Lesbian rumors sank Condi's chances?

Seems that fact is that unmarried Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice for a long time owned a California house with a close friend, Randy Bean--a woman whom Condi says she bonded with over "a love of football." Originally a gay man who worked in the Clinton administration was a co-owner of the house too, but he sold his interest to the two women.

Along with these demonstrable facts, various queer bloggers are repeating the rumor that McCain really wanted Condi as his veep choice; but staffers convinced him that her sexuality was a no-go for the campaign.

As Mike Signorile puts it, quoting an unnamed Republican source interviewed by another blogger, "“In Washington circles, it’s just assumed Rice is gay and nobody really cares. But in the glare of the media spotlight, those rumors were bound to get magnified a thousandfold and the mainstream media would have had an excuse to reveal the facts that would have caused conniption fits among the Republican base.”