Queerty Outs Closeted Anti-Gay Pastor

Queerty reports:

Until 2 p.m. on Monday, the ‘Our Church Staff’ section of St. John’s Lutheran Church and School’s website described Reverend Matthew Makela as an associate pastor who enjoys, “family, music, home improvement, gardening and landscaping, and sports.” Screenshots obtained by Queerty from a source who asked that his name be withheld shed light on some of the Reverend’s other favorite past times — namely nude make out sessions and sex with other men. Of course, how someone behaves between the sheets is really nobody’s business but his own, except when he’s actively doing damage to others. We’ve seen it time and time again. The lawmaker who spends his days fighting against gay rights and his nights cruising for bottoms, or the ex-gay activist who isn’t quite as ex-gay as he’d like everyone to believe. Which brings us back to Makela. The married father of five from Midland, Michigan doesn’t just preach Jesus’ love and help with bake sales. He also uses his position of authority and respect in his community to broadcast his self-loathing view on same-sex attraction.

Hit the link for much more, including anti-gay and anti-trans statements from this totally gay pastor.

Schock In Hot Water Over "Photographer"

The National Journal reports:

Schock traveled to India on official business in August 2014, a trip during which he met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Global Poverty Project, an advocacy organization that seeks to alleviate extreme poverty internationally, footed the bill, according to a spokesman for the group. But Schock's photographer and videographer, Jonathon Link, traveled with him on the trip, which was well-documented on Schock's Instagram account. The organization offered to pay for the costs of one staffer to accompany Schock as long as the staffer flew economy class, according to the spokesman.

Another aide was originally going to come, but the organization noted they were looking for a photographer, and Schock suggested Link, with whom he has worked in the past, the spokesman said. The photos Link took were made available to both Schock and the Global Poverty Project. The problem is House rules allow a member to accept private money for a companion's travel expenses only if the companion is a staffer, spouse or child. Link was none of those; he didn't appear on Schock's official or campaign payroll until September 2014. Furthermore, Schock never disclosed that Link accompanied him on the trip, according to a review of public records.

Schock has hired a crisis management team to deal with all of the allegations about his spending and travel. (Tipped by JMG reader Larry)

Aaron Schock: I'm Not An Attorney But I Certainly Hope I Didn't Break The law

Embattled GOP Rep. Aaron Schock yesterday spoke to Politico in what the outlet describes as an "evasive" and "defensive" interview.

The question to Rep. Aaron Schock was simple: Do you think you’ve broken any rules or federal laws? But the scandal-plagued congressman did not have a definitive answer. “Well, I certainly hope not,” Schock said. “I’m not an attorney.” The 33-year-old Republican went on to argue that he does his “best” and takes his obligations “very seriously,” which is why he’s enlisted outside advisers to help audit his office’s procedures. “That’s what we can all do, is our best effort,” Schock said. “Well, I would say I take my compliance obligations seriously,” he said when asked whether he accepted improper gifts. “So, to your point, you know, obviously there’s things that we’re going through and if there need to be amendments to my reports, there will be.” Asked again if he thinks he has accepted anything for free and not disclosed it, Schock said, “I have not, uh,” and then paused. “I would just leave it at that.” He was equally evasive about whether he had broken House ethics rules or federal campaign laws. 

High-profile right wingers such as Erick Erickson have called for Schock's resignation.

Lindsey Graham Jokes About Pelosi's "Surgeries" Then Fauxpologizes On Fox

Today In Jealous Closet Cases

Another Ethics Complaint For Schock

Via press release:

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) again asked the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to investigate whether Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) violated federal law and House rules by selling his house to a campaign contributor for a price well above its market value. Rep. Schock’s 2012 home sale appears to have violated House gift rules. “Buying a house from someone for much more than it’s worth is no different than buying someone an expensive gift,” said CREW Interim Executive Director Anne Weismann. “Given that the buyer in this case was a campaign donor to Rep. Schock whose former employer has also backed his campaigns, the public needs to know what Mr. Bahaj expected in return for his generosity.”

Read the full complaint. My first post about Schock's former home is here.

RELATED: Yesterday Politico took a look at Schock's "lavish" personal spending habits.

He charters private planes and employs a personal photographer. In Aspen, Colorado, he stays at the Little Nell, a five-star resort near the ski slopes. In Las Vegas, he prefers the pricey Wynn hotel. While in Vail, Colorado, and San Francisco, it’s the Four Seasons. In Miami Beach, he’s sampled the Delano, Fontainebleau and the exclusive Soho Beach House. And in Beverly Hills, California, he’s tried both the Peninsula and the Beverly Wilshire. Illinois GOP Rep. Aaron Schock raises a lot of money, for himself and other Republicans — he had $3.2 million in the bank at the end of December. And through his web of campaign committees, the 33-year-old lawmaker also spends lavishly. Schock’s campaign has also purchased a $74,000 Chevrolet Tahoe to help get him around back home in Illinois, in addition to a $27,000 Ford. To keep track of all his comings and goings, Schock has hired a personal photographer. Jonathon Link, a former Dallas-area wedding photographer, now snaps shots for Schock, and both his campaign and taxpayers pick up the bill.

A personal photographer? Uh huh. That's Mr. Link on the far right.  Read more about him here.

(Tipped by JMG reader Arch)

Aaron Schock's Bad Week Gets Worse

Details.

Drudge Celebrates Lewinsky Scandal

Closeted homosexual blogger Matt Drudge today posted the above tweet in celebration of this day 17 years ago when his blog first gained national attention due to his leaking word that Newsweek editors had killed a story which reported that Bill Clinton had had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Fosse, Fosse, Fosse

So who's holding hands in this one? (Tipped by JMG reader Randy)

It Won't Be Easy, You'll Think It Strange

(Tipped by JMG reader Lynda)

Wut?

Matt Drudge Has The Budget Sadz

Drudge Goes Dark, Teabagistan Explodes

The Drudge Report was offline for a few hours this morning and conspiracy theories immediately launched across Teabagistan. From the Moonie Times:

The Drudge Report and the conservative news site WND.com were both down early Tuesday morning for at least two hours — a curious coincidence that came amid the FBI’s warning of a widespread malicious software attack that began with a security breach at Sony Pictures Entertainment. The Blaze reported both websites were off-site for hours and gave visitors the message: “This webpage is not available.” It’s not clear if the website difficulties at Drudge and WND.com were tied to the cyberattack, or if their host was simply experiencing an outage. But the timing is suspicious.

MINNESOTA: Ladybird Bachmann Defends His Vile "Ex-Gay" Torture Clinics

Matt Drudge Spikes The Ball

Homocon Drudge Taunts In Advance

Tweet Of The Day - Matt Drudge

Closeted homosexual Matt Drudge recently deleted his entire personal Twitter history, but today he returned to post the above 2013 photo. Some delighted teabaggers say the photo shows Christie with his hand in the president's pocket. Others claim Obama and Christie are holding hands, which I suspect was Drudge's intent. Last year fellow homocon asshat Tammy Bruce also mockingly posted the photo.

Rep. Aaron Schock At West Point

Schock writes on his Facebook page:

Challenged by cadets at West Point to complete the Combat Water Survival Lab which is their toughest requirement for graduation. The associated press describes it as "Perhaps the mother of all swim tests – Survival Gate # 4 – can be found at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Weighed down by heavy equipment, cadets must perform several tasks in a pool amid simulated battlefield chaos. Artificial fog, rain, and deafening noise are pumped in, darkness is punctuated only by strobe lights, and the water is churned by artificial wave makers.” #almostdrowned #goarmy

Early this year Schock abruptly made his Instagram page private after blogger John Aravosis published a column titled The 7 Gayest Aaron Schock Instagram Posts Of 2013.

Lindsey Graham Might Run For President

Yup, he said that.

In a recent, hour-long interview, Lindsey Graham said if he is reelected to the Senate in November, he will begin exploring a bid for the presidency. Graham has long been one of the most active and outspoken hawks in Congress. He has been a voluble critic of the Obama administration on a wide variety of national security issues—Guantánamo Bay, Benghazi, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Russia, Iran, and others. Unlike many of his colleagues, Graham often first seeks to engage the administration privately as it debates policy with the hope that he can help shape the outcome rather than just criticize it after the fact. But Graham no longer trusts Obama enough to engage him on these matters. In our interview, Graham repeatedly spoke of the challenges that will face the next president because of the mistakes made under Obama. And he suggested that he might just be the one to fix them.

The only lifelong bachelor to become president was James Buchanan. And you know what they say about him.

Court Orders Former Sen. Larry Craig To Pay Up Over Toe-Tapping Toilet Sting

A federal court yesterday ordered former GOP Sen. Larry Craig to pay the government $242,000 in campaign funds that he used to pay lawyers after being busted toe-tapping in a Minneapolis airport restroom. Craig has argued that he was entitled to use the funds because was traveling on official Senate business at the time of his arrest.

Loop Fans may recall our prior analyses of his trip to the bathroom. Best we were able to determine at the time — judging from what sources told us were the usual arrival and departure gates for his flights — Craig may have passed not one, not two, not three but four bathrooms at the airport along the way before choosing the very one that an airport official called “the biggest hotspot” for sexual encounters. But we digress. In the current legal action, Craig argued that Senate rules permit reimbursement for any costs while on official travel. But the Federal Election Commission filed suit, saying Craig converted the campaign funds for personal use in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District agreed. “The Court finds that defendants violated the FECA when they converted campaign funds to pay for legal expenses related to Senator Craig’s efforts to withdraw his guilty plea, which was a personal matter that was not connected to the Senator’s duties as an officeholder,” Jackson wrote.

During his 28 years in Congress, Craig voted against LGBT rights every time. He left office in January 2009 with a 0% rating from the Human Rights Campaign. He is now a lobbyist.