Never met Mark Buse. Couldn’t pick him out of a line-up. I  know he is John McCain’s chief of staff and that means there’s not much we agree on. That’s enough for me. His sexuality, just like the love life of “singer” Clay Aiken, are bits of information that do not need to be added to the flotsam and jetsam in my head.

Yesterday Buse’s supposed gayness became a talking point in the gay blogosphere. When the rumor first hit my email box, I rolled my eyes. Mainly because this type of conversation is as dated as watching  a rerun of Beverly Hills, 90210. Isn’t outing a technique we have moved away from?

Aside from the moldiness of it all, why the shock? A gay man shills for the GOP and its candidate?  We’ve seen this story before and it ain’t new. Can the choir say former senator Rick Santorum’s communications director Robert Traynham? And who can forget Mary Cheney (love the fact she got paid a whole lot of cash for a book no one read)? Are we so naive that we continue to be shocked when we find there are gays and lesbians  who actually are Republican? The horror. The horror.

Yes Virginia, there are gay Republicans; instead of being shocked about that, it might serve us better to come up with reasons on why we disagree with them. And reasons do not include using the terms “Nazi” or “self-hating.”

I’ve said it before and have no problem repeating it. Sexuality does not equal ideology. Never has. Never will

Mike Rogers at BlogActive and Michelangelo Signorile released evidence of Buse’s gayness last night, citing “unnamed sources” plus a man who claims to be Buse’s ex-boyfriend, Brian Davis.

Today, the blogopshere has been on fire.

We try not to out people here, which is why we didn’t report on it earlier. But once the Miami Herald’s Steve Rothaus posted about it, we felt that we should at least alert readers.

Why is this important? Because Mark Buse is not a celebrity. He is a political figure who is one of the most important advisors to a man running for President – a man who does not support ENDA, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, gay marriage or civil unions, gay and lesbian adoption, or the ending of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.