GOP leaders call for ethics review of senator Idaho’s Craig charged after incident in airport bathroom BY TODD DVORAK The Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — A defiant Sen. Larry Craig denied any wrongdoing Tuesday despite his guilty plea this summer in a men’s room police sting, emphatically adding, “I am not gay. I never have been gay.” Craig, a third-term senator from Idaho, proclaimed his innocence as well as his sexuality less than an hour after Senate leaders from his own Republican Party called for an ethics committee review of his case. “This is a serious matter,” they said in Washington in a written statement that offered neither support nor criticism of the conservative senator. Issued in the names of Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the party leader, and several others, the statement said they were examining “other aspects of the case to determine if additional action is required.” Craig, his wife, Suzanne, at his side, took no questions in a brief appearance in the capital city of the state he has represented in Congress for more than two decades in the House and then the Senate. He had “overreacted and made a poor decision” when he was apprehended by an undercover police officer in a men’s room at the Minneapolis airport and later pleaded guilty. “While I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct in the Minneapolis Airport or anywhere else, I chose to plead guilty to a lesser charge in hopes of making it go away.” He said he kept the information from his friends, family and staff, adding, “I wasn’t eager to share this failure but I should have anyway because I am not gay.” Nor did he hire a lawyer, Craig said, although he now has retained counsel “to review the matter and advise me on how to proceed.” “I have brought a cloud over Idaho and for that I seek and ask the people of Idaho to forgive me,” he said. His account contrasted sharply with the complaint in the case, in which an undercover officer said that Craig, while occupying a stall in the men’s room, engaged in actions “often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct.” Craig was read his rights, fingerprinted and required to submit to a mug shot at the time of his arrest. Police notes also show that on June 22, 11 days after the arrest, Craig returned to the police station and said no one had yet contacted him about his case. “Craig told me that he needs a contact so his lawyer can speak to someone,” wrote the officer who spoke with the senator, Adam Snedker. The senator signed and dated his guilty plea to a charge of disorderly conduct on Aug. 1, and court papers indicate it was submitted by mail and filed a week later. The court docket said Craig paid $575 in fines and fees and was put on unsupervised probation for a year. A sentence of 10 days in the county workhouse was stayed. Craig, up for re-election next year, said he would announce his plans next month. If anything, he sounded like a man inclined to seek six more years in the Senate.
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BIGK75
August 29, 2007, 5:06am
Guest User
Quoted Text
“often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct.”
So, just because someone does something out of their normal routine in an airport that is looking to hang people like himself, he's arrested for DISORDERLY CONDUCT.
This doesn't even have anything in it about any type of sexual act. He did not commit a sexual act and even said that he plead guilty of this charge to try to make the entire thing go away. Interesting how if he was a Democrat, this would have just been swept under the rug...
Neither did Mr.Clinton,,,I mean come on---a 'dirty' blue dress and a cigar.......I think the senator should seek some advice from someone who has walked there before......
AND WE ARE WORRIED ABOUT SEX OFFENDERS LIVING NEXT DOOR????? WE DONT KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS.............
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Diapers and politicians need to be changed often...for the same reasons.
Never heard this one before. Must be an addage that was used before my time!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Gay activists scornful of arrested senator’s denials BY DAVID CRARY The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Sen. Larry Craig’s “I’m not gay” declaration met with disdain Wednesday from gay activists, many of whom knew for nearly a year — long before his recent arrest — of allegations that the conservative Idaho Republican solicited sex from men in public bathrooms. They view his case as a prime example of hypocrisy — a man who furtively engaged in samesex liaisons while consistently opposing gay-rights measures as a politician. “He may very well not think of himself as being gay, and these are just urges that he has,” said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “It’s the tragedy of homophobia. People create these walls that separate themselves from who they really are.” In Washington, some of Craig’s fellow Republican congressmen began calling for his resignation, as did the Log Cabin Republicans, the largest gay GOP group. The White House expressed disappointment in the case while avoiding a statement of support for Craig. Craig proclaimed his innocence, and his heterosexuality, on Tuesday after revelations that he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct following his arrest in June at a Minneapolis airport men’s room where an undercover officer suspected him of soliciting sex. But detailed accusations against Craig had been available since last year through an Internet-based activist who had a hand in outing several Republican politicians, including former Rep. Mark Foley, the focus of a House page scandal, and former Rep. Edward Schrock, linked to a gay dating site. The activist, Mike Rogers, went public last October with allegations that Craig engaged in sexual encounters with at least three men, including one who said he had sex with Craig twice at Washington’s Union Station. The Idaho Statesman published a lengthy story Tuesday, a day after the June 11 arrest was first reported, detailing Rogers’ allegations, which Craig has denied. The newspaper went even further back into Craig’s life, talking to other men who claimed they were solicited by him.
And if it turns out he is, will they change their minds? NO, for one reason. He's a Republican. They can't see past the elephant. Sort of like the elephant in the room no one can see...but when THIS one's in the room, it's the only thing ANYBODY can see.
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