Blackmail is when you promise to keep secrets if someone ponies up something you want from them. Nobody has promised that. I have always said that, if you want to keep something secret, make sure I don’t know it before you’ve gotten my promise not to reveal it because otherwise, once I know it, it isn’t a secret anymore.

This isn’t blackmail. It’s just consequences.

Government and secrecy is usually a bad mix, just as the relevant hypocrisy of public officials has always been fair game. The fight on gay issues in Indiana has long been a dirty one — a one-sided dirty one, replete with lies and character assassination being used against gay people to deny us equality under the law. All we’re proposing is to level the playing field a little by — oh the horror — telling the truth.

I agree with your comments on hypocrisy. But aren’t people with good intentions also fallible? I don’t think human fallibility is what should be called into question.

On the other hand, I do believe that individual integrities need to be called onto the carpet. These individuals who choose to lead a life in the public eye should expect to be scrutinized. If they plan to forward an agenda that they claim to believe in, then we expect them to be forthcoming and open about errors they may have committed in the past. If they are unwilling to do so, they leave themselves and potentially important issues open to attack and thus they are unable to represent their constituencies effectively.

So, I agree with your agenda on the issue, but not the tactic. We’re all fallible and we’re all guilty of acting contrary to our core beliefs at one point or another. That shouldn’t be the issue. The issue should be that these people are trying to represent an issue without being honest enough to admit that they have contributed to the problem. Integrity is the issue, not fallibility.