PrintAugust 28, 2007
Will Senator Craig Resign?
I'm sure you've heard by now about Senator Larry Craig's arrest and guilty plea for "disorderly conduct" in a men's room at the Minneapolis airport. The strange details - and I mean strange - can be found here.
Some prominent conservatives - Hugh Hewitt for one - are calling for Craig to resign. And the Senator has already resigned from the Romney campaign as US Senate co-chair. He issued this statement late yesterday afternoon:
Some prominent conservatives - Hugh Hewitt for one - are calling for Craig to resign. And the Senator has already resigned from the Romney campaign as US Senate co-chair. He issued this statement late yesterday afternoon:
"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," said Craig, who is married, and up for reelection in 2008. "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."
And the Idaho Statesman, who investigated Craig earlier in the year trying to confirm his homosexuality, brought some of the allegations out into the open for the first time:
In an interview on May 14, Craig told the Idaho Statesman he'd never engaged in sex with a man or solicited sex with a man. The Craig interview was the culmination of a Statesman investigation that began after a blogger accused Craig of homosexual sex in October.
Over five months, the Statesman examined rumors about Craig dating to his college days and his 1982 pre-emptive denial that he had sex with underage congressional pages.
The most serious finding by the Statesman was the report by a professional man with close ties to Republican officials. The 40-year-old man reported having oral sex with Craig at Washington's Union Station, probably in 2004. The Statesman also spoke with a man who said Craig made a sexual advance toward him at the University of Idaho in 1967 and a man who said Craig "cruised" him for sex in 1994 at the REI store in Boise. The Statesman also explored dozens of allegations that proved untrue, unclear or unverifiable.
The question isn't can a Senator be homosexual. The question is can someone who has spent a political career engaged in what is widely seen as anti-gay advocacy be anything less than a towering hypocrite? That and the purely political calculus involved in the Republicans trying to retake the Senate in 2008 adds up to the probability that for the good of the party, in my personal opinion, Craig should resign.
