Senate Seat Opens Up in Idaho
Tue, 08/28/2007 - 3:13pm
Thanks for playing, Senator Larry Craig.
Here are the facts: Senator Larry Craig was arrested on June 11th by an undercover police officer in Minneapolis for lewd conduct in an airport men's room. Several weeks later, on the first day of August, Craig pleaded guilty to those charges.
The argument that Craig has made is that he over-reacted and tried to make it go away quickly, that his guilty plea was a lapse in judgment and that he didn't actually do anything the police report describes. Or maybe that it is all a big misunderstanding. I'm not sure how you can make an ill-informed, snap decision after having three weeks to think about it. This is another in a long line of Republican scandals that keep cropping up on the national level, and again, I wonder how much more the Republican Party can take.
Also, as much as I am a latent Gary Hart fan, his declaration-of-war-on-the-media modification on the blame-the-media approach made famous by Spiro Agnew did not work out. Larry Craig is blaming this all on the Idaho Statesman, which has a lengthy investigation running on the Senator. Editor and Publisher is covering the coverage, and the Idaho Statesman appears to have done some serious homework.
I just watched Craig's presser, and I think the issue isn't whether he can run again — he can't and he's a fool if he tries. The issue is whether he'll be able to finish out his term, after apparently being exposed as a hypocrite. If you want to watch something truly bizarre, you should dig up his press conference and watch it. And then join us as we wait to see whether a Senate ethics investigation breaks out.
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From the Boise Bureau
By SpudZeppelin
Tue, 08/28/2007 - 8:47pm
I kinda wish I'd ducked out this afternoon and actually gone Downtown to watch the press conference live, but, well I had work to do and this story here is sorta played out. I'll give you my thoughts on this in no particular order:
* First, this really borders on old-news. Craig has been dogged by gay allegations for 40 years, since he was the ASUI President... and certainly during his first few years as a bachelor in Congress (I think he married in 1983). I sorta feel sorry for the guy; around here, it's like watching a decades-long version of that Kevin Kline movie "In & Out". One of the Statesman political reporters spent several months earlier this year checking out leads and following up, trying to develop the story, which at the time bore no fruit.
* I don't really see what difference it makes whether he's gay or not -- *we're* the party of inclusiveness; even if toeing certain of their party's lines for him may have been hypocritical, that's the way politics is played here. In 1986, half the (GOP-dominated) Idaho Legislature went to lunch wearing buttons that read, "Kill a Queer for Christ" -- tolerance isn't part of the tourist pitch here, obviously. Again, it almost makes you want to feel sorry for the guy, regardless... and he is a fellow Vandal (BTW, we're 45.5-point underdogs Saturday against USC!).
* Frankly, the gay angle is a real distraction from the salient issues regarding Larry Craig. Even when it comes to the scandal, the *real* issue is that apparently getting arrested in Minneapolis isn't worth a hat tip to your own party's leadership, the clerk of the Senate, the Vice-President, or for that matter your own staff; *THAT* is what his fellow GOPhers are looking to shovel on him. From my perspective, well, I've had serious *policy* disagreements with him since he came to speak at my high school, when I still believed that *I* was a Republican.
* Idaho is a *REALLY* small state. Pretty much everybody-who-knows-anybody is two degrees of separation from everyone else. None of the people I know who know him personally have ever lent any credibility to the theories -- which goes along with what his openly-gay DC neighbor pointed out in the papers today.
* There are plenty of people on both sides of the aisle with axes to grind. He's been in DC a *loooong* time (2nd only to the legendary William Borah among Idahoans), which has a tendency to irritate ambitious political aspirants in both parties. He's also in favor of a guest-worker/amnesty program -- no surprise really for a rancher from Midvale -- which flies directly in the face of the (now-dominant) urban elements of his own party; anti-illegal-immigrant activist Robert Vasquez was even contemplating a Primary challenge against Craig earlier in the year. Local Dems like to dog him because he's one of Bush's staunchest allies on Iraq.
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Just Another Supposed Former Mi Casita Junkie
Send Relief and Carbs to www.spudzeppelin.com
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He da ho
By John McClelland
Wed, 08/29/2007 - 9:23am
The issue isn't whether or not he is gay. The issue is if he is, he is a hypocrite for being a married man, cheating on his wife, and a Republican who chooses to support anti gay legislation. And then add to that, he pulled a George Michael and tried to hook up with someone in a bathroom in 2007, and pulled a Mark Foley hooking up with his Congressional page in 1982. And to top that off, members of his own party and jumping ship on him like rats ready to drown. But like I mentioned on BOR, he probably will be reelected anyway if he chooses to run again. My cousin Senator Welker is probably rolling over in his grave.
Paging Dr. Kinsey
By SpudZeppelin
Wed, 08/29/2007 - 9:39am
Well, there are also different *degrees* of gayness. It's anybody's guess at this point whether or not any of this applies to Sen. Craig, of course... but, is an otherwise straight guy who is exclusively on the *receiving* end of oral action from other men actually "gay"? There's a term (hint: starts with "bro-") that's become popular, for such things, as a way of distinguishing it from other forms of male bisexuality.
Or (and I apologize if I'm off on the wording, I'm pulling the quote from memory and it's been a long time) as Michael Landon joked during his final appearance on Johnny Carson:
"The Cartwright boys were not gay. But fortunately for us, Hop Sing was."
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Just Another Supposed Former Mi Casita Junkie
Send Relief and Carbs to www.spudzeppelin.com
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