Rumors of homosexual activity have swirled around Sen. Larry Craig ( R- Idaho ) for decades. They came to a head with his arrest on charges of 'lewd conduct' in a Minneapolis airport men's room on June 11.
Craig, 62, pled guilty to those charges on Aug. 2; paid $1,575 in fines and court costs; and was placed on unsupervised probation for a year. He apparently told no one, not his wife or family, close political staff or an attorney. The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call broke the story on Aug. 27.
In a written arrest report filed by airport police Sgt. Dave Karsnia, working undercover in a restroom where there had been complaints of sexual activity, he alleged that the man later identified as Craig, peered through the crack in the door into the officer's bathroom stall several times, then entered an adjoining stall.
'Craig entered the stall and placed his roller bag against the front of the stall door. My experience has shown that individual engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall,' Karsnia wrote. There was no evaluation of whether the bag might have fit elsewhere in the stall.
Craig sat on the commode, tapped his foot, moved it to touch Karsnia's and 'swipe [ d ] his hand under the stall divider for a few seconds' three times. At that point the officer flashed his badge and told the Senator to leave with him. There was a brief argument and Craig was told that he was under arrest. They proceeded to the police operations center. The whole thing took less than ten minutes.
Craig was asked to produce an ID and tried flashing his Senate business card, saying, 'What do you think about that?' It didn't suffice.
Craig maintained that he was standing outside the stall waiting for one to open. He said, 'He has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine,' and that he reached down on the floor to pick up a piece of paper, according ot Karsnia's written report.
The senator was processed and released less than an hour after entering the men's room and made his connecting flight.
SECOND THOUGHTS
When the story broke on Aug. 27, Craig issued a statement saying, '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. I should have had the advice of counsel ( which he waived ) in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously.'
He also resigned as co-chair of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, which quickly scrubbed its Web site of a video of Craig.
Craig went on the offensive Aug. 28, reading a prepared statement to the press but not taking any questions. He acknowledged making 'a poor decision' in Minneapolis—not his conduct in the restroom but the fact that 'I chose to plead guilty to a lesser charge in the hope of making it go away.'
He tried to blame it all on the state's leading newspaper, the Idaho Statesman, that 'has engaged in this witch hunt' by carrying out a months-long investigation into allegations that have been circulating for years that Craig is gay. Less than a month prior to the incident, Craig had sat down with reporters from the Statesman to talk about those allegations.
'I am not gay and never have been,' Craig asserted three times during the course of his media appearance.
The statement may in fact be true, because to most people, being gay indicates an acceptance of one's homosexual nature. Great numbers of men engage in sex with other males but do not consider themselves to be gay. So Craig's apparent quest for masturbation in the stall, while homosexual in nature, may not have been 'gay.'
If Bill Clinton believed that a blow job from Monica Lewinski was not sex, then Craig's wink and nod would be no greater stretch of credulity.
Craig claimed that his actions 'have brought a cloud over Idaho.' But most thought that any shadow cast was solely on the man making the statement, not on the state he represent, unless it is the state of denial. A SurveyUSA poll of 600 Idahoans found that 55 percent thought he should resign.
The allegations of homosexual activity resonate because they have hung over the senator's head for so long.
Back in 1982, as a freshman in the U.S. House of Representatives, a periodic 'scandal' of sex with pages and drug use titillated the public. Without being named, Craig rushed to call a news conference, denying any involvement. The next year he finally married, adopting his wife's three children but siring none of his own.
Last October, activist Mike Rogers circulated allegations that Craig had been soliciting sex in a restroom at the Union Station train depot in Washington, D.C., just two blocks from his senate office. He also claimed that two other persons in the Pacific Northwest had had sex with Craig. The senator denied the charges, but that was when the Statesman began their investigation.
LARRY, WE HARDLY KNEW YA
Craig is a reliable vote for social conservatives but not a particularly vocal advocate for those efforts. The Family Research Council ( FRC ) rates him a perfect 100; the Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) a perfect zero.
The Idaho Statesman wrote in an Aug. 29 editorial, 'When politicians try to turn social and sexual issues into fair political game, they invite scrutiny of their behavior. Craig did not establish these rules of political engagement, but he operates under them.'
It earlier had cautioned readers against a rush to judgment but also said, 'Idaho's senior senator must speak candidly with the people who have hired him for more than a quarter of a century.'
Gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny noted that adult solicitation to engage in consensual sodomy, which is the 'lewd conduct' that Craig allegedly pantomimed in the restroom, no longer is illegal after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the remaining state sodomy laws in the 2003 Lawrence decision.
'I hold no brief for Craig and don't defend him generally, he seems to be a dreadful person,' said Kameny. 'But with regard to this incident, he should not have pled guilty, should have hired an astute lawyer, and would not have been convicted.'
Log Cabin Republicans President Patrick Sammon went for the political jugular. 'Senator Larry Craig's ability to continue serving the people of Idaho is in serious doubt…Innocent people don't plead guilty. The time to contest these allegations would've been before his guilty plea.'
'What's up with elected officials like Senator Craig?' National Gay and Lesbian Task Force executive director Matt Foreman asked rhetorically. 'They stand for so-called 'family values' and fight basic protections for gay people while furtively seeking other men for sex. Infuriating, pathetic hypocrites. What more can you say?'
He continued, 'And by the way, why are Minneapolis tax dollars being used to have plainclothes police officers lurking idly in airport restroom stalls?'