The Whole Gay Airport Bathroom Affair
I’ve had a couple of people ask me about my thoughts on Sen. Craig’s bathroom fiasco. I just can’t force myself to care beyond keeping an eye on what happens to a great advocate for gun rights in the Sentate. Oh, and looking at how Mitt Romney came out and called him disgusting. That was just a great show of class, Mitt.
I don’t think Craig committed any sort of crime, and I can’t fathom why he didn’t fight it. Asking for sex is not, nor should it be a crime. If he was soliciting the officer to hook up, how does the officer know that the guy in the next stall wouldn’t have asked to go to a hotel room or something? There’s no evidence that Craig wanted to actually have sex in the bathroom. Looking for someone to have sex with is not illegal. If it were, every bar, nightclub, dating website, speed dating event, and frat house would have to be shut down.
Craig could have deflected this. If he came out of that arrest swinging emphasizing the overreaching police state in the airport where actions such as putting the your bag in front of you in the bathroom stall will draw police attention and lead to arrest. I’m sorry, but it was news to me that putting a carry-on bag in front of you in the stall was a sign of soliciting for sex. Where is one supposed to put the bag – on your lap? Maybe women’s restrooms are set up radically different (I know they aren’t, but indulge me on this one), but that’s the only spot to put a bag in a stall.
Point being, I’m more outraged about the crap that can get you arrested. And what an asshole Mitt is being by calling a man who has served Idaho so well “disgusting” before the facts were really revealed.
No obviously related posts.
He plead guilty. He either broke the law or was railroaded by the law. Neither of those is acceptable from MY LAWMAKER.
I don’t care about his sex life, if he disagreed with the laws HE should have tried to fix them. That is why I hired him.
Yes he is my Senator.
Let me see if I understand you, vinnie.
He’s your U.S. Senator elected from Idaho. So you want him to charge into Minnesota – a state he doesn’t represent – to change state laws that he doesn’t have jurisdiction over?
I just want to be clear on what you’re demanding while throwing around a term like railroaded. Because your demands that he impose his will on laws that he doesn’t have control over that govern people who didn’t elect him seems a little more like railroading.
I will say that if that’s the kind of federal government you want, Larry Craig wasn’t the guy you should have hired in the first place.
I demand that he RESPECT the law.
If lawMAKERS don’t respect the law what chance do we have of getting anybody else to respect it?
I don’t understand how anyone can have sex in a public bathroom what with all the… odors that are in there (which may or may not be attributable to me).
Spineless Republicans…
If Republicans force Larry Craig out of office, I’m writing off the party as a bunch of spineless bible thumpers. Being gay is not a crime, nor are sexual flings. Bitter says it best:Looking for someone to have sex with……
Last I heard in the actual interview at the police station, there was no actual attempt to have sex with the cop next door nor with anyone else. There was a so called touching of the stall…or the touch of a foot…accidental.. Being arrested and charged with “intent” disturbs me greatly, are we supposed to be happy that this man is losing his entire career because of some unknown suggestive movements made by adults in a public restroom? The police officer involved made some very strange comments regarding Craig’s career, comments which had nothing at all to do with what he was being charged with…which at its core in the intent of someone .. I cannot believe he would plead guilty, but at the same time, I cannot believe this country would allow someone to be charged with a crime when none was committed. Insane!
This is politics. Plain and simple. Sadly, Mitt and the rest of the GOP should be demonstrating more backbone and less indignation for all the wrong reasons!
vinnie, you still haven’t answered my question. Were you in fact arguing that the U.S. Senator representing Idaho go to Minnesota and try to change their state laws over which he has no authority? I’m giving you a chance to rationally answer the question. It’s obvious that you’re upset by this, but if we had federal officials doing what you propose, then I would fear that United States would be a very different world, probably one you would hate to live.
As for respecting the law, what law did he break? He plead guilty to one charge, but he’s said that was a mistake. Prosecutors offer plea deals all the time, and people sometimes accept them even if they aren’t guilty because it’s a minor enough charge that the legal bills to fight it would be higher. Or, do you believe that there’s never been a situation where someone sought the faster way out with a deal rather than dealing with pushy prosecutors and questionable cops? I mean not everyone is as wealthy as the families of the Duke lacrosse boys to be able to fight crap for years on end.
Either way, I would ask that you please address the questions so we at least know where you stand.
I don’t think the charges would have stood much of a chance in court. The only way they even amount to probable cause is the officer’s opinion that tapping feet on the floor, etc. is how gays link up in public johns — which, unless he has a lot of experience linking up with gays in public johns, isn’t going to get very far.
My guess is that the Sen. figured — if he fought it, there would surely be publicity, and even an acquittal wouldn’t help much. If he plead out … this is not DC or Idaho, it’s far from either, maybe no one would ever hear about it. Which is about what happened, for months.
If he hadn’t flashed his card, the police would probably never have known he was a senator in the first place. Unless a legislator is high profile, odds are their name and face are recognized only in DC and their home state. I know Craig from NRA, but couldn’t tell you who is the other senator from his state, or who represents Montana, Colorado, etc.
Ok, I will try to be more clear. I understand that an Idaho senator has little control over Minnesota laws, But he still has a duty to fallow those laws.
He also has influence over the legal system. It is his responsibility to fix it if it is broken and if it isn’t broken why is he in violation?
He can’t fix it because he has no jurisdiction of Minnesota courts and laws! If the legal system there is broken, he can’t fix it in his current position. He would have to be a state lawmaker in Minnesota in order to do that.
Are you advocating for no more separation of state and federal courts and laws? I just don’t see any other way you think he could have changed anything that he was charged under.
And you didn’t address what law it was he broke. I still don’t find a crime in anything that he did.
Sen. Craig Driven to Resign: Are Apologies in Order?…
Senator Larry Craig is expected to announce his resignation today (Washington Post). When the scandal first broke, I was on the vast offensive line pointing out the hypocrisy of an apparently gay politician (and member of the self-styled family values …
He plead guilty. If he did not commit a crime why did he plead guilty. Look, this is one of the guys that we put in charge of the system. I hold him to a higher standard. If he did something wrong he needs to go. If he didn’t do anything wrong he should have fought the charges.
He pled guilty to the “intent” to bump bellybuttons with some guy in a public restroom…because when you tap your foot in a restroom stalls its a super secret signal to the next guy that you like his shoelaces…
The world as we knew it…is without reason!
Ana, I’m not quite sure boys bump belly buttons…
The mystery to me is … what arrangements could be made for an assignation in a toilet stall? At least one in an airport , where people are constantly coming in.
Slide under the divider? Going to take some effort, be rather obvious, and still leaves you to figure out what to do on the other side. Go at it — and somebody looks under the stalls to see if they’re occupied, and notices four feet in one stall, and decides to ask security to check out a rather strange occurrence. Get past that and … some traveller comes in to relieve his creaking kidneys, notices sounds of ecstacy from a toilet stall, sprints out of there and calls for help.
I’ve heard from police sources of things like this happening, but we’re talking about isolated restrooms on a highway where human traffic is light and police aren’t within calling distance — minimal chance of discovery and big chance of getting away anyway (the cops said basically when they get enough complaints about a given site they go in and bust enough people to make it safe for tourists again). Every airport restroom I’ve ever seen is full of people. You get off a plane with aching bladder and deal with it ASAP before making your connection or grabbing your luggage. And if anyone does see something out of the ordinary, in an airport police are everywhere.
It should have been MY decision on what happened to Senator Craig because he represented me in the Senate. Sadly to say, I am not stunned at all by the actions of the gop. I can truly say now (straw- broke-back) that I will never again trust the gop or any of its party line walking candidates. mr. romneys actions are par for the course.
Waitting to see how the momo’s around here react to the resignation considering that Craig was on Romneys “help” list in Idaho for fundraisers.
I think Craig should resign. His sexual orientation has nothing to do with it.
His arrest on a very nebulous charge has nothing to do with it.
His refusal to stand up for himself and fight back tells me he isn’t the man to fight for others. That simple.
I too abhor “intent” laws. They amount to thought crime as determined by others as to what you thought. That is plain bullshit and does not meet the requirements of evidence.