From this San Francisco publication (which has a “Duhhh, ya think?” headline):

Craig, who has voted against gay marriage, finds his political future in doubt in the wake of the charges, which have drawn national attention.

I know that some may think it relevant, and certainly a lot of people in Baghdad By The Bay obviously will, but really, what difference does it make what his position is on gay marriage? It would have made as much, or as little, sense to me to have written, “Craig, who has voted to cut taxes,” or “Craig, who has voted against more stringent gun controls.” The guy’s supposedly a conservative. How did they expect him to vote?

OK, let’s take it as a given that he’s gay. He’s married, but there was no issue from it (his three children are step-children, brought to the marriage by his wife), so he’s probably not even bi (one wonders what the arrangement is with his wife).

Where is it written that gay people are intrinsically supposed to support gay marriage? I can understand that many, perhaps even most gay people do, but not all of them do. And if they do so, it’s for personal reasons, not necessarily any particular political principle. They want to get married.

But part of the problem with America today is that there are too few people who make political decisions based on any coherent set of principles, instead only arguing for outcomes that they personally like (a classic example is support for Roe v Wade among abortion supporters, because they like abortion to be universally legal more than they like adhering to the Constitution). It’s obviously appealing to cheer for some wealth transfer that benefits you at someone else’s expense, which can be rationalized away as “taking it from greedy corporations,” or “the rich.”

If I were to indulge in such a thing, I’d argue for laws that ban rap music, laws that required everyone in the country to contribute a dollar a month to the Benevolent Society For The Aid And Support Of Rand Simbergs, laws that forced Starbucks to offer protein with their pastries, etc.

But I don’t. And not just because the chances of getting such laws passed are small, and it would be a waste of my time. I don’t do it because I have a set of political principles by which I try to abide, regardless of the impact on me personally. I believe in free speech, even for rappers, I don’t believe in arbitrary wealth transfers, even when it’s a transfer to me. I believe in the freedom of the marketplace, even when it comes to a company as evil as Starbucks.

So why should a gay person, if conservative, be expected to support as distinctly non-conservative an idea as gay marriage? I suspect that he truly does believe that homosexuality is wrong, so he has to live a tortured existence, feeling compelled by his nature to sin, and by his shame and fear of damage to his career and reputation to hide it (however pathetically). But I don’t see why he’s obligated by this accident of nature (and an unfortunate one, for him) to support others’ political agendas, and betray his own principles.

[Update in the late afternoon]

I think that Raoul Ortega has nailed the thinking in comments. Over at Instaman’s place, this morning, Greg Hlatky joked:

If Senator Craig purchased sex offsets to live a sex-neutral lifestyle, would this immunize him from charges of hypocrisy?”

To which Glenn replied:

Indubitably. But who would sell them?

Well, we now have the answer, from Raoul:

Voting for “Gay Marriage” is to Dem politicians what “Carbon Offsets” are to Algore and other Gaian worshippers. Little acts of contrition purchased to balance out all their other sins. If only Larry Craig had voted the other way, people like Offside would have no problem with his trolling among airport toilets, just like how they had no problem with their last president helping himself to his subordinates because he “kept abortion legal.”

So votes for gay marriage and keeping abortion legal are “sex offsets” for Republicans. In fact, come to think about it, it’s what kept Republican Bob Packwood in office for so long, despite his long history of sexually harassing women. Apparently, though, he apparently didn’t buy enough of them to cancel out his most egregious behavior.

In other words, as long as you vote like a Democrat, you get a free pass, just like them.

By the way, I have further Craig thoughts here, for those not viewing this from the main page.