In a New York Times magazine profile to be published this Sunday, the Senior Senator from South Carolina tells America what she has not necessarily been waiting to hear one way or the other. Mr Lindsey Graham tells America that he is "totally not gay."

If he was, who cares? That's his business. The senator from the conservative state, that means right-wing these days, went to lengths to rebuke the rumor about his sexuality. "I know it's really gonna upset a lot of gay men -- I'm sure hundreds of 'em are gonna be jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge", Mr,Graham said, "but I ain't available. I ain't gay. Sorry."

Senator, really?

But, before someone should advise the senator that he should stop with the flippant humor, before some one reminds him that his slip is showing, remember that GOP politics in South Carolina are known for the nastiest nasty. The current GOP candidate for governor was called an adulteress, a slut and an un-Christian whore, by her GOP opponents in the primary. Those were the nicer things that they said about her. The Tea Party in South Carolina is spreading the rumor that the senator is in the closet and is so fearful of being exposed and forced-out, that he gave into Democratic blackmail to expose him. A Tea Party leader said that the alleged price for the Democrats silence was the senator's support for the immigration reform bill. The senator supported the bill until he abandoned it following the Tea Party's scandalous charge. The senators flippant remark may be explainable in that context.