Laffey: “We thought it was funny.’’

Brian Zick

From the Ann Coulter School of Poisoning Supreme Court Justice Jokes and Wishing Tim McVeigh Blew Up the New York Times Comedy: GOP winger Stephen Laffey explains columns written when he was a college student: ''Do I regret some of these things? Sure,'' he said. ''But at the time, we were just having fun. We thought it was funny.'' The Republican candidate wrote them in 1983 and 1984 while studying at Bowdoin College in Maine. The articles appeared in a paper published by campus Republicans. In one column, Laffey said he has never seen a happy homosexual. ''This is not to say there aren't any; I simply haven't seen one in my lifetime. Maybe they are all in the closet,'' he wrote. ''All the homosexuals I've seen are sickly and decrepit, their eyes devoid of life.'' In another column he wrote that pop music was turning the children of America into sissies, and criticized the singer Boy George, referring to him as ''it.'' ''It wears girl's clothes and puts on makeup,'' he wrote. ''When I hear it sing, 'Do you really want to hurt me, do you really want to make me cry,' I say to myself, YES, I want to punch your lights out, pal, and break your ribs.''

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