🚀 go-pugleaf

A Senator's Wide Stance: 'I Am Not Gay'

By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, August 29, 2007; Page A02

From the opening line of his statement yesterday, Sen. Larry Craig was
in trouble. "Thank you all very much for coming out today," he began.

"Coming out" was perhaps not the best phrase for a guy who had pleaded
guilty to some rather un-senatorial conduct in an airport men's room
-- and now stands accused in his home-state paper of a homosexual
encounter in Union Station.

 Sen. Larry Craig, his wife at his side, tells a media mob how gay
he's not. (By Joe Jaszewski -- Idaho Statesman Via Associated Press) 

Alas for the Idaho Republican, it was not his first mistake.

No, his first mistake was on June 11, when he went into a restroom
stall in the Minneapolis airport and, according to the arrest report,
tapped his foot in a "signal often used by persons communicating a
desire to engage in sexual conduct."

This was followed closely by his second mistake: handing the arresting
officer his business card and asking, "What do you think about that?"

Mistake No. 3? Explaining to the police that his foot touched the
undercover officer's foot in the next stall because he has "a wide
stance when going to the bathroom."

Mistake No. 4: Pleading guilty on Aug. 8 to disorderly conduct, and
telling nobody -- not even a lawyer or his wife -- before the news
broke Monday and Craig's spokesman chalked it up to a "he said/he said
misunderstanding."

This quartet of errors landed the senator before the television
cameras yesterday outside the Wells Fargo building in downtown Boise.
Standing next to his wife, who wore sunglasses and looked as if she
felt ill, the senator almost shouted as he asserted his
heterosexuality.

"Let me be clear: I am not gay. I never have been gay," Craig said.
Evidently, Craig did not think this was clear enough, because moments
later, he explained why he kept the arrest a secret. "I wasn't eager
to share this failure, but I should have anyway -- because I am not
gay!"

The Associated Press rushed out a bulletin: "Sen. Larry Craig says, 'I
am not gay.' " CNN put up a "Breaking News" banner announcing, "Sen.
Craig: I am not gay, and never have been gay."

The Drudge Report went with the headline "Brokeback Bathroom."

As the Craigs departed, somebody in the crowd that had gathered called
out after the senator: "Hey, what if you were gay?"

Heckling the disgraced lawmaker at that moment seemed over the top,
but the question was a reasonable one. Craig didn't get into trouble
for being gay; he got into trouble because he "engaged in conduct
which I knew or should have known tended to arouse alarm or
resentment."

Though he has been writing laws for the past 32 years, the senator
spoke yesterday as if he lacked the most basic grasp of the legal
system.

Sen. Larry Craig, his wife at his side, tells a media mob how gay he's
not. (By Joe Jaszewski -- Idaho Statesman Via Associated Press) 
 
"While I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct at the
Minneapolis airport or anywhere else, I chose to plead guilty to a
lesser charge in hopes of making it go away," he said, blaming this on
his failure to hire a lawyer. "I have now retained counsel, and I am
asking counsel to review this matter and to advise me on how to
proceed."

The retained counsel will have a difficult job, given the two
statements that appear on the guilty plea right above the signature of
one Larry Edwin Craig: "I understand that the court will not accept a
plea of guilty from anyone who claims to be innocent," and "I now make
no claim that I am innocent of the charge to which I am entering a
plea of guilty."

Who is to blame for this fundamental misunderstanding by the veteran
lawmaker? Of course: the media. In particular, the Idaho Statesman,
whose article published Monday night quoted a man with close ties to
Republican officials as saying he had a sexual encounter with the
senator in the men's room in Union Station.

"My family and I had been relentlessly and viciously harassed by the
Idaho Statesman," Craig complained. He was so mad about it, in fact,
that the word "viciously" at first came out has "vicially."

The senator wore a casual, short-sleeve shirt tucked into a pair of
khakis -- presenting a softer image than the mug shot that had been on
television all day showing a severe Craig in business attire with an
American-flag pin on his lapel. But no fashion adjustment would
overcome what the senator acknowledged was "an issue that is not yet
over."

That's a safe bet, considering that his Senate colleagues offered no
support as they sent the matter to the ethics committee, and
presidential candidate Mitt Romney, on CNBC, dismissed the man who had
until Monday been his Idaho chairman as "disgusting" and beneath "the
level of respect and dignity that we would expect."

Twice in his statement, Craig, speaking beneath sunny skies,
apologized for the "cloud over Idaho" caused by his arrest. Actually,
the cloud is over Craig, not his home state.

But it's easy to see how Craig might overestimate the size of his
shadow: He has a wide stance.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801664.html

-- 

2 wrongs don't make a right, but 3 rights make a left.