"I Should Not Have Plead Guilty"
Role Call: Craig arrested, pleads guiltyAnother married Republican blown away in a sex scandal.
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, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon.
Craig’s arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.
At one point during the interview, Craig handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a U.S. Senator and said, “What do you think about that?”
Airport police previously had made numerous arrests in the men’s restroom of the Northstar Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal in connection with sexual activity.
In October 2006, Craig’s office publicly denied allegations that he was a homosexual made on a gay activist Web site — blogactive.com. Craig’s office told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that the charge was “completely ridiculous,” saying that the allegations had “no basis in fact.”
I have no problem with people getting caught up in sex trouble. It's part of being human. Given my upbringing, it took me till my early forties before I stopped screwing up by the numbers. I understand all about lying, covering up, concealing, and the thrill that comes from getting away with sex and seduction you know damn well you shouldn't.
My issue here is not that Craig apparently was on the hunt for illicit gay sex. He wants to fuck men while pretending to be straight or to fuck around on his wife, that's respectively between him and himself (and his partners), and between him and his wife. I don't think it's going to work well for him personally to keep lying to himself, or for him to be in a committed relationship and be having sex outside it, but that's truly a personal problem, not a public issue.
Where this becomes a public issue worthy of the Group News Blog is two-fold:
Craig is a Republican, the party of sexual morality and repression. They're against gay sex, indeed they're against all sex outside of marriage. Republicans have received hundreds of millions of votes through demonizing, suppressing and threatening other people's sex lives and threatening and legally controlling people's bodies, all in tight coordination with the more extreme elements of organized Christian religion. Republicans above all other political parties have made people's private lives fair political game. So mote it be. Hypocrisy is a political sin.
Second, Craig's acts reflect precisely the Republican mantra: It's Okay If You're a Republican. Stealing elections is okay. Corruption is okay. Greed is okay. Starting wars for no good reason is okay. Killing and screwing over the poor is okay. Virulent racial hatred is okay. Perjury is okay. Incompetence is okay. Killing off soldiers with shitty body armor and massive strategical failures is okay. Revealing state secrets is okay. Gay hookers in the White House is okay. So is gay sex in an airport bathroom. Any damn thing is okay if you're a rich white male Republican U.S. fucking Senator. Why can't people understand?!
I don't care what people do privately. Take the time, get into therapy, work it out. That's what I did. Or don't. Whatever. But be a public stand for the anti-sex and morality party while simultaneously being on the down-low, your cover should be blown. Hard.
Hypocrisy and narcissism to the point of believing you can do no wrong are public sins.
Update: Arrest Report & Docket Sheet for State v. Craig
|