The mainstream media spends most of its time hyping sex columnist Dan Savage and his ideas about marriage, but is he really the best role model for the next generation? Joe Carter looks at Savage's self-admitted past:

If you haven’t already done so, add this regulation to your rules for living: Never take sex advice from a man who licks doorknobs. The reasoning—as if a reason needed to be given—is that a man who doesn’t understand the [purpose] of a doorknob isn’t likely to understand the [purpose] of sex. Unfortunately, many people seem to disagree with me, which is why Dan Savage has become one of the most influential sex-advice columnists in America.

... During the Republican primary in 2000, Savage traveled to Iowa and became a campaign volunteer for Gary Bauer. During the trip, Savage became sick—“I had the flu in a big way”—and decided to use his illness as a bioweapon against Bauer and his staff. He boasts:

I went from doorknob to doorknob. They were filthy, no doubt, but there wasn't time to find a rag to spit on. My immune system wasn't all it should be—I was in the grip of the worst flu I had ever had—but I was on a mission. If for some reason I didn't manage to get a pen from my mouth to Gary's hands, I wanted to seed his office with germs, get as many of his people sick as I could, and hopefully one of them would infect the candidate.

So, much as it pains me to confirm a hateful stereotype of gay men—we will put anything in our mouths— I started licking doorknobs. The front door, office doors, even a bathroom door. When that was done, I started in on the staplers, phones and computer keyboards. Then I stood in the kitchen and licked the rims of all the clean coffee cups drying in the rack. [emphasis in original]

Unfortunately, that is not the worst of Savage’s dirty tricks against his ideological enemies. You would quite literally retch if I were to describe the details of his crusade against former Senator Rick Santorum.

In the same article, Savage admits to lying about his residency in order to fraudulently vote in the Iowa primary. He was charged with a felony but pled guilty to a misdemeanor, making Savage a convicted liar and fraud.

Why bring these stories up?

What is most depressing is not Savage’s message—that is standard hedonist propaganda—but rather the respect he is given despite being an amoral cretin. Savage is no longer just a guy who writes for the weekly tabloids. Now he’s taken seriously by political leaders, business executives, actors, and pastors. His influence extends from Hollywood to the White House.

... Would the president want his daughters dating men influenced by Savage? Of course he wouldn’t; whatever else one might think of Barack Obama, he is a caring father. Unfortunately, he is not as concerned about other people’s children, who will be influenced by his tacit endorsement of Savage’s ethics.