From the Department of Stuck on Stupid, Sen. Larry Craig, Idaho Republican, got popped in June for lewd conduct in an airport restroom. You can read the details, as reported in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, HERE on the Free Republic website.
In short, Craig entered a bathroom stall where a lot of “lewd conduct complaints” had been generated. An undercover police officer was sitting in a stall when Craig’s reported activities took place. Craig pleaded guilty to a “disorderly conduct charge” and says it was all a big misunderstanding. Uh-huh.
My favorite part of the whole story, though, was this part of the policeman’s description of the scene of the crime:
“I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use.”
Think the campfire scene in “Blazing Saddles.” What a riot! Now how in the heck do you get yourself “in the mood” with grown men loudly cutting the cheese two stalls down? I mean, really.
Ah, the party of family values. Glad I left it.
Posted on August 27th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
I never believed in reincarnation until now. Has Walter Jenkins, LBJ’s bathroom swisher, and a democrat, come back as Sen. Larry Craig, a republican.
Well drat! I guess ole Jenkins didn’t get punished until now.
Do we know the politics of the cop?? Could he have an agenda here/ Cops are known to lie, but they generally get away with it because, well, they’re cops. Now I read the Roll Call story–several times, and I mentally reconstructed it. All the right foot, left hand stuff only works if Craig was seated, despite his comment that he has a wide “stance,” suggesting he was standing. And sure enough, Karsnia states that Craig was “seated to the left of me.” Then the cop states that Craig swiped his hand under the divider which allowed Karsnia to see the ring on his finger. So if Craig was seated, he would have had to swipe the right hand under the divider or do some tricky cross-body reaching with the left hand. If the ring is a wedding band (and article states Craig is married), it would normally be worn on the left hand. So is somebody lying? What hand does Craig wear his ring on? Something doesn’t quite compute here.
Susana,
Under penalty of perjury, Craig plead guilty. He-plead-guilty. Accept it.
Meanwhile…elsewhere in the airport, terrorists were sneaking through security disguised as undocumented airport employees. Do we really need the police patrolling restrooms? I was once propositioned in a restroom - I employed the “just say no” tactic to fine effect. Sometimes our alleged “public safety” personnel - especially the airport variety - really have a misplaced sense of priorities!
Insanity is always an excellent plea.
There’s an old saying that goes, “A conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged. A liberal is a conservative who’s been arrested.” I guess we’ll see if it applies to Senator Craig.
larrys political career is just beginning. All he has to do is come out of the closet, declare he’s a liberal democrat and all will be forgiven/forgotten.
What type of assignment was this for a police officer? Did he ever leave the stall? How did his supervisor guide him on his duties? If his assignment was to sit on a john, was he allowed to take a ‘restroom break’? Were there ONLY complaints about the men’s room? Who is giving equal protection to the women?
In a serious way, how many others were caught and what type of complaints were filed to get a policeman assigned this task?
My thought is that if this guy was a liberal the liberals would all gather around him and cheer. Hold the liberals and others eqally responsible for stupid and inapprpriate actions, or hold no one responsible. OR… We could kick the whole crooked bunch out and force people who do not want thew job to do it for a few years. The inducement? If they behave and make appropriate choices they get to go home after only two years. If not, they spend a year in jail after those two years. Decided by a national ballot taken of the members of the other major party! Some truely good people would end up in jail, but many bad ones would also!
I agree with Susanna K. There were some mighty good gymnastics going on to have done the things alleged by the Cop. Would that I were so limber. It probably is an easy bust for the cop and definitely is embarrassing for Larry Craig. Both should resign. One for lying and the other for being stupid.
Wayne,
If every elected Republican that is under indictment or has plead guilty became a Democatic Party member, we Republicans would have an even smaller majority. Its time to stop playing “cowboys versus indians’ and just throw overboard the dead wood. The devil is not the Democratic Party, it is the guilty that we Republicans have elected. Craig is just guilty and the Democratic Party has NOTHING to do with it.
Steve and Gary, other blogs link to a gay “hookup” site where there is plenty of chatter found regarding the cops at MPLS airport having a significant sting operation going on in early June 2007, in response to numerous complaints.
Ray, are you arguing that the poor cop who has such a lousy detail as to sit and bust gays in a bathroom stall should be fired? For what exactly, being too stupid to get out of the detail?, or are saying Craig was stupid and the cop lied? Funny, the story seems to be that the Senator plead guilty. So much forthe law and order core of the R Party, huh?
Is anybody building a list of entrapment zones? Here are some:
Auburn Blvd stop signs in Sacramento (Vice cop may take your car.)
Denny’s in the evening (sexual predator stake out; could get real ugly and your computers and phone get the “proctoscopic exam”.)
Rest room at Macy’s in Citrus Heights (where “Stormin Norman” got it.)
Airport rest room in……… (Another reason to do it in the plane.)
Yuckkk!
Who cares which hand he was waiving under the stall divider? The more important question is, where was his other hand?
First, Senator Craig has plead guilty to a charge related to the incident. The “I don’t know what happened” routine doesn’t wash.
Second, Senator Craig’s “I’m not gay” routine doesn’t wash either. This isn’t the first time he’s been near or implicated in same-sex encounters. This is just the first one where he’s be caught on the verge of doing something.
Third, Senator Craig’s being closeted, rather than open about his sexuality, put him in a position to make bad choices. Sex in public places is a bad choice. The problem isn’t that Senator Craig is gay, but that he feels threatened in some way if he were to live his life openly and honestly. That’s a sad commentary on society, as well as Senator Craig.
Lastly, if there are other gay Senators out there, particularly Republicans, they need to come to terms with their lives and come out. Voters will not reject gay Republican candidates who are honest and represent their point of view. They WILL reject gay Republican candidates who lie to hide who they are.
Is it just me or is the timing of this a bit suspicious? On Monday, the WSJ released first details of the on-the-lam California convict that serves as one of Hillary’s top fundraisers. On Tuesday, we find out about Craig and the Hillary story is swept off the front page. Craig pled this out early in the month, but we only find out about it once Hillary is potentially in trouble. It’s not the first time this ultra-Machiavellian bunch has dome something like this.
Well, at least some good has come of all this. Now I’ve got a snappy comeback for the next time I’m hit-on in the mens’ room: “No, thanks, Officer!”
What I have a hard time figuring is how do you have sexual relations with a guy in a stall next to yours. I imagine that the kissy foot thing had something to do with who would be the “Top” and who would be the “Bottom” . They must be pretty limber to be able to do the limbo down to the bottom of the divider. Weird stuff. No one would plead quilty to a count like that unless he was thinking that the best out I have at this point is to just do what they want to minimize public knowledge. The sick part is the hypocracy in our govt.
When they bring Craig up on charges, follow with similar charges against Barney Frank.
Oh, I forgot, he’s a Democrat…
Marv,
As an aside, Frank’s voters KNOW he’s gay. Craig’s voter didn’t know he is gay. But the issue is not about being gay, it’s about public lewdness. BUT, if Frank get’s caught in a sting operation, I would hope the police follow the law in prosecuting him, too.
We really need to get past this tit-for-tat, us versus them, chess game mentality. The guy that got busted and plead guilty is a US Senator. Craig does not represent me as a Republican or as a person; and I would hope that you don’t asociate yourself with the Party so closely that you feel that every Republican official’s transgression is a reflection of you. It is just not healthy. Especially with all the transgressions by our Party.
Goodbye Senator! Finish your term if you can take the heat, then retire to the potato farm. It’s way too late to say your sorry…
I wouldn’t cry too many tears for Senator Craig. If he stays on til Jan09, he’ll have completed 18 years in the Senate, plus I believe he served in the House too. That all adds up to a pretty good pension, plus he keeps whatever money he had built up in his war chest that he won’t be using in next year’s election, plus he probably built up a pretty good amount of money while he was in Congress. I’d love to be able to walk away from things with that kind of deal. And if he’s like former Nevada Senators Cannon, Laxalt and Hecht and former Congressman Santini, he won’t be retiring to the potato farm. Instead, he’ll be able to look forward to a lucrative position with some lobbying firm in DC (little work, lots of money to have your name on a letterhead and make phone calls to your former colleagues on behalf of your clients).
CNN reported that Senator Craig may resign today. If that’s the case, the time from revelation of the incident to resignation would be less than a week.
Gee, I was really hoping that this thing would drag out at least as long as the Michael Vick dogfighting saga.
Senator Craig says he is not gay, and I believe him. It sounds like he likes both men and women therefore he is bi-sexual and not homo-sexual.