Old Habits Die Hard

For the past couple of years, I've been trying to spotlight Frank Rich's restricted columns from TimesSelect, quoting them at some length and providing a link to somewhere else that was reprinting the column in full. Today, of course, I no longer have reason to do that. As I mentioned on Friday, The New York Times gave up its subscription-only Web content. For this first time in years, Frank Rich can be read without restrictions right on the Times' site.

But I've been reliably talking about Rich every week, so it's hard to just stop cold. Here we are again, then, but this time you can read him at your leisure. He's taking a look at Larry Craig's situation and makes a good argument for letting him remain in the Senate if he wants to. Although Craig's behavior in the bathroom of the Minneapolis airport may have been questionable, it was not illegal. Just because he's a juicy target doesn't mean he should be railroaded. Besides, as Rich points out, the Republicans have been slowly chipping away at the minorities in their party, pushing out African-Americans and Hispanics, thus leaving Craig as a representative of one of the last minorities still present in any significant numbers: closeted gay men.

The G.O.P. needs at least one minority group in its ranks if it's going to be a viable political party in the 21st century. As the former vice-presidential nominee Jack Kemp asked rhetorically last week, "What are we going to do — meet in a country club in the suburbs one day?" His comment was prompted by the news that the major Republican candidates had claimed "scheduling conflicts" to avoid a debate at a historically black college in Baltimore. This was so obvious a slight that even Newt Gingrich labeled the candidates' excuses "baloney," and the usually controversy-averse Jay Leno was moved to call for the Republicans to "change their minds" after the debate's moderator, Tavis Smiley, aired the issue on "The Tonight Show."

The brushoff of that debate followed a similar rejection by the same candidates (except John McCain) of a debate sponsored by Univision, the country's most-watched Spanish-language network. It's only the latest insult to Hispanic voters, the fastest-growing American minority. Without Hispanics, the G.O.P. is doomed in swing states from Florida to Nevada. If you have any doubts, just look at the panic at the staunchly Republican Wall Street Journal editorial page. It has now even started attacking its own cohort — what it calls "Fox News populists and obsessive bloggers" — for driving away once-Republican Hispanic votes with over-the-top invective about illegal immigrants.

It would be unfair to say that the G.O.P. is devoid of sensitivity to all minorities. True, Peter King, the Long Island congressman, said last week that America has "too many mosques," but he was balanced by Mitt Romney, who sent out a press release wishing "the Jewish people" a hearty "L'Shanah Tovah" for the New Year. And let no one fault the Republican presidential field for not looking like America: Alan Keyes is back!

But the last minority with at least a modicum of influence in the party's power structure seems to be closeted gay men. As an alternative to cruising men's rooms, the least they could do is use their clout to stay the manifestly unjust execution of Larry Craig.

Craig, who'd never had a terribly high profile, quickly became the poster child of far-right hypocrisy. What's in it for us to rush him out of the spotlight?