Oh Dear
Welp, here we go again with the Republican closeted-gay crime scandals. And this time people got killed.
Above: Ralph Gonzalez
Lovers’ Quarrel May Have Sparked Murder-Suicide
Prominent Republican Party Consultant, 2 Others Found DeadORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A prominent Republican Party consultant is one of three men found dead in a Central Florida home Thursday in an apparent double murder-suicide possibly sparked by a lovers’ quarrel, according to detectives.
A woman’s out-of-state phone call requesting a well-being check on a friend led Orange County sheriff’s deputies to the bodies of Ralph Gonzalez, David Abrami and Robert Drake Thursday.
When deputies arrived at the home after receiving the call at 9:13 a.m., the front door was open, and officers said they found the victims inside and signs of a struggle.
“We are working it as a homicide, but there is some early evidence to suggest that this may in fact be a murder-suicide,” Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Allen Lee said.
Detectives said one of the victims was an ex-member of the military and was found wearing a backpack. Bomb squad members were called out to the scene after bags were found in his parked vehicle.
Investigators also found several weapons in the house.
The three men may have been dead since Tuesday.
The home’s address is listed as the office of The Strategum Group, a firm founded by political strategist Ralph Gonzalez.
Gonzalez’s clients have included U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, State Rep. Dean Cannon and U.S. Rep Tom Price, according to the firm’s Web site. Gonzalez is the former executive director of the Georgia Republican Party, the Web site stated.
So, how I’m interpreting these reports is that Abrami, the roommate, was about to run off with Drake, and when Drake came to pick him up, Gonzalez shot them both and then killed himself.*
Bradblog has lots of background on Gonzalez as a corrupt Republican dirt-merchant.
Sheesh.
* [Update] Apparently, they’re saying that it’s the other way around, with Drake as the alleged shooter.
They’re all going to die with dicks in their mouths.
These murder/suicide love triangle things are all too often based on possessiveness, and viewing people as property. All things and beings exist to be owned/possessed/destroyed as the sociopath/right wing authoritarian deems necessary. Even themselves. I’d feel sorry for them if they didn’t cause so much harm to other people and society in general, and prey on the vulnerable.
I’m curious as to whether or not anyone has or is compiling a list of these hypocrites whose personal behavior is diametrically opposed to their public statements. Seems like just in the last week there have been 4 or 5 cases of conservatives/Republicans whose sexual exploits have outed their hypocrisy. It would be interesting to see a tally of them. From Ted Haggard to this case to that guy in Carolina this week with the hookers.
I’ve been following this…apparently Drake was an ex “roommate” of one of them. It looks like he went there to kill them both and then himself.
Also, all three men were active in Republican politics in some way or other.
Closeted gay guys – check
Lots of weapons – check
Killing as a solution – check
Yep. Them’s republicans…
mikey
This is really sad, but it’s further proof that being a gay Republican will make you crazy. Raise your children to hate themselves and everyone like them and they will naturally seek out dangerous and destructive situations.
I am reminded of the book that professional troll Ramesh Ponuru wrote some years ago about Democrats, called “The Party of Death”. It was a true Orwellian masterwork, in a sense, because between Republican support for neocolonial foriegn policy (i.e. Iraq), aggressive and harsh social policy on the domestic front, and a neoliberal economic policy that brings us cheap (and poisonous) toys at Wal-Mart, it’s not really hard to see who the real “Party of Death” is.
Republican ideology. Some cases have been known to be fatal…
It’s just too bad that these fellows belong to the Party of Hate. They’d probably live healthier lives, and not, like, kill each other and themselves if they weren’t raised to be militant, sociopathic, gay-bashers.
But Ramesh Ponneru is defiantly not gay!!
Who in Carolina?
From WESH (Orlando).
Oddly enough, the Orlando Sentinel’s local politics blog doesn’t appear to be following this story. The Sentinel’s crime blog is wall to wall with Lisa Nowak coverage.
I really don’t want to be The Li’lest Concern Troll, but I have to say, I think it’s callous to draw ideological conclusions from this.
If the Republican party hadn’t created a climate in which it is acceptable to persecute gay people, I might be more sympathetic. As it stands, it’s like feeling bad for a Klansman when he trips over his robe and accidentally strangles himself on his hood.
The only shame here is that it doesn’t happen to more of them.
As soon as the Republican party stops making it okay to kill the people I love most in the world, I’ll start feeling bad for them.
I really don’t want to be The Li’lest Concern Troll, but I have to say, I think it’s callous to draw ideological conclusions from this.
Don’t worry about it.
When it’s the latest drip on the water-tortured forehead of the populace I don’t mind so much. I think it’s news when the anti-gay types are gay and alive.
It becomes apparent that two of these men were not fit for manly-man combat.
Am I the only one suspecting this might have less to do with gayness and more to do with someone cleaning up some loose ends? When three Republican operatives connected to Abramoff and slimy corrupt congressmen are found dead of gunshot wounds, my first thought would not be “personal dispute totally unrelated to politics”.
But who knows, maybe that guy in Goodfellas hung himself dead in a meat locker for personal reasons totally unrelated to the Mafia.
I’m with Gilmore. Gonzalez’ Republican connections ooze sleaze.
From Wonkette: “Strategum’s client list — mostly southern state reps — includes a couple notably corrupt pols, including the aforementioned Feeney and former State Rep. Sheri McInvale, once indicted for taxpayer fraud. And CrimeBlog finds that Gonzalez spent a large part of his career just a couple degrees of separation away from Jack Abramoff David Abrami — apparently Gonzalez’s roommate and a former president, naturally, of the Central Florida Young Republicans. Not much has been found about the third body, that of Robert Drake, whom cops are suggesting is the one who shot these two GOP operatives before turning the gun on himself.
Where oh where is Donald Sutherland to explain this all to us with a 25-minute monologue. Are there gay Cuban hustlers involved??
Oh.My.God.
When I read this last night on Crooks and Liars I though it was a little over the top for some commentators to suggest that this was a lovers quarrel. I guess I am just not cynical enough for these people.
FlipYrWhig said,
I really don’t want to be The Li’lest Concern Troll, but I have to say, I think it’s callous to draw ideological conclusions from this.\
You are absolutely right Flip. It would be wrong to jump to such a conclusion from just this one event. But that isn’t what we have is it? We are approaching double digit territory in the “closeted self hating gay/pedo/fetishist criminal GOP gang types” aren’t we?
Along with others here, as GLBTQ myself, this is deeply saddening. Kind of scary too because it makes me wonder if some people will draw exactly the wrong conclusion from all this.
We love you too.
I really don’t want to be The Li’lest Concern Troll, but I have to say, I think it’s callous to draw ideological conclusions from this.
It’s not just this.
Let the common taters at Wonkette take it away.
Endless Cummer
Blovember
Cocktober Surprise (I always thought Cocktoberfest was better, but your mileage may vary.)
As for feeling sorry for the Goopers in question, let’s think about all the victims they never gave a hairy rat’s ass for.
Abramoff+sex+slave+abortions
And there’s that whole war in Iraqinam thing.
I’m not going to waste sympathy on these callous, greedy motherfuckers, gay or not.
Apparently Gonzalez posted under the moniker reformrepublican at several websites and was known by name on at least one.
http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2007/06/gop_chair_playi.html#comment-72361556
At another website a poster by the same name accuses Summit County, Ohio Republican Party Head Alex Arshinkoff of being a closet gay. How interesting that he would come to an end in which the same thing was assumed about him! Abrami had a girlfriend as well – perhaps a beard, perhaps not. But a case of neocon vs. paleocon sounds just as plausible as a gay love triangle amongst Republican strategists.
Pass the popcorn, in any event.
Jeezus, is everyone in the GOP gay? What would their base think?
It’s like they have a gay farm team or something.
Tragic, as all lovers-quarrels are, but still, kinda funny, unless you’re a friend or family member.
Tragedy + Time = Comedy.
“Time” being a relative construct.
Let’s be clear. We’re not glad, celebrating the deaths of just another bunch of republican operatives. I’m real sorry this happened, it’s a tragedy that’s gonna reverbrate down through the futures of many families. People who loved them. And they are not necessarilly bad people.
But there has to be a fascination with gay people actively supporting the republican party. It’s no different from a black person joining the klan. The republican party has a central plank in it’s platform around hating and discriminating against gays. If you can’t see the “man bites dog” aspect to these stories, you’re being intentionally obtuse.
And there’s been SO MANY of them, just in the last couple years. Fast and furious, some of the most virulent “family values” republicans have been unmasked as the worst kind of hypocrites, pedantically instructing their constituencies in what constitutes unaccepatble behavior, then sneaking out to indulge in those very same behaviors, or worse, and getting caught out.
It is this odd juxtaposition, this hypocrisy in action, this playing to a set of rules but operating outside of that selfsame rule set, that makes these events not only newsworthy, but fascinating.
At any time, the republican party is invited to embrace diversity and accept everyone’s life as having equal value, and the novelty in the “gay republican” will go away. In the meantime, there WILL be more, and we will continue to call them out as they come to light. A little like cockroaches in the kitchen at night…
mikey
Right on, mikey.
Ever seen Chapelle doing Clayton Biggs?
Cocaine is a hell of a drug.
LOL, tml.
It is very weird and a little bit disconcerting to see this play out. I mean, how stupid can Wingnuttia be? Everyone on the damn planet knows someone personally who happens to be gay; the one thing you can be sure to be classified as a complet a**hole on is fighting the cultural reality, historically speaking.
Culture leads politics. End of story.
Just as many gay Catholics follow the “hate the sin, love the sinner” concept (it’s OK to be gay, just don’t do anything gay) and decide this is Jeezis’ way of calling them to the priesthood (“I have to be celibate, or I’m a sinner, might as well be a priest.”) I think a lot of unhappy-with-being-gay Republicans decide to become activists/elected officials to keep themselves on the “straight & narrow.” Or at least well-closeted.
Sure, I see the point, but I’m leery about the reap-what-you-sow tone.
I dunno, maybe it’s the picture that’s softening me up. Compared to the usual gallery of Rich Lowrys and Mark Steyns, there’s just something about this guy making me think he could have been reachable, and that he deserved better.
Now, if Mike Adams were to have a firearms accident, that’d be a bit harder to sympathize with.
I am sick and tired of liberals setting up Christian Republicans to make them look bad.
It’s gotten so bad I’m afraid to fall asleep, lest a member is slipped between my lips as I doze.
In Christ’s Name.
‘When three Republican operatives connected to Abramoff and slimy corrupt congressmen are found dead of gunshot wounds, my first thought would not be “personal dispute totally unrelated to politics”.’
It would be interesting if it was indeed a combination. Intense activists of any type can have trouble separating the personal from the political; Lenin was a good example of a political extremist who subordinated his private life to the Grand Struggle. Perhaps this case was an intersection of political extremism, corruption, and deeply-closeted homosexuality. All are known to spawn violence. (The “deeply-closeted” part, not the “gay” part, in case I’m not lucid at this late hour.)
OMG look at this! It’s the very culmination of everything O’Reilly feared most! Oh how the liberals laughed and mocked, but now it’s all come true!!1! Homer-sexuals! Pink Pistols! Rufless gay-gang violence on the mean streets of our big citties! Dead Republicans!!!1! Oh noooooo!!!
BillO I’ll nevar doubt you again!
I dunno, maybe it’s the picture that’s softening me up. Compared to the usual gallery of Rich Lowrys and Mark Steyns, there’s just something about this guy making me think he could have been reachable, and that he deserved better.
Why? Because he was smiling in the photo? Even Darth Cheney smiles occasionally, and I don’t think anyone would consider him “reachable” or in any way redeemable.
Sorry to disagree with you mikey, but I’m glad and I’m celebrating, The only personal traits I hate and despise is intolerance. And these asses made their living promoting it. I think its really beatiful, like a disagreement between orcs breaking out into a complete slaughter. Their website is still up, http://www.strategumusa.com/, it has a nice little blitzkrieg flash ani, and a list of clients you can email with the question, “how effective was Strategum in capturing the closeted gay homicidal vote?
There are just two types of people in the world, asshats and everyone else.
I am sick and tired of liberals setting up Christian Republicans to make them look bad.
They’re doing a pretty good job of it all by themselves. They don’t seem to need our help.
Why? Because he was smiling in the photo?
I don’t know, I’m a softy at heart, I guess.
Cheney only smiles when he’s picking kitten whiskers out of his teeth.
Why? Because he was smiling in the photo?
Because he doesn’t have the Wingnut Face Mullet.
you know im with mikey – regardless of the fact that these guys/boys were republicans asshats – they had friends and family. More importantly they also had a future in front of them – in which they may have had the ability to make better choices
yea they made the world a shittier place with their politics – but still i’d prefer that they were alive
i suppose im a mushy headed liberal…
Gonzalez is the former executive director of the Georgia Republican Party…
Were any mules harmed?
but still i’d prefer that they were alive
Think of the good they could have done.
The He-Looked-At-Me-Funny Homosexual Pummelling Amnesty Act of 2009
The YMCA Boner Concealment Act of 2010
The Homosexual Organ Confiscation Program of 2011
According to the WFTV website link above, Drake lived with his aunt and uncle in an east Orlando neighborhood. He did tile work for his uncle after spending four years in the Marine Corps. But, six weeks ago, Jason [Drake] told them he was having problems with a friend and was going to kill them.
The plot thickens. Perhaps it has something to do with military service. Popcorn anyone?
The overarching lesson from Iraq is that you can’t kill your way out of a problem.
When the net result is violent death, something somewhere went off the rails.
Torn bodies and wrecked shit means somebody couldn’t figure out a rational solution.
Wrong is wrong. When bush does it, when anybody else does it….
mikey
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office says Drake was the shooter.
Where’s Greta and Nancy Grace? Dan Abrams? They love this kinda story! Somethin’ fishy here. These guys were election riggers from waaayyyyy back. This case reminds me of the Nazis offing all their gays were they were of no more use to them. Someone call the FBI!
Trust me..I knew Abrami and he wasn’t gay. I can’t speak for the other two but I know David was in the middle of a move to be with his girlfriend – the same one who called in the well being check. As a matter of fact he had just come back from a weekend out of town with her. Don’t jump to conclusions. Your remarks could hurt people who don’t look at the whole thing as a big joke.