Back in 2006, when Steve Lonegan was mayor of Bogota, he turned to a Republican councilman and called him a "fundamentalist faggot piece of shit," according to the councilman, and a witness who testified under oath, Bogota GOP chairman Andrew Fede.



Lonegan denies it, now that he is running for Congress. But there is no evidence he denied it in 2006, when the charges first surfaced. And even this month, his campaign spokesman didn't deny it when confronted with the quotes, and conceded that Lonegan used "some naughty words."



To believe Lonegan, we have to believe his fellow Republicans hatched a fake plot to get him more than a decade ago. Please.

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A more likely explanation is that Lonegan knows this quote makes him radioactive in New Jersey. He should quit now, and end the drama.



Voters in this district have made it clear they don't like this kind of vile behavior. The Republican who held the seat previously, Scott Garrett, lost his Wall Street donors and was forced out in 2016, after he said the Republican party should stop supporting gay candidates.



Why should Republicans put forward another candidate who expresses homophobia to run against the Democrat incumbent, Josh Gottheimer?



The target of the diatribe, then-councilman George Silos, says he sent an email at the time complaining about it to prominent Republicans.



This was worse than naughty. "It was an anti-gay homophobic slur," says Silos, who called it "ugly and hateful."



He's not gay. He's married with two kids, one of whom interned in Garrett's D.C. office the summer of 2016. But he was really bothered by Lonegan's "thug" behavior, he said.



At the same meeting, he says, Lonegan threatened to go outside and fight him, twice. And in a previous, three-way phone conversation, Lonegan told him, "I'll cut your balls off." Fede also swore that Silos told him about this at the time.



Silos thinks Lonegan used the slur because he was angry the councilman was supporting a police officer whom Lonegan had asked for a political favor. "That's what spewed out," Silos said. "He's got the mentality of a 9-year-old schoolyard bully."



The implication for Christians wasn't particularly nice, either. Lonegan is Roman Catholic. Silos is evangelical, and believes the "fundamentalist" comment indicates "he doesn't like my brand of Christianity."



He says he's coming forward with this now because Gottheimer will do so himself if Lonegan wins the Republican nomination. The Bergen County Republican chairman, Paul DiGaetano, also called for Lonegan to step down.



And it's not just one homophobic comment. Lonegan's record is fundamentally biased against gays. He's questioned the right and ability of same-sex couples to raise children, or marry. He even opposed civil unions.



He's an extremist in other ways, too. He would make abortion illegal even in cases of rape or incest. He accused 9/11 first responders of trying to "find any reason to sue" by inventing a fake "respiratory ailment."



As mayor, he infamously demanded that McDonald's remove a Spanish-language billboard and tried to make English the official language of his small town. Yet after police discovered he'd hired two illegal immigrants to help assemble lawn signs, he shrugged it off: "These guys need the money," Lonegan said.



He's shrugging off this story in the same way now, as "an allegation of name-calling from a dozen years ago." But it's a plausible one, and a hateful slur that should disqualify him from Congress.

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