He pleaded guilty, folks. This was kept under wraps for some time. The question is, will he take pointers from Florida State Rep Bob Allen when he discusses his public foray into man-on-man action for the press? It’s all a big misunderstanding, you know. I wonder if there were any scary black men or lightning storms near the airport.
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon.Mike Rogers has been on the case re: Craig for some time now (Senator Larry Craig…. What’s with the gay bashing?).Craig’s arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.
A spokesman for Craig described the incident as a “he said/he said misunderstanding,” and said the office would release a fuller statement later Monday afternoon.
After he was arrested, Craig, who is married, was taken to the Airport Police Operations Center to be interviewed about the lewd conduct incident, according to the police report.
Craig’s hysterical denials from the outing back in October 2006 now look hilarious.
Sen. Larry Craig on Tuesday called allegations from a gay-rights activist that he’s had homosexual relationships “completely ridiculous.”No lawsuit materialized, did it Larry?Mike Rogers, who bills himself as the nation’s top gay activist blogger, BlogActive.com, published the allegations on his Internet site Tuesday. He repeated them on the Ed Schultz show, a syndicated liberal radio talk show.
…Craig, who is married, denied the allegations through his staff, saying they “have no basis in fact.” Sid Smith, spokesman for the Idaho Republican, said it would be hard to independently check Rogers’ sources, adding, “saying you have anonymous sources doesn’t seem very convincing to me.”
A lawsuit “isn’t out of the question,” but Craig hasn’t considered it at this point, Smith said. “That would be taking it a little more seriously than it deserves,” he added.
Howie Klein from Down With Tyranny:
Idaho reactionary and well-known closet queen, Larry Craig, was arrested in a public toilet for misbehaving in a way closeted Republicans often do. So apparently it isn’t just train stations’ rest rooms that turn Senator Craig on.
Idaho’s Larry Craig on the issues:
* Voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006)
* Voted NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002)
* Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000)
* Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. (Sep 1996)
* Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Sep 1996)
Craig has a 0% rating in HRC’s 2006 Congressional Scorecard.
Related:
* October 2006: A hypocritical senator’s closet bit the dust today
34 Responses to “Breaking: U.S. Senator Larry Craig busted for lewd conduct in airport men’s room”
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Did yu read the arrest report? It upsets my civil libertarian side.
““At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area,” the report states.
Craig then proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times, and Karsnia noted in his report that “I could … see Craig had a gold ring on his ring finger as his hand was on my side of the stall divider.”
Karsnia then held his police identification down by the floor so that Craig could see it.”
(quoted from
http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/ )
Can you explain please?
The fact that this just keeps happening, and post-McGreevey seems to be happening only to one party, has gone from disturbing to funny to telling to now just… well, kind of disappointing. It’s almost starting to seem like there are more gay Republicans in congress than there are gay Democrats!
I never heard the rumors of Mitch McConnell before. I really hope that bastard is the next to be caught.
I dunno, Arun. That sounds like a pretty standard vice-squad sting operation to me.
We should talk about how long/much it’ll take before all these scandals really bury the Republican party.
Arun- Craig’s behavior is standard tearoom etiquette. The cop showing the badge under the stall seems odd though. It doesn’t sound as though Craig actually did anything other than what’s described in that account, so what did they arrest him for? Toe tapping?
Pablo, that’s what I don’t get - and Craig pleaded guilty, too!
I concur with this comment:
http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/lewd_conduct.php#comment-464248
The “vice squad sting” was in response to complaints of lewd behavior.
While I agree that arranging sexual encounters through tapdancing is hardly a crime, there is little mention of what was going on that led to an investigation in the first place.
But lets think about this a moment - what kind of person thinks this should be a crime? Craig. What kind of person makes this a crime? Craig. What kind of person screams loudly that the police should do something about this “crime”? Craig. What kind of person screams the loudest when it is THEIR civil liberties that are being violated on this pretense? Craig.
Wow, Pam. All I can think is “Boom, headshot.” Quite incisive.
Unfortunately, I doubt (as Kyle mentioned) that these or any other scandals will “bury” the Republican party, so long as it is in the sway of the fundamentalist Christians. Remember, these are essentially Puritans. Think Scarlet Letter. These people have no need for corporate purity. When someone fucks up he is simply disowned, kicked out, sayonara, sucker.
When you look at sex abuse scandals among the religious, the following pattern emerges. Among those for whom corporate purity is not a priority, the offender is (hopefully) moved to where he cannot “do harm” anymore. This is what the Catholics did. But the Baptists? Well, the Rev gets fired and he gets to face the lawsuits all on his own…and the organization itself is completely untouched.
Another Republican hypocrite. I love the idea of what an Oregon man is doing with Know Thy Neighbor. It rats out homophobic people street-by-street. Currently, it is in three states. It will be expanded to the other 47 in the near future.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070827/ap_on_go_co/craig_arrest
A Hennepin County court docket showed Craig pleading guilty to the disorderly conduct charge Aug. 8, with the court dismissing a charge of gross misdemeanor interference to privacy.
Minneapolis airport police declined to provide a copy of the arrest report after business hours Monday.
Unless further information develops, I’ll exit with - while I don’t regret Repugnicans running to ruin, this one gets the civil libertarian in me worried, and that outweighs all politics.
On the one hand, you can’t really love police entrapment, but on the other hand, it really is Craig’s own petard…
It’s like Xmas and Hanukah and my birthday all wrapped up in one.
But what gives with the Dems? No LGBT folks, no taste for public sex, or better luck?
Craig has resigned from the Romney campaign.
Pablo, that’s what I don’t get - and Craig pleaded guilty, too!
Is it possible that there is other evidence in the hands of the police of what Craig was trying to do which is not made clear by this brief excerpt from the police report, and this is why he is pleading guilty?
I mean, I really don’t know.
What is it with gay-bashing Republican gays and public toilets? Do they honestly think that’s the best place to discreetly meet men? Or is it this weird psychosexual thing where sex is “dirty” and can only be pursued in a “dirty” place?
Welcome to the Minneapolis PD, engaging in anti-gay sting operations for years and years (any Minneapolitans remember Don Fraser?)
…Republican gays and public toilets? Do they honestly think that’s the best place to discreetly meet men?
It’s a hold-over from back before the sexual revolution. Or yesterday, if you’re from Idaho.;
These sting operations are offensive and senseless. Civil liberties have consistently been violated when it comes to queers. Places where heteros have public sex seldom are targeted, and the punishments are rare.
I don’t have any sympathy for Craig or any other homophobe, but the whole situation stinks.
From Digby:
Matthews doesn’t know how to have fun.
“Idaho’s Larry Craig on the issues:
* Voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006)
* Voted NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002)
* Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000)
* Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. (Sep 1996)
* Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Sep 1996)”
Don’t forget another: YES on Clarence Thomas, who upheld Lawrence v. Texas.
Craig wasn’t in the Senate for Scalia and either Rehnquist vote, but given his consistent record on other anti-gay judges, it doesn’t take much imagination to guess how he would’ve voted.
err I mean was one of the 3 dissenting votes in L v. T.
How was it entrapment when Craig made the first step?
These are the same Minneapolis Airport cops who attacked, tazed, beat, and arrested a cyclist who was riding his bike from the airport to his grand children’s house, no?
All for LEGALLY riding on the airport roadway.
Not the first cyclist to be so brutally attacked by these jokers, but certainly the most egregious example!
It’s sort of a grey area between entrapment and just stumbling on the scene - the cop was there to see if anyone hit on him, but he wasn’t actively soliciting.
I rather like the idea that I can use a public restroom without getting hit on by skeevy strangers, but I won’t get real worked up about it until women can use the subway without getting hit on by skeevy strangers. It’s not the homosexuality that’s at issue, it’s the skeeviness, and I’m inclined to think that being skeevy ought not be a crime. Given that women face substantially worse than inappropriate sexual advances (grabbing, touching, public masturbation) while using public facilities, worrying about cruising in public restrooms seems to me like a poor use of resources.
Ah, republican sex scandals - the gift that keeps on giving!
He pled guilty in an attempt to cover up a repeated pattern of behavior. A lawyer could possibly have got him off because of entrapment, borderline, men don’t like to be tapped in urinals, after a huge public outing.
No one’s civil liberties were violated here. This is yet another hypocritical right-winger deliberately soliciting teh gay sex, and not even the first to use a public restroom for it!
This was no misunderstanding; if ya need TP, you SAY SO. You don’t play footsie and wave “howdy doo”. I tend to dislike and distrust cops (even with some state troopers in my family), but they do know what to look for and where these acts occur.
All this is the usual BS.
The Dems are less conflicted, closeted, and hypocritical, so they don’t *have* to cruise patrolled public restrooms. Bitter Scribe is right:
The Dems can cruise gay bars if they want semi-public sex, they can go to places where gays are actively, one might even say Proudly, having a good time.When Ari comes on “Today” show vs Carville regarding Craig and says, “I saw the police report and this is just creepy”, the Reps have a problem. James’ take was that maybe hypocritical incidents like this will start to get politics off the “idiot culture war” of gay bashing.
And just found out that my spouse was in a public restroom stall along I-95 at 6am on a biz trip recently, when a stranger peeked in the door at him, apparently for same reason. Charlie yelled for him to get the fuck out- the guy left without a word. I told him to hit convenience stores from now on. WTF… as he was a Rep for decades and has a penis, should I be worried?
I wish I had known all this bidness when I was in Middle School. I got so tired of having dippy classmates look in the stall and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why they had to do it.
I was browsing freeperland for the hell of it and I found it interesting that most of them who actually thought about the details were unable to defend it.
Most damning comment was something to the effect of “What if you had a young child in the stall next to Craig?”
How will the right-wing talk radio pundits spin this one? I can’t wait to hear how my right-wing friends, who listen to that drool, will somehow make this all Bill Clinton’s fault!