Must smokers never support no-smoking zones?

Must Al Gore and John Edwards — both substantial polluters — never support environmental reform?

Hypocrisy is a fairly worthless “argument.” It tends to be what people point to when they don’t care to make a substantive argument for or against a policy. That Peter’s “initial response to the Affair was to feel unrestrained glee about the fact that another hypocrite had been exposed” makes me wonder how serious he really is on such subjects.

Besides, the “hypocrisy” argument fails by its own logic. Each has been hypocritical at some point in our lives. Thus, under Peter’s logic, none of us should ever criticize hypocrisy — after all, such criticism would only make us hypocrites on the subject of hypocrisy!

Assuming that Senator Craig is a deeply closeted gay man, how does his homosexuality make him a hypocrite regarding those particular issues? It’s not that difficult at all to reconcile being gay and being opposed to gay marriage, or being opposed to extending employment discrimination laws to gays. Saying that Craig is somehow required to support goals of the gay rights movement because he is gay is no different than arguing that women are obligated to support abortion, blacks are obligated to support affirmative action, immigrants are obligated to support amnesty for illegal immigrants, etc.

But the Craig Affair suggests, I think, that we still tend to treat gay relationships differently than we do heterosexual relationships.

So does the Office of Personnel Management’s “Issue Characterization Chart”, also known as the federal employment “Suitability Matrix”. See (on p.9 in PDF) under 11. Loyalty and Security:

• Homosexuality, in and of itself, while not a suitability issue, may be a security issue and must be addressed completely, when indications are present of possible susceptibility to coercion or blackmail.

Note that Senator Craig’s budgetary and oversight responsibities included, among other things, programs at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. Further note, that in announcing his intent to resign, Senator Craig stated, “[C]learly my name is important to me”.

Clearly, someone who initiates a clandestine encounter in an airport men’s room —and then makes an incredible public denial— should not be in a position to compromise our national security.