Brokeback White House?

A couple of seemingly unrelated stories have recently converged to suggest some interesting possible connections.

In the wake of the Academy Awards and widespread publicity of Brokeback Mountain, this article looks at the prevalence of so-called “brokeback marriages.” That is - the marriage of a deeply closeted gay man to an initially oblivious woman who may or may not find out until many years later.

Although seemingly unrelated, Vanity Fair’s new article on Jack Abramoff includes a whole slew of interesting quotes, including this one:

President Bush, who claims not to remember having his picture taken with Abramoff. According to Abramoff, at one time, the president joked with Abramoff about his weight lifting past: “What are you benching, buff guy?”

A meaningless comment between friends, perhaps, but if Abramoff is really a virtual stranger as Bush has claimed, the comment sounds a little bit different. It sounds more like the comments described in this article to an aide for Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, Scott Reid.

Well, you got a pretty face, You're a good-looking guy. Better looking than my Scott (McClellan) anyway.

Combine that with the fact that there is ample documentation of multiple visits to the White House by noted fake journalist/gay male escort, Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert.

Combine that with the fact that, beyond a couple of photographs, it is more difficult to get information on George Bush’s days as a male cheerleader at Yale, than to find documentation of his time in the Texas Air National Guard.

Perhaps these are just an unlikely series of coincidences, but when I combine them all, I can’t help but wonder about the possibility of our very own "brokeback couple" in the White House.

Then again, I may be wrong. Perhaps Brokeback Mountain has no more relevance to George W. Bush’s marriage than Crash has to his highly publicized hobby of riding a bicycle!