Why blogger put Craig on his list

WASHINGTON — Soon, a new name will pop up on Mike Rogers' hit list.

Larry Craig wasn't "the first on my list," the gay blogger says. And the Idaho senator, who announced his resignation Saturday, "won't be the last."

Tuesday, an aide said Craig may still fight for his seat pending the outcome of legal challenges to his sex-sting case.

Meanwhile, Rogers is basking in the attention. For three years, he has been a feared one-man machine, "outing," he says, nearly 36 senior political and congressional employees, White House aides and members of Congress on his blog. On Capitol Hill, a typical phone call from Rogers — "Are you gay?" — is "a call from Satan himself," says a former high-level congressional worker whose name is on the list.

Rogers reasons there's justice behind his tactics, "odious," "outrageous" and "over-the-line" as they might seem to his detractors.

In his mind, if you're against gay rights in your public life and you live a secret homosexual life, all bets are off.

In 2004, one of the first public officials he targeted was Ed Schrock, a Republican congressman from Virginia, because of his voting record on such issues as gays in the military, same-sex marriage and gay adoption.

In 2000, for instance, Schrock told The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, "You're in the showers with them, you're in the bunk room with them, you're in staterooms with them."

Schrock decided not to run for re-election because of the rumors.

In 2005, Rogers blogged about Mark Foley, months before his inappropriate instant-messages to male congressional pages became public and he was forced to resign. The former Florida congressman had a varied record, sometimes voting in favor of gay rights but at one point voting against adoption by same-sex couples.

And last October, Rogers says, he targeted Craig, months before an undercover sex sting in a Minneapolis airport men's room and before The Idaho Statesman started its months-long investigation.

Two years earlier, Rogers notes, the three-term senator had voted for the failed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

"Hypocrisy, plain, hate-filled hypocrisy," Rogers sneers.

In coming months, he plans to post the names of "a few more" closeted Congress members on his blog, he says.

There are 33 names on his published list, most of them men, 30 from the Republican Party. That reveals more about the Republicans, he says, than about him. Although a registered Democrat, he says he is bipartisan.

"I write about closeted people whose records are anti-gay," he says. "If you're a closeted Democrat or Republican and you don't bash gays or vote against gay rights to gain political points, I won't out you."

The Craig scandal has gripped the capital. For many gays, the episode harks back to when closeted gays were arrested in the city's cruising spots for "disorderly behavior."

Rogers says: "We, as a society, are afraid of talking about two men having sex. Lesbian sex? 'That's hot!' But gay male sex? Well, nothing makes straight men more uncomfortable. Look at the reaction from the right, the double standard. ... Take [David] Vitter, the senator who's on the D.C. Madam's list. ... Where were the calls for his resignation? ... Yes, Craig pleaded guilty to a crime, but that's not really the reason why they're throwing him under the bus."

Here comes the other "h" word. Not just "hypocrisy." But "homophobic."

Rogers, 43, a native of the New York City area, came out in his early 20s and has spent the bulk of his life working for gay organizations.

Although his blog isn't his main source of income — he was a fundraising consultant and runs Page One News Media, a gay-oriented online company — the Web site has become more than a full-time job. Since its inception, the blog has become a must-read among certain sets in Washington.

As Rogers tells it, his online activism began when the GOP-controlled Senate scheduled a vote against same-sex marriage in June 2004.

The Internet has been a boon for gay socializing and organizing, and one of the first things Rogers did was post a profile on the popular site Gay.com that read, "If you're against the Federal Marriage Amendment and know someone who's closeted, send that information to me."

Capitol Hill groups such as the Lesbian and Gay Congressional Staff Association opposed Rogers' actions, but e-mails poured in, many anonymous.

Rogers investigates his tips by working the phones; on rare occasions, he flies elsewhere to meet sources. Among them was a 40-year-old man who claimed to have had sex with Craig in a bathroom in Washington's Union Station.

Rumors about some lawmakers have swirled for years but for the most part have stayed rumors. There have been "outing scares" before, when a gay activist would write about this or that elected official, but until Rogers' blog, few people off the Hill knew of the rumors.

Says Kelly McBride, who teaches about ethics at The Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank: "In the past, when the mainstream media were the gatekeepers of information, you could scream all you want — 'A conservative senator from Idaho is gay!' — and nobody would hear you. But now people can hear anyone, and that's changed how mainstream media makes decisions about what to publish."

To some, Rogers is a hero, which is what BlogPac, a political-action committee that funds progressive blogs, called him in July when presenting him with an award.

His supporters say he's been more effective than the established gay media and gay organizations in exposing the GOP's "image problem."

Critics say he's a "pariah" who's hurting the gay community.

"To many of us, coming out is a process, a very personal journey dictated by the individual. My objection to outing is not about the people who are being outed. It's about us," says Mark Agrast, a former top aide to former Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass., Congress' first openly gay member. Agrast was a founding member of the Lesbian and Gay Congressional Staff Association.

"We don't have to admire the choices that Craig has made in his life," says Agrast, "to feel some compassion for a 62-year-old man who seeks anonymous encounters because he can't come to terms with who he is."

To some people on Rogers' list, such as Dan Gurley, Rogers is "despicable."

After Rogers blogged about the former national field director at the Republican National Committee (RNC) in September 2004, the GOP fired Gurley.

Gurley had signed off on an RNC flier sent to conservative voting districts that shows one man proposing to another man, Rogers says: "The GOP wanted to scare voters. 'Look what will happen if the Democrats win!' "

Gurley says he objected to the flier and that it wasn't his decision.

"What was I supposed to do?" says Gurley, who lives in North Carolina. "Who does Rogers think he is? God? What gives him the right to bully people around and tell us what to think or how to conduct our lives?"

Since last week, Rogers has been on CNN, the "Today" show, National Public Radio. Repeatedly he gets asked whether he feels vindicated. The answer is always yes.

Does he have any secrets?

"Don't we all?"

Has he ever had sex in a public bathroom?

"How is that relevant? Look, I'm not a politician making laws and rules and regulations for 275 million people. You know what happens when you're in the U.S. military and you're brought up on charges of being gay or lesbian? Your life is ruined. You're at risk for death, for physical violence.

"And there's Craig ... who was chairman and was the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, not allowing gays to serve in the military."

Rogers adds: "When those private lives are in direct conflict with the public policy that these officials espouse, I think it's fair game that their private lives be brought into this. What community is expected to protect its own enemies? Don't beat up the gay community and then expect us to protect your secrets and your double life. It's just not right."