early and often

Ruben Diaz Sr. Tries to Take Back Gay Threat

We’re beginning to suspect that State Senator Ruben Diaz reads Daily Intel, which would be completely amazing. Do you think he likes Gossip Girl? (Maybe he’s one of those angry anti-gay readers who clicked over to us when Ann Coulter linked to a story about him.) Today the Bronx politician took to the Room 8 blog to elaborate on the strange comments he left on Daily News reporter Elizabeth Benjamin’s voice mail the other day regarding Ed Koch and gays who are jamming his office’s phone lines over his opposition to marriage equality. Here’s a paraphrase of his comments (we cut for efficiency, not to change meaning):

I told Liz Smith Benjamin that the gay community has been jamming my office phone line and making threats to me and my staff. I told her that I am very angry that my office has received phone calls threatening my life and calling the women on my staff “whores” and “bitches”. I told her that to add to those names, Ed Koch called us rats … I told her that I am so angry that because of their calls and editorial boards and because of the insulting Koch statement, there is nothing else that they can do to us or say to us, and that they will see what we can do.

That, my friends, was the basis of my anger, not because the gay community is jamming my phone lines. I am an elected official and I am an old man, and they can do this any time. It was the content of their calls that made me angry … When I told Liz that they will see what we can do, this was not at all meant to be a physical threat. As far as what we can do, we have many options, which include: going to the Republican Party, staying neutral to create an impasse, or going to the Democratic Party.

It’s true that Diaz and his two fellow renegade Democratic senators have a lot of options — including, as was reported today in the News, joining in the effort to stage a coup to topple Democratic Senate leader Malcolm Smith. And no one should ever leave threatening messages or use foul language talking to an elected official, no matter how angry they are. But color us skeptical that Diaz wasn’t issuing a vague threat to gay people in his original statement. It just doesn’t logically follow. If you read Benjamin’s original report, it’s clear when he said “they’re going to see what we can do” that he was talking about consequences, not options.

Anyway: Hey Ruben! Haaaaay! Thanks for reading. If you see us on the street and we give you a limp-wristed wave, don’t try to ignore us. We already caught you checking us out!

For the Record [Room 8]
Earlier: Ruben Diaz Sr. Threatens the Gays
Anti-Gay State Senator Chooses Opposition to Marriage Equality Over Party

Ruben Diaz Sr. Tries to Take Back Gay Threat