My buddies, Eric Dondero and Andre Traversa, are on BlogTalkRadio tonight, doing a show featuring Bruce Cohen. It's going to be an interesting show, so tune in, if you can!

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I'll weigh in on Larry Craig later, for those who have been wondering (you can probably guess my views anyway).

But, for now, here's your nanny state alert.

Mike Huckabee wants a national smoking ban.

So does Hillary.

Oddly, Hillary sounds less fascist on this, saying that she'd like to bans like this up to local governments-- she'd just like every single one of them to ban smoking. Huckabee, on the other hand, actually would sign a bill establishing a federal ban on smoking anywhere where people work.

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Well, today it's all been Larry, Larry, Larry, hasn't it? I'm finally weighing in.

First of all, let me say that I think it's extremely sad that we live in a society where people evidently don't feel free to just be themselves without having to conceal important personal attributes, like their true sexual orientation. I think, contrary to Sen. Craig's many protestations, that it is fairly obvious at this point that he is gay, or at least bisexual, but I don't intend to get into the issue of speculating about the correct labeling of Sen. Craig's sexuality. The intense, National Enquirer-like, focus on that is one of the worst things about this story, so far as I am concerned.

A lot of the coverage of this story on TV, at least, today has felt decidedly sensationalist to me. The issue that has been brought to the fore is not that Sen. Craig apparently has done something illegal and is still involved in lame concealing and ineffective smoke-blowing-- and that, to me, is the root issue here: we have another elected Republican sitting in office who has committed a crime and can't be straight (no pun intended) about it. The thing that is being most discussed, in the most twelve-year-old girl gossipy fashion is that, ooh, Sen. Craig is gay. Worse, Sen. Craig has gay sex. And anonymously.

Does all this matter because Sen. Craig had an "anti-gay" voting record? On the face of it, yes. There have been plenty of cries about hypocrisy because Sen. Craig voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment, against hate crimes legislation, and all the rest. But one question I'd ask, particularly with regard to the hate crimes legislation is, does the fact that you are gay, or have gay sex, mean that you automatically must support legislation that many experts consider violates the equal protection amendment to the Constitution, insofar as it applies to other gay people, or other people who have gay sex? I don't think so. Does the fact that you are gay, o...

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