To finally say something nice about Haider

The mystery of what Jörg Haider did in the time left between his last appointment and hitting the concrete in a Klagenfurt suburb seems to be solved. Nobody denies anymore that he spent his last hours, and acquired that considerable level of alcohol, at a Klagenfurt "gay" bar he, so it seems, used to frequent, and that he had a somewhat special relationship to young Stefan Petzner, his party deputy, who had all the time since Haider's death rather behaved like a widower than like a political friend and ally.

I admit that I felt some vague Schadenfreude when it became known that Haider, this upright paragon of law-and-order virtues, had become the victim of his own anti-social recklessness. I do not feel anything like that at the latest revelations. Haider had never indulged in "homophobic" rhetoric and had been remarkably laid-back about any accusations of being homosexual himself, which was, to me, rather circumstancial evidence that he was NOT, although it seemed so obvious.

What IS interesting, though, is how the conspiracy theorists will bring in the Mossad now. On a more serious note, it is the question how he could, again, get away with it. It think that was because he was able to inspire unusual and inordinate loyalty in his followers and that his politically correct adversaries wouldn't have wanted to see him in a light they are forced by their own ideology to consider positive.

I have discussed such a phenomenon already here in a different context. Wouldn't it have cast a shadow on the oh-so-perfect gay community, who are selling us their lifestyle not just as an alternative, but as a preferable one, when it had transpired that Mr. Squeaky Clean had been one of them? Would a Haider have fit in such a picture? I bet he wouldn't have.

By which I have, at last, found something nice to say about that man.