Craig's Tearoom

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Go to Roll Call for the lewd details: "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."

A Craig spokesman (predictably) called the incident a "he said/he said misunderstanding," but a plainclothes police officer is claiming -- and is there a reason to doubt him? -- that Craig was looking "to engage in lewd conduct" in the stalls. (The officer was the one with whom he wanted to engage.)

Nice.

(Revelation none of us really wanted revealed: Craig stated in a recored interview following his arrest that "he has a wide stance when going to the bathroom". Perhaps it's a senatorial thing.)

Needless to say, there's a ton of reaction over at Memeorandum.

**********

Make sure to read Hilzoy at Sullivan's place:

Craig seems to have made a habit of voting against laws that would secure the rights of gay men and lesbians. In addition to supporting the Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, he voted against a bill that would have banned job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, against expanding the definition of hate crimes to include sexual orientation, and was rated zero by the Human Rights Campaign in each of the last three Congresses (1, 2, 3; all pdf.) I truly can't imagine what it would be like -- how little self-respect a person would have to have -- to amass that sort of voting record while cruising for gay sex in airport restrooms.

Yes, so much self-hatred, so much self-loathing. And from a conservative Republican, no less. Huh.

**********

The Boston Globe is reporting that Craig has pulled out of the Romney campaign. Pulled out, forced out, whatever.

Hugh Hewitt, surely not alone on the anti-gay right, thinks Craig should resign. But what if he had been trolling for women rather than men?

Taylor Marsh has some useful links, notably to BlogActive, Howie Klein, and Jesus' General.

**********

A conspiracy theory: This story was put out today, months after the incident, to deflect attention away from the Gonzales resignation.

I made it up, but it could very well be true. Right?