Frank Rich Wrecks Rekers In New York Times

Of all wars, only culture wars offer the hope of sheer, unadulterated hilarity. Sex and hypocrisy were staples of farce long before America became a nation, and they never go out of style. Just listen to the roaring audience at the new hit Broadway revival of the perennial “La Cage aux Folles,” where a family-values politician gets his comeuppance in drag. Or check out the real-life closet case of George Rekers, who has been fodder for late-night television comics all month.

Rekers is in a class by himself even in the era of Larry Craig and Ted Haggard. A Baptist minister and clinical psychologist with a bent for “curing” homosexuality, the married, 61-year-old Rekers was caught by Miami New Times last month in the company of a 20-year-old male escort at Miami International Airport. The couple was returning from a 10-day trip to London and Madrid. New Times, which published its expos?© in early May, got an explanation from Rekers: “I had surgery, and I can’t lift luggage. That’ why I hired him.”

Read Full Article in NYT

10 Comments

Scott Amundsen May 17, 2010 at 10:34 am -

There is a certain irony that one of the stars of the current “La Cage” happens to be Kelsey Grammer, who recently announced the launching of The RightNetwork, a new television network with ties to the Tea Party movement.
Gary (NJ) May 17, 2010 at 1:26 pm -

Just what we need, another Pox news station.
‘The Real News’, which is currently only on the internet (Independent World Television) i.e. no commercial sponsors is *supposed* to be on tv eventually. I wish they would hurry up. It’s one of the few places where you can get the truth.
http://therealnews.com/t2/
Ben in Oakland May 17, 2010 at 1:38 pm -

Gary– it’s not Pox. It’s Faux. Get it irght.
Gary (NJ) May 17, 2010 at 3:42 pm -

A pox on faux! ;-)
Priya Lynn May 17, 2010 at 7:33 pm -

Faux is pronounced “Fo”, not Fox. Writing Faux News to refer to Fox news is pretty dumb.
The Church Lady May 17, 2010 at 8:38 pm -

@Priya Lynn: It’s really quite clever, actually. If the term “Faux News” were used in speech, it wouldn’t make sense – but when used in print, the term becomes a humorous double entendre.
Ben in Oakland May 17, 2010 at 9:34 pm -

Thank you, church lady. It is an orthographic and literary pun, not a crudely vocalized one.

Sniff.
Richard Rush May 17, 2010 at 10:32 pm -

Priya, most of the time I think you have worthwhile things to say, but all too often you are unnecessarily nasty.
Priya Lynn May 18, 2010 at 11:22 am -

Church lady, its not clever, it just exposes the ignorance of the person writing it.
Daniel May 20, 2010 at 7:36 pm -

Ben, I think it’s very clever.

I always enjoy Frank Rich’s columns. He’s one of the best columnists around.