ShareThisBy EDWARD EPSTEIN
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Republican charges of a San Francisco "homosexual agenda" and allegations that a liberal "San Francisco majority" in Congress would endanger the nation have emerged as themes in the final weeks of the Nov. 7 midterm election campaign.
The latest salvos are variations on a constant GOP refrain this year, tied to the prospect that House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, a "San Francisco liberal," would become speaker if Democrats make at least a 15-seat gain in the midterm elections.
"You know, they use me all over the country, my radical homosexual agenda," said Pelosi. "I've never seen a situation where a national party has run against a particular part of the country. It makes me wonder what the Republicans in San Francisco think about the assault that they are making on our city. But it doesn't bother me."
A 60-second radio ad by Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., who is locked in a tight race with the Democratic candidate, county Sheriff Brad Ellsworth, is the latest attack tied to the anti-Pelosi theme. The ad points out that an Ellsworth victory would help make Pelosi speaker and links the candidate and Pelosi to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the openly gay congressman from Boston.
"Pelosi will then put in motion her radical plan to advance the homosexual agenda, led by Barney Frank, reprimanded by the House after paying for sex with a man who ran a gay brothel out of Congressman Frank's home," says the narrator.
"Go ahead, vote for Brad Ellsworth. Make Nancy Pelosi's day," the ad concludes.
"I don't know what it is," Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider said of the "homosexual agenda" referred to in the ad. "But Barney Frank is the ranking member of the Financial Services Committee, so perhaps Hostettler is talking about securities and exchange law."
If the ad is referring to same-sex marriage, Ellsworth, the Democrat, and the incumbent Republican say they oppose it.
The ad is adroitly written, linking Frank's reprimand to gay sex without ever claiming that was the issue behind the disciplinary action.
In fact, Frank was reprimanded by the House in 1990 for fixing parking tickets accumulated by Stephen Gobie, the congressman's former companion, and for writing a misleading letter to a probation officer for him. But the House Ethics Committee rejected Gobie's claims that Frank knew Gobie ran a gay prostitution ring from the congressman's apartment.
For years, conservatives have used San Francisco as a symbol of the kind of liberal politics they scorn _ for abortion rights, gun control and gay rights and for government social programs.
Pelosi said she is proud to represent San Francisco.
"All of our children in San Francisco have health insurance; the minimum wage is over $8 an hour. ... We have respect for individual rights and rights of privacy. I'm very, very proud of San Francisco values," she said.
The Republican attack on so-called San Francisco values has broadened in 2006 to include the allegation that San Francisco is soft on national security.
Republicans from President Bush on down have warned that a Democratic Congress would make America less safe in the war on terrorism.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said that Pelosi "has never visited the border. She claims to understand the needs of those on the front lines but has never visited those agents and offers no solutions."
Pelosi's staff said Hastert was wrong, pointing out, for example, that she visited the Mexican border most recently last March when she toured a section with Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, whose district runs along the border. Reyes served in the Border Patrol before winning a House seat.
(Chronicle staff writer Rachel Gordon contributed to this report from San Francisco. E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein(at)sfchronicle.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com)
