Brad Smith, Dreier’s chief of staff with whom
he is said to have lived, is paid
an unusually high salary relative to the chief of
staffs of other powerful congressmen, including Speaker
of the House Dennis Hastert.
After RAW STORY
ran an article suggesting that Congressman David Dreier,
R-CA, might be gay, Hustler Magazine revealed that
they planned a major expose exploring the conflict
between the congressman’s sexuality and his
positions on gay rights.
Michael Rogers, the gay activist who outed Dreier
Thursday on his site, blogACTIVE,
said he “was especially interested in talking
with Brad Smith about his living arrangements with
the Congressman here in DC."
Challenger says she was aware
he lived with Smith
Dreier's 2000 challenger has
also said she was aware Dreier was living with
Smith.
Dr. Janice Nelson, a professor of pathology and a
medical director who lost to Dreier in 1998 and 2000,
stated that her campaign was aware Rep. Dreier had
lived with his chief of staff but opted not to make
an issue of it during her campaign.
She said Dreier would rarely be seen publicly with
Smith.
"Brad was like an invisible presence,"
she said. "They really have the routine down
slick."
Nelson said she decided to come forward after she
read on RAW STORY
that Hustler was set to report that the local papers
in Dreier's district had deliberately kept reporters
from asking the congressman about his sexuality and
his positions on gay rights.
Smith’s high salary has also raised eyebrows.
During the last reporting period, Smith made $156,600,
just $400 shy of the highest paid White House staff
member, Assistant to the President Karl Rove, who
made $157,000. It is also $400 less than President
George W. Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, who
receives an annual salary of $157,000.
By comparison, the chief of staff to Bill Young,
who chairs the even more prominent House Appropriations
Committee, makes $151,956, more than $4,600 less than
Smith. The chief of staff to Republican James Sensenbrenner,
Jr., who chairs the House Committee on the Judiciary,
made $126,000. The chief of staff to the chair of
the House Ways and Means Committee, made $100,696.
Local papers accused of shielding
Dreier's gay truth
Hustler also released a letter sent to the editor
of a newspaper in Dreier's district which suggests
that the paper deliberately worked to keep Dreier's
sexuality and his positions on gay issues off the
front page.
“Hustler believes that the best way to deal
with what appears to be glaring examples of hypocrisy
is to expose them and bring them into full relief
in front of the public,” the magazine said.
“Our team of journalists in New York City covering
the GOP convention struck gold—the details of
which are to be published in an upcoming issue this
fall.”
Hustler also says the media has played along in a
charade to preserve the Dreier's heterosexual facade.
They accused three MediaNews papers in Dreier’s
local district of deliberately keeping their reporters
from asking Rep. Dreier about his sexuality or his
positions on issues relating to gay rights, saying
that reporters would be fired if they asked.
Mark Cromer, a Hustler editor who has worked at the
MediaNews papers, said the papers considered Dreier
a "sacred cow." A MediaNews editor denied
the charge.
The newsroom at least one of these papers was said
to seriously
questioning editors as to why they are not allowed
to cover the nationally-breaking Dreier story, and
an editor is reported to have slammed his first on
the desk “as if to send the denial of a policy
home.”
Still, the papers have reporting nothing as regards
the congressman’s sexuality or his highly paid
chief of staff, with whom he is said to have lived.
"The people in Dreier's district have to ask
themselves: have they been served by their newspapers?"
Cromer said.
Congressman regularly voted
against gay rights
The 52-year-old single congressman voted for the
Marriage Protection Act in July, a measure that would
have stripped federal courts of jurisdiction over
challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, which bans
the federal government from recognizing gay partnerships.
Dreier did not vote on the latest amendment to constitutionally
ban gay marriage, and said he was against it.
Dreier, a Christian Scientist, also voted for the
original Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 and a measure
that banned gays from adopting in Washington, D.C.
He has a 92 percent favorability rating from the Christian
Coalition, and was elected with Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Hustler sent Dreier a letter Sept. 7 asking to interview
him about the “intersection of human sexuality,
national politics and the conservative agenda.”
They have not received a response.
When asked if he was heterosexual on a Sirus Radio
interview Aug. 31, Rep. Dreier refused to answer.
“I’m not going to talk about that issue,”
Dreier said. “That’s really not what I’m
here about.”
Dreier viewed as shining star
of Republican House contingent
Congressman Dreier is viewed as the Silicon Valley's
man in Washington and an affable star of the House
Republican leadership. In a July
profile published by the San Jose Mercury News,
the paper said he had become a leading public face
for the party.
"More eloquent than understated House Speaker
Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and more ingratiating than
tough-talking Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas,
Dreier has emerged as the House GOP leadership's public
face on television," a reporter wrote.
Charlie Black, an adviser to the Bush re-election
campaign, told the paper the Bush attitude is, ''Get
him on every show you can.''
Rep. Dreier is the chair of the powerful Rules Committee
in the House of Representatives. He played a large
role in the recall of former California governor Gray
Davis, and in the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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