In an article written for The Huffington Post, columnist David Fiderer has asserted that the mere appearance of a potential federal GOP nominee’s homosexuality is enough to ruin his or her chances.

He notes that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could never be John McCain’s vice presidential nominee, given her status as a 53-year-old never-married woman.

Fiderer writes:

Washington Republicans enforced the rule three years ago, when Tom DeLay plotted his return to power. Forced to step down from his position as Majority Whip once he was indicted in Texas, DeLay planned to fight the charges and eventually return to his leadership post.

“DeLay and [House speaker Dennis] Hastert wanted someone to hold the job but with no ambitions to stay in it, and had in mind Rep. David Dreier of California. But when the indictment was unsealed Wednesday, conservatives in the GOP caucus immediately erupted in anger over rumors about the selection of Dreier, whom they regard as too moderate, and Hastert eventually agreed to elevate Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo,” The Wall Street Journal Online September 29, 2005

That’s right. According to the Washington press, David Dreier was too “moderate.” Or, as the Journal would later report, Dreier was “a gentleman in the not-so-gentle world of the House Republican leadership. Witty, articulate, friend to the Annenbergs and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Drier also “shuns any elected party post, preferring to protect his privacy as a loyal lieutenant to Speaker Dennis Hastert.” Wink, wink. In a subtle but powerful way, the Journal was complicit in spreading a form of disinformation about what happens underneath the surface of Republican sanctimony on gay marriage and other issues.

House members who opposed Dreier were motivated less by ideology than by ruthless pragmatism. If, as Karl Rove said, Joe Wilson’s wife was “fair game,” then so was Dreier’s husband, or, er, highly paid Chief of Staff, with whom Dreier shared his Washington home.

Dreier himself had been outed in 2004 by L.A. Weekly. And you know what they always say, when one Republican House leader shares his Washington home with his gay Chief of Staff, as Speaker Dennis Hastert did with Chief of Staff Scott Palmer, it’s a coincidence. When two Republican House leaders share their homes with their respective gay Chiefs of Staff, it looks like a trend, a trend that might upend the Republicans’ 2006 election strategy.