Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho pleaded guilty this month to misdemeanor disorderly conduct after being arrested at the Minneapolis airport.

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.

The court docket said the Republican senator paid $575 in fines and fees. He was put on unsupervised probation for a year. A sentence of 10 days in the county workhouse was stayed.

Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, which first reported the case, said on its Web site Monday that Craig was arrested June 11 by a plainclothes officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in a men's restroom at the airport.

Craig, a social conservative, supported both attempts to advance a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and opposes adding sexuality to the groups covered under hate crime laws and to a bill protecting LGBT workers.

Craig said in a statement issued by his office Monday that he was not involved in any inappropriate conduct.

"At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," he said. "I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

We did receive this statement from Craig's office: "At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions. I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct. I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

Records show the veteran Republican senator was fined $1,000, plus $575 in fees. He was placed on unsupervised probation for a year. A sentence of 10 days in the county workhouse was stayed.

Today's news about Sen. Larry Craig's June arrest at an airport in Minnesota has prompted Mitt Romney's campaign to take down a YouTube video starring the senator, who has been a supporter of Romney. The Romney campaign named Craig a co-chair of the former governor's Idaho Leadership Team back in late May, but Craig has now distanced himself from the Romney camp.

"Senator Craig has stepped down from his role with the campaign. He did not want to be a distraction and we accept his decision," Romney spokesman Matt Rhoades told us tonight.

Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho pleaded guilty this month to misdemeanor disorderly conduct after being arrested at the Minneapolis airport.

(CBS/AP) Under fire from leaders of his own party, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig on Tuesday said the only thing he had done wrong was to plead guilty after a complaint of lewd conduct in a men's room. He declared, "I am not gay. I never have been gay."

"I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport," he said at a news conference with his wife, Suzanne, at his side.

Craig's defiant news conference came as Senate Republican leaders in Washington called for an ethics committee review into his involvement in a police sting operation this summer in the airport men's room.

Mitt Romney late Tuesday distanced himself from one of his top Senate supporters, comparing his actions to President Clinton's affair with an intern and a former Republican congressman's overtures to male teenage pages.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from complaints of lewd conduct in a men's room. Craig held a prominent role with Romney's presidential campaign, serving as a Senate liaison for the campaign since February. He resigned from the post.

[...]

"Yeah, I think it reminds us of Mark Foley and Bill Clinton," Romney said on CNBC's "Kudlow & Company." "I think it reminds us of the fact that people who are elected to public office continue to disappoint, and they somehow think that if they vote the right way on issues of significance or they can speak a good game, that we'll just forgive and forget."

[...]

While Romney said Craig "disappointed the American people," he didn't call on Craig to resign from the Senate.

"I haven't seen the allegations yet, I just heard that there was a guilty plea and he submitted a resignation as my liaison in the Senate," Romney said.

[...]

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has suggested stripping the federal pensions from those convicted of using their office to abuse the public trust.

We should take no joy in the ruin of Larry Craig's marriage and reputation — even if it is well deserved and a long time in coming. The man has known for two years now he was under intense scrutiny for rumors that he's gay and has sex in public toilets. Not since Bill Clinton have we been treated to a public figure so compulsively unable to control the little head with the big one.

But you won't find me arguing that somehow Larry Craig's self-destruction is an argument for my own equality. I can think of about 533 more effective arguments we could make that don't require someone else's ruin or suggest we all share some general (im)moral equivalence. Gay Americans are entitled to equal treatment and protection against discrimination whether or not every member of Congress who voted against gay rights has an utterly umblemished sexual history.

If Larry Craig really does troll public toilets for sex, it doesn't prove his "family values" rhetoric is claptrap anymore than Bill Clinton's infidelity proved his support for gay rights was the product of his promiscuity. The case for gay rights is compelling enough on its own merits. Let's not jump in the mud and join in the muckraking.

If Larry Craig really does troll public toilets for sex, it doesn't prove his "family values" rhetoric is claptrap

While Romney said Craig "disappointed the American people," he didn't call on Craig to resign from the Senate.

Ah, but the "clever" forces of the Republican right have indeed called on Mr. Craig to resign tonight. So sayeth our local news reporter.

Sens. Norm Coleman (R-MN) and John McCain (R-AZ) have become the first members of the Senate to call for Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) to resign over his arrest for alleged “lewd conduct” in an airport bathroom. Craig, who was arrested in June, pled guilty to “disorderly conduct” charges on August 8, though the plea was kept secret until Roll Call newspaper broke the story on Monday.

The AP reports, “Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, where Craig was arrested, became the first Senate Republican to say Craig should leave office. ‘Senator Craig pled guilty to a crime involving conduct unbecoming a senator,’ he said in a statement. ‘He should resign.’”

In an interview with CNN’s John King this afternoon, McCain said he thinks Craig “should resign”

Like many gay people, I have mixed feelings about outing. Larry Craig has opposed legislation like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA, that would benefit gay and lesbian people, and he has been a vocal supporter of several anti-gay bills. Craig voted for the Defense of Marriage Act. He supports a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. If he’s gay, then he’s a shade of Roy Cohn, and I believe he should be exposed as a self-loathing hypocrite. If he’s had sex with other men, then he’s been playing a very nasty political game. He has attacked his own to advance his career within the fundamentalist, gay-bating GOP. If Larry Craig is a closeted homosexual, then I am in the awkward position of having no fellow feeling for him whatsoever. I’m a lesbian, and I was once closeted, but I can’t sympathize. Why? Because I didn’t toss rocks at other gays and lesbians from the safety of my closet. I didn’t hide behind closed doors in my glass house and do active harm to my GLBT brothers and sisters.

I feel no pity for Larry Craig. Like Mike Rogers, the blog writer who has theoretically and allegedly "outed" Craig, I would show the Senator no mercy. Craig has done nothing whatsoever to deserve it. On the contrary, he has courted our anger and our scorn. And yet outing is such an odd and unsettling thing. Why is it that being gay is still so shocking? Why is the private life of a boring, dull, workaday politician like Larry Craig suddenly front-page news? Does it really still surprise us that public figures lie about their private lives or that conservative Republicans really do come in all races, creeds, and sexual orientations -- they just hide it to get ahead in a homophobic and heterosexist world?

BOISE, Idaho, Aug. 29 -- Sen. Larry Craig went on vacation with his wife Wednesday, according to aides, as calls for his resignation intensified, Republican leaders stripped him of his committee assignments, and support in his home state appeared to be eroding.

On the day after Craig dismissed having pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct in an airport restroom as an overreaction to a mistaken arrest, and insisted that he is not gay, even longtime supporters expressed disappointment.

...

Senate GOP leaders said that Craig "agreed to comply" with their request that he step down as the ranking Republican on the Veterans' Affairs Committee and two subcommittees while the ethics committee assesses his case. The move, they said, was for "the good of the Senate."

The intensity of the Republican leaders' assault on one of their own was stunning, if for no other reason than its unusual -- un-senatorial -- nature. Several ethics lawyers and experts could not provide an example in the past two decades of one senator calling for the ethics committee to investigate a colleague.

...

"You know, I don't understand if he just touched somebody's foot why he pleaded guilty," Anderson, the beautician, said as she prepared for her first customer. "We're a Republican state. We're Idaho. He's dishonored us."

“The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low can you go, because we are approaching a level of ridiculousness,”said Mr. Reed, sounding exasperated in an interview on Tuesday morning. “You can’t make this stuff up. And the impact this is having on the grass-roots around the country is devastating. Republicans think the governing class in Washington are a bunch of buffoons who have total disregard for the principles of the party, the law of the land and the future of the country.”

What is puzzling me is why all those closeted guys in the politics are married. We have had a couple of closeted conservative homosexuals here as well, but they were all "bachelours" and refrained from anti-Gay rhetorics.

Republicans think the governing class in Washington are a bunch of buffoons who have total disregard for the principles of the party, the law of the land and the future of the country.

Apparently, it seems quite impossible to make a political career in the US for an unmarried man - correct me if I am wrong. This would resemble very much the situation in the big business here.

Apparently, it seems quite impossible to make a political career in the US for an unmarried man - correct me if I am wrong. This would resemble very much the situation in the big business here.

Now, was I right, or was I right?

Yes, there's a general western, indeed HETEROSEXUAL, belief that if you do not marry there is something somehow wrong with you.

Editorial
Disowning Senator Craig

Published: August 31, 2007
The Republican Party is in quite a rush to keelhaul Senator Larry Craig for his run-in with the vice squad in an airport men’s room. Disclosure of the senator’s guilty plea to disorderly conduct set off a frenzy to demand an investigation by the Senate’s somnolent Ethics Committee and to strip Mr. Craig of his committee seniority. Some of the senator’s peers simply demanded that he resign.

[...]

Being stupid as a member of Congress is hardly a reason to be ridden on a rail from Washington. But Republican presidential campaigners are urging Mr. Craig to resign fast as a swift boat. One senator offered the ultimate rebuff between political pros by returning Mr. Craig’s campaign donation.

[...]

To the extent Senator Craig, a stalwart in the family values caucus, might morph into a blatant hypocrite before the voters’ eyes, he reflects on the party’s record in demonizing homosexuality. The rush to cast him out betrays the party’s intolerance, which is on display for the public in all of its ugliness. But it also betrays their political uneasiness as the next election approaches.

Ridiculously, the argumentation never worked the other way, e.g. when the wife of the straight colleague was well-employed.

In many, many medium-sized businesses here in Germany it is clearly expected that an employee in a leading position is married, a Christian and has 2 children (Germany is an over-populated country).

The officer who arrested Sen. Larry Craig in a police undercover operation at an airport men's room accused the senator of lying to him during an interrogation afterward, according to an audiotape of the arrest.

On the tape, released Thursday by the Minneapolis Airport Police, the Idaho Republican senator, in turn, accuses the officer of soliciting him for sex.

"I'm not gay. I don't do these kinds of things," Craig told Sgt. Dave Karsnia minutes after the two men met in a men's room at the airport on June 11.

"You shouldn't be out to entrap people," Craig told the officer. "I don't want you to take me to jail."

Karsnia replied that Craig wouldn't be going to jail as long as he cooperated.

The two men disagreed about virtually everything that had occurred minutes earlier, including whether there was a piece of paper on the floor of the stall and the meaning of the senator's hand gestures. At no time did Craig admit doing anything wrong, although weeks later he pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.

"You're not being truthful with me. I'm kind of disappointed in you, senator," Karsnia told Craig during the interrogation.

[...]

On the tape, Craig and the arresting officer can be heard arguing over what happened in the men's room minutes earlier. Craig acknowledges that the men's feet bumped, but says nothing improper happened.

"Did we bump? Yes, I think we did. You said so. I don't disagree with that," Craig said.

But Craig disputes the officer's account that he swept his hand under the stall next to him in an apparent effort to advance the encounter. They even disagree whether Craig used his right hand or his left hand.

Craig said he was merely trying to pick up a piece of paper - an account the officer disputes.

"I'm telling you that I could see, so I know that's your left hand. Also I could see a gold ring on this finger, so that's obvious it was the left hand," Karsnia tells Craig.

"Well we can dispute that," Craig says. "I'm not going to fight you in court. I reached down with my right hand to pick up the paper."

Karsnia said in a police report that he recognized Craig's hand gesture as a signal aimed at initiating sex. "It should be noted that there was not a piece of paper on the bathroom floor, nor did Craig pick up a piece of paper," he said in the report.

"Well we can dispute that," Craig says. "I'm not going to fight you in court. I reached down with my right hand to pick up the paper."

"I'm not gay. I don't do these kinds of things," Craig told Sgt. Dave Karsnia minutes after the two men met in a men's room at the airport on June 11. "You shouldn't be out to entrap people," Craig told the officer. "I don't want you to take me to jail."

We should start a forum poll on who's next to get caught with his pants down. My vote goes for David Dreier, congressman from California's 26th congressional district.

Oh yeah, she's a screamer if I ever sawed one!

Is his homosexuality still some sort of secret?!

Only to his mummy!

"Mummy" ? Not Mommy? How very... British... of you. Or Canadian...

Theatre is almost always theatre here...not "theater".

GOP Sources: Craig Mulls Resignation From Senate

Craig has not made any public statements about his case since an appearance earlier this week in Boise, Idaho, in which he said he had done nothing wrong. "I am not gay. I never have been gay," he added emphatically.

I majored in English. I'm a word geek.

Sgt. Dave Karsnia shielded the men he arrested in the airport bathroom from embarrassment.

After he flashed a badge, he would point silently to the exit. When one man said his wife was waiting at a gate, Karsnia called for a citation book to spare the man a trip to the airport police station.

And when his bathroom stings netted a U.S. senator from Idaho, he even promised him, "I don't call media."

That promise - which Karsnia seems to have kept - didn't do Sen. Larry Craig much good.

Craig's arrest was surely the biggest of Karsnia's career, but it was only one of more than a dozen he made in the Minneapolis airport's restrooms this summer.

Just 29, his record has been that of a rising young officer. He joined the Minneapolis Airport Police in 2000 as a community services officer, just out of college. Three years later, he was named the department's Officer of the Year, and in 2005 he was promoted to sergeant. Last year, he finished his master's degree.

The last time Karsnia was in the media spotlight, it was because of his efforts to get speeding electric carts carrying passengers and luggage at the airport to slow down. The issue came to light last year when a young boy was run over and dragged by a cart and suffered a second-degree carpet burn.

Karsnia was in charge of cart enforcement at the time. That got him on ABC's "Good Morning America" earlier this year.

Only barbarians mis-spell theatre...

GOP Sources: Craig Mulls Resignation From Senate

I'm gonna adopt y'all as honorary Canucks.

I shall never say "zed."

Senator to Quit Over Sex Sting, Officials Say

By CARL HULSE
Published: September 1, 2007
WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 — Senator Larry E. Craig, Republican of Idaho, under intense pressure from party leaders to step down in the aftermath of an undercover sex sting, plans to resign his seat on Saturday, Republican Party officials said Friday.

[...]

The disclosure of Mr. Craig’s guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge resulting from his arrest in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in early June was not the only political setback for Republicans this week. On Friday, Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, the former Navy secretary and an influential party voice on military policy, announced in Charlottesville that he would not seek a sixth term in 2008, giving Democrats a better chance at that seat.

[...]

For four days, Republican officials engaged in an almost unheard of campaign to persuade Mr. Craig to step down. Speaking to reporters in his home state of Kentucky, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, on Thursday called Mr. Craig’s conduct “unforgivable.” Senator John Ensign of Nevada, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, raised the prospect of public ethics hearings should Mr. Craig remain in office. Senators also discussed the idea of withholding support for Mr. Craig should he try to run for re-election, according to aides.

[...]

Despite such unusual steps against a Senate colleague, Republicans took no punitive action against Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, after his acknowledgment this summer of involvement with an escort service that the police described as a prostitution front.

Party officials said Mr. Vitter’s case was different in that he faced no criminal charges and was not in the Senate but was serving in the House at the time. In the case of Mr. Craig, they said experience from a recent string of misconduct cases, including the House page scandal that hurt Republicans last year, had shown there was no time to waste if the political fallout was to be minimized.

“We have learned we have to move quickly,” said a senior Senate official who did not want to be identified discussing the political ramifications of Mr. Craig’s case.

Ditto! That's just too French.

Hear that Berto? It's just too French.

Down with 'zed.'

I didn't stress this in my last post on Craig--because I didn't think I'd have to--but such dragnets are not only motivated by homophobia, but are practically, if not technically, police entrapment. They're a legacy of a pre-Lawrence legal order that criminalized sodomy, and they endure to this day because gay sex, even and perhaps especially the suggestion of its solicitation, is still seen as violation of the norms of public life.

Heterosexuals routinely use public space and the internet to solicit sex from each other; sometimes this sex is among perfect strangers or in public (or quasi-public) itself. Unless they involve minors, none of these practices are the subject of undercover busts. Instead they're romanticized (teenage makeout sites), tolerated as nuisances (bad pickup lines, whistles, Lindsay Lohan) or generally treated as vital, sexy aspects of modern social life and economy.

Just once I'd like to see the script flipped. Why don't the Minneapolis police post undercover female cops at airport bars who gesture provocatively towards the bathroom and then arrest any man who follows? Using newfound, post-9/11 surveillance powers, law enforcement should determine the identities of everyone who posts details of their sexcapades on www.milehighclub.com. These are dangerous, lewd heterosexuals who have admitted to having had actual sex--not in the airport--but on the airplane! Baby-faced, 21 Jump Street-type cops should be assigned to every high school to offer blowjobs to jocks underneath the bleachers. Anyone who shows up at the designated coordinates should be arrested. Depending on the jurisdiction, some arrestees may even get their names permanently listed on sex offender registries! The entire city of Myrtle Beach should be staked out for the month of March. And don't even get me started on the subject of Craigslist.

Pfffft! What, you sink zee French, zey say "zed"? "Zee" is a LOT more French-sounding, my dears...

Just once I'd like to see the script flipped. Why don't the Minneapolis police post undercover female cops at airport bars who gesture provocatively towards the bathroom and then arrest any man who follows?

Rising Pressure From G.O.P. Led Senator to Quit
By CARL HULSE
Published: September 2, 2007

[...]

One Republican senator did privately voice reservations about the rush to force Mr. Craig out, compared to the lack of any public reprimand of Mr. Vitter. This senator and others said the different approach made it appear the party was simply less tolerant of homosexual conduct.

[...]

While some in Washington and even within the Republican Party suggested that the homosexual nature of the charge was a significant factor, others took pains to make a distinction between Mr. Craig’s case and those of Mr. Vitter and Mr. Stevens.

[...]

Others said there were clear distinctions that separated the Craig case from that of Mr. Vitter. Patrick Sammon, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, a Republican gay rights organization, said: “Senator Craig entered a guilty plea to this crime. Senator Vitter, while he is a terrible hypocrite and his behavior was rotten, he wasn’t convicted or charged with a crime.”

I have a theory about straight cruising vs. gay cruising. And it's long, involved, and takes into account certain cultural factors that are very, very American.

I should have posted something yesterday on Jim McGreevey’s op-ed in Monday’s Washington Post about Larry Craig. But I found it hard to suppress the urge to vomit every time I tried to read McGreevey’s piece, and I didn’t want to splatter vomit all over my newish laptop.

I got through it this morning and, man, what a dishonest piece of shit. It’s an absolutely nauseating piece, from its unctuous title (“A Prayer for Larry Craig”) to the italics at the end letting us know that the former New Jersey governor is studying to be an Episcopal priest. That would be the same ex-governor last seen in public making fun of his ex-wife’s dress sense.

By now most of America knows that Republican Senator Larry Craig of Idaho (seen here singing show tunes (?) with Senator Trent Lott and former Attorney General John Ashcroft) claims to have "a very wide stance" when going to the restroom. What some of you might not know, however, is that Senator Craig also served in the U.S. military, was dismissed from that service, and came to be an outspoken opponent of allowing gays to serve openly.

As reported this afternoon by blogger Mike Rogers on The Ed Schultz Program, there's a recent statement from Craig about his feelings on the matter.

In what could be called another of Craig’s "he said/he said situations," the Senator corresponded with a constituent (and SLDN supporter) earlier this month about why he’d never support repealing "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell." In the August 17 letter to his constituent, Craig wrote that, "The armed forces exist to wage war. It is unacceptable to risk the lives of American soldiers and sailors merely to accommodate the sexual lifestyles of certain individuals." He also noted that, "I don’t believe the military should be a place for social experimentation."

Oh dag nabbit! I think McGreevey's a hotty. I'd do him whatever!

There is no accounting for taste...

"I don’t believe the military should be a place for social experimentation."

ZED!

On "America’s Most Wanted," suspects often get identified after their pictures are aired. Such was the case when Larry Craig’s daughter, Shea Suzanne Howell appeared on ABC. Craig can add the arrest of his daughter to the list of unintended consequences he is racking up. This sad event proves that "no good deed goes unpunished." After her national TV appearance, a Boise resident put 2 and 2 together and sent this little unsolicited nugget from the local sheriff's warrant list: Shae Suzanne Howell, wanted for contempt of court, $500 bond. We checked with officials at the jail and the April 18 contempt of court warrant is active. The original offense was unlawful entry and malicious injury to property.

Where the Craig "spectacle" departs from earlier ones is that some in the gay and lesbian community are participating in humiliating Craig or saying nothing as he has been attacked. Most of the leading gay groups have been silent, making no comment on Craig or the suspect police tactics used in the sting.

William K. Dobbs, a gay civil libertarian, described the performance of the gay groups as "Abysmal, absolutely abysmal. It seems the only sexual behavior they care about these days is within the context of marriage."

That the groups made no comment on the police was especially disturbing to Dobbs particularly since 40 other men were busted in the sting.

"It's not just the Craig thing, but this is an ongoing targeting," he said. "There has to be a way in these situations to say, 'Look I don't like this person, but I decry what is being done.'"

Historians who have written about gay life in the '50s, '60s and '70s and some who lived through those decades tended to first object to the sex sting when asked for a reaction. They also had some sympathy for Craig.
"You have to feel sorry for him without regard to his political beliefs," said Ken Sherrill, a professor of political science at Hunter College. "That shouldn't happen to anybody."

But in the gay blogosphere, some Web masters and readers have shown a barely disguised pleasure at the downfall of yet another right winger who was discovered violating the principles that he, his political party, or his church has championed.

"It's understandable the delight that people show, but that's kind of shortsighted," Johnson said. "We shouldn't be delighting in the tactics, the kind of homophobia that's behind the system that caught him. Ironically, he helped create it and perpetuate it."

Craig has consistently opposed legislation sought by the gay and lesbian community, but he was never a right-wing leader and he was probably unknown to most gay and lesbian people before August 27 when Roll Call broke the arrest story. Still he earned the scorn of many gay men and lesbians who have been vilified by his peers and his political party.

Craig has consistently opposed legislation sought by the gay and lesbian community, but he was never a right-wing leader and he was probably unknown to most gay and lesbian people before August 27 when Roll Call broke the arrest story.

"We shouldn't be delighting in the tactics, the kind of homophobia that's behind the system that caught him. Ironically, he helped create it and perpetuate it."

Rep. Mike Simpson (R) condemned Senate GOP leaders yesterday for their treatment of fellow Idahoan Sen. Larry Craig (R), accusing them of hypocrisy. “I hope I never stub my toe and they throw me under the bus,” Simpson said of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and other Republican leaders. “It kind of makes you wonder what party you want to be a member of.”

Simpson pointed a finger at Craig’s leaders for staying mum on the legal and personal jeopardy facing other GOP senators, including Alaskan Ted Stevens, now under federal investigations, and Louisianan David Vitter, who has admitted contacting an escort service. McConnell declined to comment, but Senate Republican sources shrugged off his frustration with their conference’s handling of Craig. “Who cares what Simpson thinks? He is irrelevant,” one Senate GOP aide said.

A Fresno, Calif., man's conviction for soliciting sex from a sheriff's deputy in a park restroom nearly five years ago was overturned by a three-judge panel, it was announced this week. But the ruling, which threw out the conviction of Stephen Lake, 51, did not address whether the bathroom stings were discriminatory because they targeted only homosexual activity. Instead, the judges ruled that prosecutors did not establish that someone was likely to be present who would have been offended by Lake's conduct, an element needed to prove a crime took place.

Lake's attorney, Bruce Nickerson, had argued the arrest and prosecution are discriminatory because men and women are never prosecuted for soliciting sex if money is not involved. He also said Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, recently arrested in a similar sting in a Minneapolis airport, can probably also reverse his guilty plea on grounds of discrimination.

Well, I'm not going to criticize Rain or Feral, any more than I criticized those who were glad to hear of the death of Ronnie Ray-gun (I was one of them).

The comparison with the Ray Gun is quite apt. A number of people I've known quite well have had Alzheimer's... it is a dreadful disease. There really aren't words to describe just how dreadful... not in a pathetic sentence or two. There are more than a few people who would not have wished such a condition upon anyone, more than a few who took no pleasure at all in the Ray Gun's illness. Then there are those who had a much more visceral reaction to that creature. "Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy" was something I heard quite often.

Had it been mine to give, I would have given the bastard the most wretched, painful form of cancer. One where he would linger and whither away painfully and slowly, like so many of my friends.

Moving on: I'm sure that Senator Craig takes comfort in knowing that some regard him as a victim of police entrapment, CASH. And despite the fact that I am not gay and never have been, I don't think it should be illegal for one man to hit on another man. But if a bill making it illegal for men to hit on other men in airport toilets— or anywhere else—had come up for a vote, Senator Craig, with his perfect antigay voting record, would surely have voted in favor of it. So even if Senator Craig is the victim here, as some are insisting, it's hard to feel much sympathy for him.

There is a bizarre story swarming blogtopia, laced with unconfirmed (and confirmed) sources that could lead to another Republican Sexual Hypocrite “outing” and scandal. First, some facts about the weird murder suicide in Orlando in late August that kicked off the whole matter:

A Republican political consultant killed in an apparent double murder-suicide in Florida had worked extensively in Alabama politics including a controversial “Adam and Steve” campaign leaflet that parodied gay marriage.

Ralph Gonzalez, 39, president of The Strategum Group, was found dead Thursday along with his roommate, David Abrami, 36, and a friend, Robert Drake, 30, according to The Associated Press. A motive has not been determined. Weapons and signs of a struggle were found in the house.

[...]

Some articles at the time mentioned a gay love triangle, which caught the eye of several blogs. As Andy at Towleroad noted, Florida Today originally ran the story with the “Lovers’ fight may have sparked three deaths.” He did a screen cap[ture] of it:

[image]

The newspaper later scrubbed all references to the “lovers’ quarrel” from the report without comment.

The fact that it gets even more GOP-scandalous -- it also ties into a male escort service/prostitution ring -- shows it is begging for additional investigation by the MSM, but no one seems to want to touch it. Drama Queen notes:

In both Monday and Tuesday’s posts, my point was that it’s highly suspicious that the traditional media has basically ignored the Florida murder suicide: a sensational story that juicily combines fundamentalist Christian politicians and homosexual consultants, election software tampering and this potential tie to a gay porn-related murder in Pennsylvania.

[...]

The events on the record are noteworthy enough for the MSM to investigate at this point, because the office of right-wing Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has gone on the record tying the pol to the shooting. Howie Klein, making a serious charge:

As we mentioned yesterday, Drake, a former marine, also is alleged to have a strong relationship -- both intimate and business/political -- with right-wing Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC). When I spoke to McHenry’s office about this they at first insisted they never heard of Drake then, confronted with specifics, admitted they know him. They refused to put Congressman McHenry on the phone. There is every indication that McHenry may have been one of the Republican elected officials who was using the services of the gay prostitution agency connected to Drake. Our pals over at the BradBlog points out the connections between Florida’s ultra-corrupt, vote-tampering congressman, Tom Feeney, and Gonzalez and reports the threat to expose the list of Republican elected officials who were using the gay escort service.

Where will it go? Who knows, but with a story of this potential magnitude, the mainstream news media, which has the resources to investigate and uncover whether the thick smoke does or doesn’t lead to fire, isn’t biting.

Lesson 1: The political closet is dead. Debating the ethics or value of "outing" is now a waste of breath. It's a weapon that's here to stay. And in the Internet era -- with the pressures of 24/7 news coverage and bloggers often setting the pace -- if politicians are gay, they're foolish not to come out before they get shoved out.

Lesson 2: The Republican Party can expect to keep waking up to the nightmare of Mark Foley-Ted Haggard-Larry Craig headlines as long as gay, bisexual or simply sexually confused Republicans, whether pastors or politicians, feel they can't succeed professionally unless they live double lives.

Lesson 3: Gay and bisexual men, many of whom are married, are swept up every day in outrageous police sex stings. Bumping shoes in a men's room stall signals interest; it's not actual public sex and shouldn't be treated as criminal. Countless men have had their lives ruined by overzealous cops.

The Craig scandal, Rogers says, has resulted in 500 new tips. Plenty of self-respecting gay Americans are in no mood to protect closeted anti-gay politicians.

Plenty of self-respecting gay Americans are in no mood to protect closeted anti-gay politicians.

Closeted gay congressional staffers can rest easier. Their worst living nightmare, vigilante gay outer and activist blogger Michael Rogers, has called a truce of sorts: he says he'll stop targeting Capitol Hill aides and will instead limit his campaign solely to publicly elected officials and candidates.

"Enough readers expressed concerns that I have decided to now focus on elected officials, those running for office and to high level political appointees in the administration," Rogers tells the Sleuth.

His tactical change comes in the wake of Sen. Larry Craig's (R-Idaho) arrest and guilty plea in connection with a men's room sex sting at the Minneapolis airport, a saga in which Rogers played a central role. Craig said he pleaded guilty to the charges because of a "witch hunt" carried out by the Idaho Statesman newspaper, which was following up on reports by Rogers that Craig cruised men for sex in public bathrooms, including the Union Station train depot in the District.

Until today, in addition to targeting politicians, Rogers had been aggressively either naming or threatening to out scores of gay staffers who he deemed to be hypocritical because they either pushed anti-gay rights agendas or worked for members of Congress with anti-gay rights voting records. His first threat was sent in the form of a mass email to congressional aides in 2004 warning them: if you are gay, secretly or openly, and you or your boss are pushing legislative agendas seen as unfair to gays and lesbians, then watch out.

(It was that year that Rogers caught his first big fish: former conservative Rep. Ed Schrock (R-Va.), who was forced to abandon his re-election bid during the 2004 GOP party convention after Rogers unearthed audiotapes of Schrock, a married man, soliciting men for sex on telephone sex lines.)

But now, from his throne at blogactive.com, the king of outing is giving aides on Capitol Hill a reprieve. "It has become obvious to me that my message on Capitol Hill has been received loud and clear," Rogers explains, adding, "and with so many tips coming from across the country, I will be able to focus on elected officials and those seeking office."

Closeted gay congressional staffers can rest easier. Their worst living nightmare, vigilante gay outer and activist blogger Michael Rogers, has called a truce of sorts: he says he'll stop targeting Capitol Hill aides and will instead limit his campaign solely to publicly elected officials and candidates.

In an unfinished manuscript left at his death, Laud Humphreys described meeting with a prominent Dixiecrat politician and his wife in 1948. When the politician left the room, his spouse began undoing Humphreys's tie so that they could all have a little party -- as, she explained, was their wont.

The biography of Humphreys explains that "this archconservative longtime segregationist served as U.S. Senator from South Carolina from 1954 until shortly before his death in 2003."

Anti-gay segregationists have sex with other men and black women in private, while persecuting them with gusto in public. Craig and Vitter are traditionalists after all.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice co-owned a home and shared a line of credit with another woman, according to a new book by Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler.

According to the book, "The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy, "Rice owns a home together with Randy Bean, a documentary filmmaker who once worked with Bill Moyers. Kessler made the discovery by looking through real estate records.

Bean explained the joint ownership and line of credit to Kessler by saying she had medical bills which left her financially drained and Rice helped her by co-purchasing the house along with a third person, Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor who is openly gay. Blacker later sold his line of credit to Rice and Bean.

was talking about the Larry Craig sex scandal with a friend of mine from Brooklyn who has run for office many times and lost. He's pretty thankful that he lost. "Most elected officials are sexual deviants," my friend explained.

A ridiculous judgment, seemingly...but as a would-be politician who had failed to craft his image according to the whims of the electorate, it had taken my friend years to identify the perversity that defined his campaigns, a perversity and deviance and self-torture that, I would agree, defines the daily suffering and ultimately the secret madness of the elected official. "Now I'm not saying homosexuals are deviants .... but closet homos who hate homos are," my friend went on.

[..]

The list of these sad sacks grows and grows: Larry Craig; Jeff Gannon; Ted Haggart; Mark Foley. Consider the rumors about Karl Rove: they call him Miss Piggy in the underground gay scene in DC.

My would-be Brooklyn politico continues the argument: "Listen, it's clear that all priests are gay. There's no way around that. They're all gay. Every one of 'em. But they can't recognize it, because they're sick. That's why they become priests. They feel sick, so they choose a sick job. Why sick? Praying to a god that doesn't exist! [..] In any case, it's a perverted existence, a double existence."

I am certain it is totally possible to be a politician and not become a hypocrite. Sure, there is some maneuvering expected in this profession, but it is entirely possible to join the political corner which best represents one's views.

The list of these sad sacks grows and grows: Larry Craig; Jeff Gannon; Ted Haggart; Mark Foley. Consider the rumors about Karl Rove: they call him Miss Piggy in the underground gay scene in DC.

Now, Herr Doktor... you cannot just declare yourself certain on these points without supplying at least some argument to support it.

I've even been known to get downright 'supportive' in encouraging others to do something that everyone just knows is impossible...