be true.

And the problem here is not just that the allegation seems incredible -- however much one might wish it were true, yet more hypocrisy on the right -- but that the alleger himself seems to lack credibility. Unless Jones can provide hard evidence, so to speak, one is right, with Rogers, to doubt the veracity of his allegation.

No matter the target, such dubious allegations are indefensible -- not to mention counter-productive to the admirable effort to expose right-wing hypocrisy wherever it may exist.