Cruising the Op-Eds

This week there are two op-ed columns which I particularly wanted to point out, not simply for their subject matter (which is excellent in each) but for the writing style. Excellent writing is a thing of beauty and seems to be a dying art form in modern journalism, so it brings a smile to my face when I find it.

The first is yet another offering from Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts. In his June 6th column, (annoying free registration required, but oh so worth it) he is talking about how "social conservative" anti-gay rights Spokane, Washington mayor James West turned out to be a closet homosexual who was cruising internet chat rooms for young men and (allegedly) molested teenage boys through his roles as a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scouts leader. Clearly Pitts has no problem with West's identity as a gay man. What bothers him is how he's been able to call himself a social conservative for all these years, lobby against gay rights, and still look himself in the mirror. As usual, Pitts strikes with a scathing wit.

West, who in the privacy of the gay chat room referred to social conservatives as ''sex Nazis,'' seemed at pains to burnish his conservative bona fides. ''I'm not a closet liberal pretending to be a conservative,'' he insisted. ``I'm a conservative. And what's wrong with somebody who has what's called an alternative lifestyle or an alternative sexual orientation being a conservative?''

Well, golly.

Me, I've always thought being a gay social conservative was not unlike being a black Klansman. Even if you could get away with it, why in the world would you want to?

I'm sure Mary Cheney is holding on Line 2, but the point stands. It eludes me how anyone can support a political philosophy that is defined in large part by its open hostility toward people like oneself.

There's lots more and it's a truly excellent column, well worth the time to register and go read it. The second piece this week is from Kathleen Parker. Now, before you come unhinged, yes... I freely admit that I've slapped Parker around a bit over the course of my blogging life. But this week's column is such an excellent example of imagry and writing style that I have to give her some praise.

She's talking about her disappointment in the revelation of Mark Felt as "Deep Throat" of Watergate fame. Let me be clear... Parker is not disappointed in Mark Felt himself, or his heroic actions to reveal the criminal mendacity of the Nixon administration. It just that she has apparently had a thirty year fantasy going of who Throat would turn out to be and she was hoping for somebody a lot more mysterious, exciting, romantic, and ... well... female.

In my own fantasy, Deep Throat would not have been a straight guy with a short haircut. For starters, he would have been a "she" — a smoky-voiced, sultry agent whose high heels tapping against the parking garage floor signaled to Woodward that it was time to produce a Zippo. The lady needs a light.

Maybe she was a jilted lover. Nixon's? John Mitchell's? Or a vengeful wife. Or perhaps, though ravishing, she had a jealous streak. A black widow who devours her mate because — as the scorpion said to the frog — it is her nature.

Admit it: Didn't you really hope it was Mo Dean?

Mo Dean is, of course, the wife of Nixon crony John Dean. She goes on to speculate at length as to why Mo might have turned against her husband and the Nixon administration, and how it might have all played out. As with Pitts, the writing is excellent and the whole column is worth a look. Give it a read.