Outing a congressman? **

According to the website The RawStory, this week's LA Weekly will out local Republican congressman David Dreier as gay and report that he lived with his "highly paid" chief of staff. The website claims its reporting contributed to the story. BoifromTroy trod some of this path earlier this month.

* Actually: It's the other way around — or neither. The Weekly story by Doug Ireland indeed declares Dreier "outed," but presents no evidence that the congressman is homosexual or living a gay life. (Dreier and his staff wouldn't address it, to their credit). Instead, the claim is attributed to an anti-Dreier crusade by gay activist Mike Rogers and the Raw Copy website, which in turn attributes the claim back to...the Weekly story. The sites allege that Hustler magazine has said it plans to run an "expose" of Dreier's sex life, but no facts are reported. (A letter to Dreier from Hustler makes no claim about him). Also, a candidate who ran against Dreier twice says she heard he was living with his chief of staff, but she doesn't offer any proof either, except to repeat the rumors. So, as far as I can tell, no one has yet offered any evidence that Dreier is hiding a secret gay life (though, of course, maybe he is). The story (what's the opposite of investigative reporting?) justifies itself by arguing that, well, as a Republican leader in the House, Dreier has opposed bills favored by gay activists so he's a fair target.

** Reax: Christiana at Phoblographer, a Young Democrats official, reacts in Dreier's favor and, more pointedly, against the Democrat who claims to know the congressman lives with his aide...Doug Ireland says on his blog that he has been interviewed by four L.A. radio stations and talked to a newspaper since his story ran, and says he has "not the slightest doubt" that the outing campign is accurate...Dismayed BoifromTroy blogs that KFI's "John and Ken" and other talk show hosts reported the outing as fact and calls it "a dark day for Los Angeles media."

Edited 8:10 p.m.