Steve Lonegan only likes the lady elephants and thinks you should vote for him because of it
Over the weekend Newark Mayor Corey Booker, New Jersey's Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in October's special election,
said:
And people who think I’m gay, some part of me thinks it’s wonderful. Because I want to challenge people on their homophobia. I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I’m gay, and I say, ‘So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I’m straight.’
It's hard to argue with that ... unless you're Steve Lonegan, the GOP Senate nominee who was recently blessed with the endorsement of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie:
Lonegan said in an interview with the conservative online publication Newsmax that he found Booker's comments "weird."
"As a guy, I personally like being a guy," he said. "I don't know if you saw the stories last year. They've been out for quite a bit about how he likes to go out at three o'clock in the morning for a manicure and a pedicure."
That's a reference to an interview Booker gave earlier in the month about how an ex-girlfriend got him hooked on manicures and pedicures, which apparently Lonegan thinks should disqualify Booker from being a senator.
Lonegan described Booker's routine as a "fetish," claiming his own indulgences were "a good Scotch and a cigar."
"That's my fetish but we'll just compare the two," Lonegan said.
Okay, fine, let's compare the two: Would you rather have a senator who cares about looking and feeling good ... or a bigoted loser who likes to sit on his ass while sipping Scotch, chomping a cigar, and bitching about how men aren't allowed to be men anymore?
12:48 PM PT: And Booker responds:
Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) responded to his Senate opponent's implication that gay men aren't real "guys" on Wednesday, saying it was "disheartening" and "sad."
"It's just disheartening to hear somebody, in this day and age, in the United States of America, say basically ... that gay men are not men, they're not guys," he said in an interview with HuffPost Live, referring to remarks made by Republican Senate candidate Steve Lonegan. "It's shocking to one's conscience in this country, where we believe that the content of one's character, the courage in one's heart, the strength of one's sense of purpose, the love that one has for others and their service, is what defines them. And instead he's challenging the masculinity of millions of Americans."