Larry Craig thinks we're all idiots

The saga of Larry “Wide Stance” Craig continues.

He is apparently not resigning his Senate Seat on Sunday as he originally led his colleagues and constituents to believe he would; and now he is trying to get his guilty plea thrown out.

He really thought he was home free, that he could plead guilty by mail to a misdemeanor in Minnesota and skate away, and indeed, he almost did.

But he was found out. And that’s when he started to spin. Oh how he did spin! He temporarily generated his own gravitational field, so furiously did he spin!

His latest craven ploy has been to try to withdraw his guilty plea, after six weeks after sentencing! Hennepin County District Judge Charles A. Porter treated the matter with the harsh skepticism it deserved when it came before him on Wednesday. He pointed to Craig’s admission in August that his behavior constituted a crime that "would arouse alarm or resentment of others." During the 40 minute hearing, the Judge said "That's what he did in his petition -- admit what he did."

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Craig's attorney, Billy Martin, argued that the senator did not consult a lawyer before making his guilty plea, which he mailed to the court. At a hearing with a lawyer representing Craig, a judge would have asked the senator questions about the incident before accepting a plea, Martin said.

But Porter cut off the attorney, saying "my speculation" is that Craig wanted to plead guilty. "If he intended to plead guilty, he would have said 'yes' " to questions about whether he knew he had committed a crime, the judge said.

For the guilty plea to be withdrawn, Craig and his attorney must manage to convince the Judge that for the plea to remain in place would constitute a “manifest injustice” for the plea to stand. (Craig skipped the proceedings).

His lawyer maintained that would be the case because his actions were “innocuous” – there was no physical or verbal contact that would rise to the level of disorderly conduct. "None of those facts, Your Honor, in and of themselves constitute a crime," he told Porter.

Porter was ready for the Senators mouthpiece.

The judge said that, if he came down off the bench running at Martin, "shaking his fist," without ever punching him or yelling at him, it would likely prompt the attorney to think the judge was trying to incite him.

“It absolutely would," Martin said.

"Well, that's disorderly conduct," Porter replied.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I am not the only person left thinking "This doesn't wash!" What kind of disconnect with reality does it take for a lawmaker to plead that level of ignorance of the judicial process???

In fact, he should resign no matter what Judge Porter decides. He is either a pervert, or he is a moron. (Although it's likely he is both.) And "moron" alone should be enough to cost him his seat.

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Sen. Craig forced to resign from committee posts, calls for resignation grow louder

Republican leadership forced beleagured Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) to resign from his committee and subcommittee posts today, and calls for his resignation from the Senate grew louder within his own party. Sens. John McCain and Norm Coleman and Rep. Peter Hoekstra all publicly called for Craig to step down.

Craig, meanwhile, hysterically insisted that he was innocent of the charge he pled guilty to, claiming he only went along with it in hopes it would all just go away.

Bullshit. Not that he pled guilty hoping it would go away. Of course he pled guilty hoping it would go away. He pled guilty hoping it would go away unnoticed because he was guilty as charged. (And by the way - if he is denying his guilty plea now, and did indeed plead guilty to a charge he is in fact innocent of, is that not perjury? I'm not a lawyer, but I know what the word means.)

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad to watch and listen as Craig tries to talk his way out of this. Meanwhile, he has no support within his party - they can't distance themselves fast enough.

And by the way - I don't want to hear Republicans claiming some moral high ground here that doesn't exist. None of these people called on David Vitter to resign, and Vitter, too, committed a crime. It is illegal to buy sex from hookers, even the ones that specialize in indulging perverted fetishes. If you cut right to the heart of the matter, Louisiana has a Democratic governor and Idaho has a Republican executive, so in this instance they can pretend to stand on principle, because it won't cost them a seat. It is that damned simple, folks. But come next election day, they will be reminding you that they share your values.

Do they?

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What is it with Republican perverts and public bathrooms?

Before I launch into this creep, let me make one thing clear...I don't give a rat's ass where you put your winkie in private. So long as you wag it in private, that is none of my business. I agree with Molly Ivins there - I don't care who you are screwing in private, so long as you aren't screwing the public. That said - when you start wagging it in public, that's a crime.

And that said, lets make it perfectly clear that it isn't 'teh gay' that invokes our wrath and scorn - it is the hypocrisy.

Sen. Larry E. Craig, an Idaho Republican was arrested June 11 in a public restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where the incident report states he was “detained for approximately 45 minutes, interviewed, photographed, fingerprinted and released, and police prepared a formal complaint for interference with privacy and disorderly conduct.” The report states that a plainclothes officer was investigating complaints about sexual activity in the men's room. Per the police report, that facility has been the site of “numerous arrests regarding sexual activity in the public restroom.”

The arresting officers report detailed the behavior that led to the arrest of Craig:

My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall. From my seated position, I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig seated to the left of me. […]

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. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area.

This is the same Larry Craig who piously derided Bill Clinton as a "naughty boy" and who has a zero-score on gay-rights issues.

Let's just call him what he is...a self-loathing closeted queen.

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