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CPAC's Gay Porn Star Honoree, Ann Coulter, and the Politics of Personal
Crisis

By Max Blumenthal
Created Mar 7 2007 - 10:02am

- also posted at Huffington Post [1]

I don't know if David Horowitz knew Cpl. Matt Sanchez was once a gay porn
star and male prostitute when he introduced him to me at last weekend's
CPAC. But he did know that Sanchez was an eager yes-man, and a supposed
victim of the campus PC thuggery Horowitz has made a career out of decrying.

As Horowitz played cardiologist, ranting to me about how each leftist "has
hatred in his heart" and how members of the New Left to which he once
belonged had "treason in their hearts," Sanchez stood faithfully by his
side, muttering encouragement. "That's right. That's right," Sanchez would
say, almost on cue. Whenever I spoke, Sanchez would mumble something under
his breath like, "That's such a lie! Omigod!" or "See! Liberals are
hateful."

Horowitz probably discovered Sanchez after the ex-Marine appeared [2] on
Hannity & Colmes alleging that while studying at Columbia University, he was
called a "baby-killer" by members of that school's International Socialist
Organization. This alleged episode, which was investigated by Columbia but
never confirmed, also earned Sanchez a spot [3] on the O'Reilly Factor.

For his supposed courage in the face of liberal cruelty, Cpl. Sanchez was
presented [4] with the Jeanne Kirpatrick Academic Freedom Award at this
year's CPAC. Sanchez was the perfect vehicle for the conservative movement's
ongoing attempt to wrap itself in the uniform, and to heap resentment on
liberals for their supposed anti-military bias.

Soon, Sanchez was rubbing shoulders [5] with the likes of Ann Coulter and
Michelle Malkin. Malkin posted a shot [6] of herself beside the corporal on
her blog. Sanchez was clad in full military regalia and Malkin wore a big
smile. But Malkin is not smiling anymore. Like so many of Sanchez's
boosters, she was mugged by reality.

As several gay blogs revealed late yesterday, Corporal Sanchez was known
during his halcyon days as Rod Majors, a majorly well-endowed gay porn star.
(Photos of Corp. Sanchez aka Rod Majors in action can be viewed here. [7] I
warn you, this link is NOT to be clicked on if you have minors around or if
you're in a crowded workplace). According to Tom Bacchus, [8] Sanchez was
also a $200-an-hour male prostitute who advertised himself (here [9]) as an
"excellent top."

There is of course nothing inherently wrong with Sanchez being a gay porn
star or a male escort. His past is only notable because he chose to join a
movement that exploits anti-gay sentiment for political gain. Coulter's
now-famous "faggot" remark was not an aberration, but rather a symbol of the
politics of resentment that propels the conservative movement and its
elected Republican surrogates; a reflection of the bigotry conservatives
have sought to write into the Constitution through the so-called Federal
Marriage Amendment. The ascendant "family values" wing of the right is also
responsible for sabotaging legislation allowing homosexuals to serve openly
in the armed forces, a maneuver that may now spell the end of Sanchez's
career.

As Sanchez marched down the road from the gay sex industry to the
conservative movement, he followed in the footsteps of Jeff Gannon, Ted
Haggard and many others. Whether Sanchez knew the right was filled with
people just like him, something about it must have appealed to him.

Ann Coulter behavior reflects a psychology similar to Sanchez's. Coulter has
made a career out of criticizing the sexual peccadiloes of liberal icons
from Ted Kennedy to Bill Clinton, who she dubbed "a horny hick." She
appeared [10] on James Dobson's radio show to promote her recent polemic
accusing liberals of despoiling America's social fabric by advancing sexual
libertinism, abortion and gay marriage. Like Dobson, Coulter has been a
constant and especially strident critic of feminism. But few have benefitted
more from the legacy of liberalism in general and feminism in particular
than Coulter.

Coulter, after all, is a sexually liberated, career-minded, single woman in
her 40's. At the height of the Monica Lewinsky drama, during which she acted
as one of Ken Starr's "elves," Coulter was reportedly sired [11] by Dinesh
D'Souza, that paragon of morality who now blames [12] "social liberals" for
9/11. There is little doubt that were it not for the wave of liberation that
swept across America during the 1960's, Coulter's would have found fame and
fortune unattainable.

In my video, "CPAC 2007: The Unauthorized Documentary," [13] I asked Coulter
how she could reconcile her defense of the sanctity of marriage with the
fact that she has had three broken engagements and has never been married.
She was unable to answer my question. Instead, she made an ambiguous remark
about my appearance which I assume was a sarcastic insult. Some of my
friends have insisted she was genuinely enamored with me, a theory that, if
true, highlights Coulter's obvious sado-masochistic tendency. Either way,
her response, or lack thereof, was predictable.

Coulter refused to address the gulf between her personal life and her public
persona. Any acknowledgement of this contradiction would have cast her
vitriolic attacks on deviant social groups as projections of her
psycho-sexual issues. Like Haggard, Gannon, Sanchez or the countless
right-wing hypocrites who have come and gone over the years, Coulter's
contradictions are essential to understanding her reactionary posture. She
is what I would call a CCC, or a Conflicted Conservative in Crisis.

CCC's are aggressive toward groups they privately identify with, like sexual
minorities or independent women, but they are simultaneously submissive to
those who might otherwise persecute them. Thus, Coulter assiduously
cultivated the approval of James Dobson, an anti-feminist demagogue who
advocates "women's submission;" Sanchez enlisted in the Marines, then joined
the right's campus culture war; and Haggard inveighed against homosexuality
from the pulpit. These CCC's scurried away from freedom for the tight
confines of an authoritarian movement. For CCC's, backlash politics is a
crude form of therapy.

The CCC phenomenon explains why so many of the right's most bigoted and
hysterical figures are eventually unmasked as frauds. Sanchez may be drummed
out of the movement after today's revelations, and Coulter may lose
advertising revenue and allies after her latest paroxysm of hate, but the
show will go on. So long as conservatism is propelled by the politics of
resentment, it will continue to attract and generate CCC's.

Update: Sanchez conducted a "candid" interview with Joemygod [14] that is to
be published later today. According to Joe, "Sanchez is no dumb bunny."
We'll see...
_______

About author Max Blumenthal is a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the
Nation Institute based in Washington, DC. His work has appeared in The
Nation, Salon, The American Prospect and the Washington Monthly. He is a
research fellow for Media Matters for America. Click here to read his blog
[15].

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson