August 30, 2007

Vitter vs. Craig: Homophobic Hypocrisy from the GOP

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Wouldn’t you know it, the GOP is treating Sen. Larry Craig, who solicited sex from a man, very, very differently than it treated Sen. David Vitter, who admitted to using a (heterosexual) prostitution service. You can check out Think Progress for details, but here’s what you need to know: a number of Republicans have called for Craig to resign, the party leadership has stripped him of his committee assignments, and the GOP has asked for an ethics investigation into his actions.

When David Vitter rose to speak in front of his fellow Republicans a few days after he admitted the “sin” in his past, he received “thunderous applause” from his colleagues.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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