Homophobia In Rhode Island: Racism Is So Last Week
We haven't paid much attention to the primary challenge against moderate Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee -- mostly because, for reasons known only to Marc Ambinder and Mark Halperin, it has not become the media clusterfuck that was the Lamont v. Lieberman debacle -- but we learned in a "Rhode Island" "newspaper" (how cute!) today all about Chafee's right-wing challenger, Stephen P. Laffey (pictured right: Laffey's son sporting Soviet iconography).
As a student at Bowdoin College a generation ago, Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey wrote humor columns for a campus newspaper that even he now acknowledges could be construed as homophobic.
We think the ProvidenceJournalis a bit confused. Because while said columns could definitely be construed as "homophobic" ("All the homosexuals I've seen are sickly and decrepit, their eyes devoid of life." Has the man never watchedThe Match Game?), they are not actually "humorous." None of the quoted lines or the entire column reprinted in an addendum are, in any way, funny. The misunderstanding may have arisen due to Mr. Laffey's last name, which resembles the common English term for the sound made a person experiencing "humor." That is really the only explanation for the author's constant insistence that this was a "humor column." Buddy, most college humor columns aren't funny, sure, but they dohave jokesin them. Unlike Laffey's. Don't take our word for it, either -- we've reprinted a column after the jump. You'll find it, on the humor scale, somewhere betweenWhere the Red Fern Growsand Matt Cooper.
Homphobia (also expressed: a desire to break Boy George's ribs -- it is known now that it is much, much funnier to break his spirit ) aside, we cannot endorse a candidate in this crucial Senate race until we find some evidence that incumbent Lincoln Chafee is funny.