Larry C. Johnson: A New "Night of Long Knives?"

It looks like Republican homosexuals who work on the Hill are being set up as the ultimate scapegoat for the electoral disaster awaiting the Republicans in November. It remains to be seen whether there will be a purge, albeit a bloodless one, of homosexual staffers, but the tale of the rocky relationship between Adolf Hitler and the co-founder of the Nazis, Ernst Roehm, who also led the Storm Troopers (S.A. aka Sturmabteilung) offers some fascinating parallels.

Homosexuality was illegal in Germany prior to and during the Nazi regime. Yet, prominent leaders of the Nazi Party, like Ernst Roehm, played an active role in the Nazi party and the Nazi government. According to the New York Times and other publications, there are Republican homosexuals in key leadership positions throughout Washington - including the Congress, the White House, the Department of Defense, and the Republican National Committee.

How any self-respecting homosexual can support and advocate Republican policies that endorse the persecution of homosexuals is beyond me. But they do. The dilemma facing gay Republicans has been described in today's New York Times and in David Corn's blog on Wednesday last. When Hitler felt threatened, he got rid of Roehm and other homosexuals. If Republican control of Congress is threatened because of the Foley scandal, will the anti-homosexuals in the Republican Congress and the White House sit by and do nothing? I don't think so.

Ernst Roehm was eliminated during a purge in 1934 in an event now known as the "Night of the Long Knives":

Hitler eliminated his closest friend Roehm and certain SA leaders as potential rivals. The strictly political motivation of this ruthless power play was initially too obvious to be entirely denied, but later it was conveniently obscured by charges of homosexual depravity (Haberle:369f).

The formal accusations against Roehm and those arrested with him centered on their homosexual activities, which Hitler had of course known about for fifteen years and shrugged off, it being alleged that these activities disgraced the party. For those victims without any homosexual background, "the Great Blood Purge" continued all over Germany, as Nazi leaders got rid of all their most hated enemies, as well as the inevitable "mistakes" (Garde:726f).

I am by no means suggesting that Republican leaders are getting ready to murder homosexual Republicans. However, I do believe the fallout from the Mark Foley scandal will be a springboard for the religious right to press for a purge of the "sodomites" from important positions. If they do that things could get quite interesting.

If Republicans try to blame homosexuals for the Foley scandal it could blow up on them big time. As David Corn noted on Wednesday, some of the most radical rightwing Republicans - including Representatives Katherine Harris and Henry Hyde, and Senators Bill Frist, George Allen, Mitch McConnell and Rick Santorum - have had gay staffers. Homosexuals staffers are certain to have loads of information about their bosses' past misdeeds. Will gay Republicans still in the closet sit idly by and be made the scapegoat for Hastert's failure of leadership? I don't think so. The Republican homosexuals have excellent media contacts.

We've already seen how two of the homosexual staffers - Kirk Fordham, Mr. Foley's onetime chief of staff who resigned Wednesday as an aide to Representative Thomas M. Reynolds, Republican of New York, and Jeff Trandahl, formerly the clerk of the House of Representatives - responded to Denny Hastert's "memory" problems. These gay guys ain't walking a plank for the Republican agenda.

Some in the homosexual community continue to play defense for the Republicans. Remember our old buddy, Jeff Gannon aka Guckert? Gannon, who posed nude and appeared on several websites as a male escort, also hung out at the White House as a faux journalist. Gannon is helping lead the charge claiming that this scandal is the fault of George Soros and Democrats. It would help to know why Gannon remains so protective of a White House that espouses so many anti-homosexual policies. So far the media has failed to investigate who Gannon was "seeing" in the White House when he was not asking softball questions.

Hopefully, the homosexual community - Republican and Democrat - will be left alone and allowed to go on serving their country just as heterosexuals do. The Foley scandal is not about being gay; it is about inappropriate behavior between an adult and children. As the Republican position becomes more desperate in the coming days, the long knives will come out. Only this go-around, I don't think the homosexuals will take the assault lying down.

Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and US State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism (as a Deputy Director), is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management. Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC's Nightline, NBC's Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world.

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