Chris Matthews on today’s Hardball program played an audio clip of former gay prostitute Mike Jones saying that he had once had a sexual relationship with Sen. Larry Craig. Matthews’ guest for the segment, Mike Rogers, again noted his distrust of Jones’s story, but concurrently hailed the Idaho Statesman’s weekend story, which included Jones’s account therein. How can Rogers rationalize this?

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Remember back when the David Phillips story broke about his prior relationship with Larry Craig, and we asked you to help us figure out the name of the anonymous blogger who broke that story? Until then, said blogger had always gone by the pen name “Princess Sparkle Pony.” Well. After our commenters started speculating, the blogger wrote in and confirmed what we were already piecing together. Princess Sparkle Pony is a gay man named Peter Huestis who works at the National Gallery of Art in its photo labs.

“I’m not a journalist…,” he told us defensively. “I don’t know my way around a Washington scandal.”

Right, we totally got that. But we thought all was said and done until today when a Princess Sparkle Pony (just a coincidence?) started commenting about us on Mike Rogers‘ newly controversial item involving Mike Jones and Sen. Larry Craig: Read more…

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Gay blogger Mike Rogers has long said that former prostitute Mike Jones lied about having a sexual relationship with Sen. Larry Craig. Apparently, Rogers has a gut instict on this one. And yet Jones has maintained his story, and spoke out in a widely hailed Idaho Statesman article this weekend. Interestingly, Rogers is now heralding the article as well, but he isn’t yet mentioning his past criticisms of Jones. At least one of his commenters is calling him on his apparent backtrack:

Mike Jones must believe himself, at least. Mike Rogers, do you still not believe him? You were quite emphatic in questioning his honesty before.

Rogers has not responded to the question as of yet.

Earlier: Sen. Craig Outer Criticizes “DC Madam”

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David Phillips, an Internet technician based in Washington, has recently become quite well-known for describing some dirty sexual deeds Sen. Larry Craig performed on him in 1987. And now, in several shocking audio clips with The Idaho Statesman, four more men have described their close encounters with the senator — who will not resign from office, despite having repeatedly voting against gay issues during his long career in Congress.

Among them:

• Mike Jones, a former prostitute who had already revealed last year that he had sex with the Rev. Ted Haggard. Jones now reveals Craig paid him for sex approximately three years ago. jones1sourceprod_affiliate36.mp3, jones2sourceprod_affiliate36.mp3, jones3sourceprod_affiliate36.mp3, jones4sourceprod_affiliate36.mp3
• Greg Ruth, who says he was hit on by Craig at a GOP meeting in Coeur d’Alene in 1981 — when Ruth was a college Republican. ruth1sourceprod_affiliate36.mp3
• Tom Russell, who says he had a gay encounter with Craig at Bogus Basin in the early 1980s. russell1sourceprod_affiliate36.mp3, russell2sourceprod_affiliate36.mp3, russell3sourceprod_affiliate36.mp3
• A fifth gay man, who is from Boise but who declined to be named for fear of retaliation. He says he was in a men’s restroom at Denver International Airport in September 2006 when the man in the next stall moved his hand slowly, palm up, under the divider. “Alarmed, the man said he waited outside the restroom and then identified the man in the adjoining stall as Craig, whom he had met in Idaho,” the newspaper reports.
• Also, Phillips now describes his encounter in detail: phillips1sourceprod_affiliate36.mp3, phillips2sourceprod_affiliate36.mp3, phillips3sourceprod_affiliate36.mp3

Craig declined to comment for the Statesman report, but he made the following statement to NBC’s Matt Lauer in a prime-time interview that aired Oct. 16.: “I know what people feel like when they’re profiled, when innocent people get caught up in what I was caught in as an innocent person.”

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…but does he sound gay to you? And, yes, we’re aware that not all gays sound the same. So, please, Dan Savage, John Aravosis and Mike Rogers, don’t get your panties in a twist. And, yes, we’re aware the three of you don’t literally wear panties. We meant your thongs.

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