Tag: Larry Craig (page 3)

Republicans stripped Sen. Larry Craig of his leadership posts today.

A statement by the Senate Republican leadership said Mr. Craig “has agreed to comply” with a request to step down as the top Republican on the Veterans Affairs Committee, the Appropriations subcommittee on the Interior and the Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee on public lands and forests.

“This is not a decision we take lightly, but we believe this is in the best interest of the Senate until this situation is resolved by the Ethics Committee,” the statement said.

Senators John McCain and Norm Coleman, and Rep. Pete Hoeckstra have called for his resignation.

Craig, in his statement yesterday, said he is now seeking legal advice about his Minnesota conviction for disorderly conduct. As LNILR opined earlier today, that's not likely to do him much good.

If he's really sure he isn't gay and that he never had encounters with men in public restrooms, he might be better off hiring Lin Wood (Richard Jewell and John and Patsy Ramseys' attorney) to bring a libel suit against the media outlets that alleged otherwise. While a settlement or favorable ruling is unlikely to be timely enough to end the calls for his resignation, if he won, he'd get his good name back.

What does it say if he doesn't bring a libel suit? That no lawyer would take it or that he's pulling our leg with his denials?

In June, I overreacted and made a poor decision. While I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct at the Minneapolis airport or anywhere else, I chose to plead guilty to a lesser charge in the hope of making it go away. I did not seek any counsel, either from an attorney, staff, friends, or family. That was a mistake, and I deeply regret it. Because of that, I have now retained counsel and I am asking my counsel to review this matter and to advise me on how to proceed.

Does he want a trial? Can he win a trial? I don't think so.

More....

So Craig says today in his press conference. Personally, I do not care. But I think Glenn Greenwald exposes the problem Republicans face on this matter - they hate gay persons.

The evidence seems pretty clear that Craig is in fact gay. And now Republicans have to deal with this reality, even in the face of Craig's denials.

McJoan at Daily Kos has the backstory to the Idaho Statesman investigation of Sen. Larry Craig.

The Statesman published the report of its five month investigation today.

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.

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ABC News has the plea disposition document from the Minnesota Court in Sen. Larry Craig's bathroom arrest. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct (Section 609.72.1) and a second charge of invasion of privacy was dismissed. Here's the statute (via Lexis):

609.72 DISORDERLY CONDUCT Subdivision 1. Crime.

Whoever does any of the following in a public or private place, including on a school bus, knowing, or having reasonable grounds to know that it will, or will tend to, alarm, anger or disturb others or provoke an assault or breach of the peace, is guilty of disorderly conduct, which is a misdemeanor:

(1) Engages in brawling or fighting; or
(2) Disturbs an assembly or meeting, not unlawful in its character; or
(3) Engages in offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous, or noisy conduct or in offensive, obscene, or abusive language tending reasonably to arouse alarm, anger, or resentment in others.

A person does not violate this section if the person's disorderly conduct was caused by an epileptic seizure.

Seems like Subsection 3 is the applicable one. Parsing the words, I think you have to forego boisterous or noisy. That leaves the charge that tapping the floor with his foot, putting his hand under the bathroom stall and tapping the foot of the occupant in the next stall is offensive, obscene or abusive.

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Update: Talking Points has the actual arrest report. The incident was on July 11, the report was entered on July 12 by someone other than the arresting officer, and then edited by the arresting officer on June 26. I wonder whether he just blacked out stuff or made changes. Since Craig pleaded guilty, he has no ability to quiz the officer on cross-examination.

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Roll Call has the details from the officer's report concerning Idaho Senator Larry Craig's arrest in June on lewd conduct charges stemming from an incident in the men's bathroom at a Minnesota airport.

Sen. Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct without counsel in August. He paid a fine and was put on a year's probation.

Why did he plead guilty? Was he trying to keep it from the press?

My first impression: The whole encounter sounds fishy to me. From the cop's statement that the bathroom had so many complaints it was necessary to go undercover to the ambiguous hand movements the cop ascribes to Craig. I'm having a hard time even picturing what the cop thought Craig was up to given the configuration of bathroom stalls and the cop's statement they weren't in the same one.

At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot...

Really strange story.