Idaho senator arrested in airport bathroom

Cthippo · 28 Aug 2007

Associated Press said:

MINNEAPOLIS - Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho pleaded guilty this month to misdemeanor disorderly conduct after being arrested at the Minneapolis airport.

A Hennepin County court docket showed Craig pleading guilty to the disorderly conduct charge Aug. 8, with the court dismissing a charge of gross misdemeanor interference to privacy.

The court docket said the Republican senator paid $575 in fines and fees. He was put on unsupervised probation for a year. A sentence of 10 days in the county workhouse was stayed.

Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, which first reported the case, said on its Web site Monday that Craig was arrested June 11 by a plainclothes officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in a men's restroom at the airport.

Craig said in a statement issued by his office that he was not involved in any inappropriate conduct.

"At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," he said. "I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

Craig, 62, is married and in his third term in the Senate. He is up for re-election next year. He was a member of the House for 10 years before winning election to the Senate in 1990.

He has been one of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's top Senate supporters, serving as a Senate liaison for the campaign since February. As word spread of Craig's guilty plea, a Romney campaign spokesman, Matt Rhoades, said in a statement: "Senator Craig has stepped down from his role with the campaign. He did not want to be a distraction and we accept his decision."

Sidney Smith, a Craig aide in Boise, said Monday afternoon that the senator was "in the (Boise) area" but was declining to give interviews.

Minneapolis airport police declined to provide a copy of the arrest report after business hours Monday.

Roll Call, citing the report, said Sgt. Dave Karsnia made the arrest after an encounter in which he was seated in a stall next to a stall occupied by Craig. Karsnia described Craig tapping his foot, which Karsnia said he "recognized as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct."

Roll Call quoted the Aug. 8 police report as saying that Craig had handed the arresting officer a business card that identified him as a member of the Senate.

"What do you think about that?" Craig is alleged to have said, according to the report.

Last fall, Craig called allegations from a gay-rights activist that he's had homosexual relationships "completely ridiculous."

Mike Rogers, who bills himself as a gay activist blogger, published the allegations on his Web site, http://www.blogactive.com, in October 2006.

Craig hasn't said if he plans to run for a fourth term in 2008. An announcement was expected this fall. His spokesman, Smith, was uncertain if Craig's guilty plea would affect his re-election plans.

"It's too early to talk about anything about that," Smith told The Associated Press.

J. Kirk Sullivan, chairman of the Idaho Republican Party, declined to comment on the situation, saying he was unaware of the nature of the charges against Craig.
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Original story

As someone mentioned before, we needs a "WTF" tag

Scirocco · 28 Aug 2007

So much for "family values." Politicians never fail to give amusement as well as aggravation.

fri2219 · 28 Aug 2007

Not exactly a surprise...

There's a school of thought in psychology that says you can sort gay men into two camps:

Homosexuals

Homophobes

Physical measurements have show that men who express strong homophobic sentiments have identical vascular responses as openly gay men when presented with visual stimuli.

DougEdey · 28 Aug 2007

Tapping one's foot in the toilet is sign of wanting sexual action? No wonder I don't get anything when I'm in the ladies!

whisperwolf · 28 Aug 2007

I couldn't work out if he was tapping his own foot, or tapping the police officers foot.

ElThomsono · 28 Aug 2007

Tapping your foot's considered lewd conduct in Minnesota?

WTF indeed...

supermonkey · 28 Aug 2007

Scirocco said: ↑

So much for "family values." Politicians never fail to give amusement as well as aggravation.
Click to expand...

Without a copy of the police report, the only thing we have to go on is the fact that the Senator was tapping his foot, and that the officer took that as a request for some generic "lewd conduct." I tap my feet every time I go to loo. To think, there could be a bunch of gay men running around my building, looking for me! They'll be disappointed when they find out that I was tapping my foot because I was bored.

I'm content to roll my eyes and move along.

-monkey

The_Beast · 28 Aug 2007

it is kinda funny

Cthippo · 29 Aug 2007

Associated Press said:

BOISE, Idaho - A defiant Sen. Larry Craig denied any wrongdoing Tuesday despite his guilty plea this summer in a men's room police sting, emphatically adding, "I am not gay. I never have been gay."

Craig, a third-term senator from Idaho, proclaimed his innocence as well as his sexuality less than an hour after Senate leaders from his own Republican Party called for an ethics committee review of his case.

"This is a serious matter," they said in Washington in a written statement that offered neither support nor criticism of the conservative senator. Issued in the names of Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the party leader, and several others, the statement said they were examining "other aspects of the case to determine if additional action is required."

<snip>

"While I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct in the Minneapolis Airport or anywhere else, I chose to plead guilty to a lesser charge in hopes of making it go away." He said he kept the information from his friends, family and staff, adding, "I wasn't eager to share this failure but I should have anyway because I am not gay."

Nor did he hire a lawyer, Craig said, although he now has retained counsel "to review the matter and advise me on how to proceed."

"I have brought a cloud over Idaho and for that I seek and ask the people of Idaho to forgive me," he said.

His account contrasted sharply with the complaint in the case, in which an undercover officer said that Craig, while occupying a stall in the men's room, engaged in actions "often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct."

Craig was read his rights, fingerprinted and required to submit to a mug shot at the time of his arrest.

<snip>

Regardless of Craig's plans, it was clear his political standing had suffered.

On Monday, he resigned from a prominent role with Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, and the GOP White House hopeful was critical in an interview.

"He's disappointed the American people," Romney said on CNBC's "Kudlow & Company."

"Yeah, I think it reminds us of Mark Foley and Bill Clinton," he added. Foley was a a Florida congressman who sent salacious e-mails to underage male House pages. Clinton, the former president, was impeached by the House and acquitted in the Senate after his dalliance with a White House intern.

Another Republican running for president, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, distanced himself from Craig and his guilty plea. "It's disgraceful," McCain told host Jay Leno during a taping of NBC's "The Tonight Show" for broadcast Tuesday night. "It harms our reputation with the American people."

Craig, 62, has faced rumors about his sexuality since the 1980s, but allegations that he had engaged in gay sex have never been substantiated. He has denied the assertions.

Trying to put his actions "in context," Craig lashed out at the Idaho Statesman, the state's largest newspaper, accusing it of carrying out a witch hunt. The newspaper on Tuesday published a lengthy story detailing allegations of homosexual behavior by Craig, which the story said the senator denied.

"We didn't print anything until the senator pleaded guilty," the managing editor of the Idaho Statesman, Bill Manny, said in a statement issued after Craig spoke. "Our story outlined what we've done and it speaks for itself."

The GOP Senate leaders did not say what other actions they were considering in connection with Craig.

Separately, a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed a complaint with the ethics committee seeking an investigation into whether Craig violated Senate rules by engaging in disorderly conduct.

The official police complaint on Craig's case was detailed.

It said airport police Sgt. Dave Karsnia, who was investigating allegations of sexual conduct in airport restrooms, went into a stall shortly after noon on June 11 and closed the door.

Minutes later, the officer said he saw Craig gazing into his stall through the crack between the door and the frame.

After a man in the adjacent stall left, Craig entered it and put his roller bag against the front of the stall door, "which Sgt. Karsnia's experience has indicated is used to attempt to conceal sexual conduct by blocking the view from the front of the stall," said the complaint, which was dated June 25.

The complaint said Craig then tapped his right foot several times and moved it closer to Karsnia's stall and then moved it to where it touched Karsnia's foot. Karsnia recognized that "as a signal often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct," the complaint said.

Craig then passed his left hand under the stall divider into Karsnia's stall with his palm up and guided it along the divider toward the front of the stall three times, the complaint said.

The officer then showed his police identification under the divider and pointed toward the exit "at which time the defendant exclaimed `No!'" the complaint said.

The Aug. 8 police report says Craig handed the arresting officer a business card that identified him as a member of the Senate.

"What do you think about that?" Craig is alleged to have said, according to the report.
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Original story

What's interesting about this is it's the Republicans' his own party, having a fit about it. Most Democrats / liberals I've heard from on the talk shows are taking the attitude of "So he was trying to pick up a man in an airport bathroom. What's wrong with that?"

DougEdey · 29 Aug 2007

I love the way it's "Guilty until proven innocent"

fri2219 · 29 Aug 2007

DougEdey said: ↑

I love the way it's "Guilty until proven innocent"
Click to expand...

He plead guilty. That means he said he was guilty, not innocent. He was hoping to keep it hidden. Since there are still a few news outlets that aren't owned by Viacom, GE, Disney, or Murdoch, it managed to leak out two months after he entered his plea.

Also:
1) The police report goes into quite a bit of detail, and things went way beyond a little foot tapping.
2) Some of his sex partners have come forward as well, and they report he likes it in public restrooms.

Source Idaho Statesman:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/273/story/144657.html
http://www.idahostatesman.com/localnews/story/144047
(Police report and other stories also available here)

I saw his press conference in Boise today... oh man! Let it suffice to say that it didn't do much to settle the situation. Most people in the US Northwest feel that anyone who has gone out of his way to the extent Craig has to make life miserable for gays deserves this kind of scrutiny.

DougEdey · 29 Aug 2007

My bad, I thought he would have tried to retake that. But I'm sorry, that's a stupid thing to be arrested for. What next?

Cthippo · 1 Sep 2007

Associated Press said:

BOISE, Idaho - Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig will resign from the Senate amid a furor over his arrest and guilty plea in a police sex sting in an airport men's room, Republican officials said Friday.

Craig will announce at a news conference in Boise Saturday morning that he will resign effective Sept. 30, four state GOP officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Word of the resignation came four days after the disclosure that Craig had pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge arising out of his June 11 arrest during a lewd-conduct investigation at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The three-term Republican senator had maintained that he did nothing wrong except for making the guilty plea without consulting a lawyer. But he found almost no support among Republicans in his home state or Washington.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter appeared Friday to have already settled on a successor: Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, according to several Republicans familiar with internal deliberations.

Craig's spokesman, Dan Whiting, had said earlier that the senator would announce his career plans Saturday. The spokesman would not say whether Craig intended to resign.

Craig has been out of public view since Tuesday, when he declared defiantly at a Boise news conference: "I am not gay. I never have been gay." But Republican sources in Idaho said he spent Friday making calls to top party officials, including the governor, gauging their support.

There has been virtually none publicly.

Asked Friday at the White House if the senator should resign, President Bush said nothing and walked off stage.

Republican officeholders and party leaders maintained a steady drumbeat of actions and words aimed at persuading Craig to vacate his Senate seat.

GOP lawmakers, hoping to get the embarrassment to the party behind them quickly, stripped Craig of leadership posts on Wednesday, one day after they called for an investigation of Craig's actions by the Senate Ethics Committee. Craig complied with the request.

<snip>

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Craig's conduct "unforgivable" and acknowledged that many in the rank and file thought Craig should resign.

Republicans, worried about the scandal's effect on next year's election, suffered a further setback Friday when veteran Virginia Sen. John Warner announced he will retire rather than seek a sixth term. Democrats captured Virginia's other Senate seat from the GOP in the 2006 election and have sought to line up former Gov. Mark Warner to run if the seat became open.

The contest for control of the next Senate was already tilted against Republicans, who must defend 22 of 34 seats on the ballot next year, before the Craig scandal and Warner's announcement.

With a GOP candidate other than Craig, Republicans would stand a much better chance of keeping his Idaho seat in 2008. Idaho is one of the nation's most reliably Republican states. The GOP controls the statehouse and all four seats in Congress, and Bush carried the state in 2004 with 68 percent of the vote.

<snip>

"I'm not gay. I don't do these kinds of things," Craig told the officer. "You shouldn't be out to entrap people."

Karsnia accused Craig of lying and grew exasperated with his denials.

"Embarrassing, embarrassing. No wonder why we're going down the tubes," Karsnia said.
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Original story

What's great about this is that just a couple months ago, andother republican senator, David Vitter was discovered to have been using Washington prostitutes for quite a number of years. No one condemned him, or called his behavior "unforgivable, rather fellow republicans showed their support by giving him a standing ovation when he walked into the senate the next day. Appearently sex is only wrong if you're poor or gay.

Rebourne · 1 Sep 2007

So basically he got arrested for asking for sex?

I don't see how that is a problem, if the guy said no and he kept asking that's harassment but it doesn't say anywhere that he did that.

Plus it doesn't sound true, because honestly who asks for sex from someone you haven't seen and who is pooping?

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Idaho senator arrested in airport bathroom

Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

Scirocco Boobs, I have them, you lose.

fri2219 What's a Dremel?

DougEdey I pwn all your storage

whisperwolf What's a Dremel?

ElThomsono Multimodder

supermonkey Deal with it

The_Beast I like wood ಠ_ಠ

Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

DougEdey I pwn all your storage

fri2219 What's a Dremel?

DougEdey I pwn all your storage

Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

Rebourne What's a Dremel?

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Idaho senator arrested in airport bathroom

Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

Scirocco Boobs, I have them, you lose.

fri2219 What's a Dremel?

DougEdey I pwn all your storage

whisperwolf What's a Dremel?

ElThomsono Multimodder

supermonkey Deal with it

The_Beast I like wood ಠ_ಠ

Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

DougEdey I pwn all your storage

fri2219 What's a Dremel?

DougEdey I pwn all your storage

Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

Rebourne What's a Dremel?

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