Cleveland GOP boss and young male hitchhiker

[Boston Guy]

Nice Day For An Outing

 

It took some gay-bashing from Rick Santorum to reveal the huge underlying rift in the GOP between social conservatives and the leave-us-alone libertarians, who fired back at the Pennsylvania senator's comparing consensual homosexual sex to man-on-dog action.

 

Less publicized are the increasing examples of outing closeted pols, such as Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), whose open secret was revealed by New Times Broward-Palm Beach last month. Now, the alternative weekly Cleveland Scene reveals charges that the powerful Republican boss of Ohio's Summit County made a pass at a young male hitchhiker and is buying off a witness who spotted him in local gay bars.

 

Alex Arshinkoff, described as a cross between Don Corleone and Machiavelli's Prince, has gripped Akron's Republican party for 25 years with a "partisan ruthlessness that even LBJ might have admired," Sarah Fenske writes. It's an ironic predicament for a political heavyweight with a history of backing anti-gay candidates.

 

-- From TomPaine.com

June 18, 2003 | 9:44AM