Hats Off to Larry

Typically August is a slow month for news…

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 said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Our old friend C.L. "Butch" Otter, the governor of Idaho, has the right to choose Craig's replacement. The smart money is on Jim Risch, the man who served as acting governor last year but stood aside to let Otter win the GOP nomination.

Comments

[n4k33n.]

I only have one thing to say to this,..

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Image:Cock_1.jpg

[M]

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

I like the ambiguous way the final five words could modify either "official" or "he," i.e., Craig: How's anonymity been working for you lately, Mr. Senator?

Like the man said, it's a slow month.

Also, I'm still not sure he wasn't framed. But anyway.

[M]

officials, that be

[Zach]

I have something to add as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU

[Aakash]

I wish that Helen Chenoweth-Hage was still alive.

We need more constitutionalist and pro-liberty Congressmen - and especially CongressWOMEN. 🙂

[crap-action-jackson]

Oh sweet zombie Jesus, is it ethical to post links to encyclopediadramatica without cautioning about the peril to your everlasting soul? (not that page in particular, but it is brain-meltingly close to life shattering images)

[Ruthless]

Weigel,
We assume you have the long weekend "duty"?
Would you repeat the question?
Peace.
May the Workers of the World unite this very weekend.

[fishfry]

Looks like Larry is finally going down losing his job.

[BakedPenguin]

"Butch"? Before I RTFA, I thought that was a joke about how the Republicans were reacting to Craig.

[Mike]

I just wish someone in the national press would state that the reason Craig is gone and David Vitter remains is because a GOP governor picks Craig's replacement and a Democrat would pick Vitter's.

[Mad Max]

All right, let's see if I got this straight:

We need to relax sexual mores because soon-to-be-ex Senator Craig is a hypocrite about family values.

Immigrants shouldn't be encouraged to learn English because John Rocker says they should, and he's a jerk.

Let's extend that guilt-by-association logic, shall we?

Sen. Craig was skeptical about unlimited, unreviewable wiretapping, so I guess that means we need to do lots of wiretapping, just to show we're not like Sen. Craig.

Michael Moore is a first-class jerk, and he opposes the war in Iraq; ergo, the war in Iraq must be a wonderful thing, and we need to have a bigger surge.

Congressman X talks about the virtues of a free market, but, look! He supports pork-barrel projects for his district, plus he gets health care at a government hospital. Therefore, to show how much we hate Congressman X's hypocricy, we should support massive federal spending, tax increases, and socialized medicine.

This is fun!

[joshua corning]

so wait...does this mean he is gay?

Oh fuck, never mind i don't care.

[rho]

Rickrolled... I am ashamed.

[e]

hey zach and n33, did you hear about the "A" tag? It's all the rage with the kids these days.

n33's link

zach's link

[Jim Bob]

This is really all there is to say about this goofy sideshow of a story.

[FatDrunkAndStupid]

Mike,
Vitter had sex with women other than his wife. That's allowed. Men aren't. Even if its just a wide stance, you're gone.

[joe]

I didn't think there was any reason for this to go beyond pointing and laughing.

[bigbigslacker]

Is it illegal to have sex in a bathroom stall? What if you keep it quite and clean up the stall so that its not disorderly? Is it because the act is in public? That gets me to thinking about having sex in your tent in a state park. Even though nobody can see, anybody walking by knows what's going on. I've never heard of anyone getting arrested for driving a stake in their tent.

I'm only interested because...uh, well, I'm not that interested.

[Chuck Cavanaugh]

It was nice to see my home town on the news. The view from the Boise train station is glorious. Too bad it was under such bad circumstances. Poor Boise. But it's not the first time that they had themselves a gay scandal! In 1965 there was a book published called: The Boys of Boise

[Neu Mejican]

From BBC

Most ridiculous news of the day...

...No outside organisation or individual will influence or control the reincarnation of living Buddhas [eminent monks]," states one article of the new regulations.

They also say that any reincarnation has to be approved by various levels of government.

In the case of the most pre-eminent monks, who would include the Dalai Lama, China's cabinet has to give its seal of approval.

[NotThatDavid]

I suspect that the entire thing is one vast, brilliant reverse-psychology strategem by the Chinese government to get Tibetan nationalists to die off faster.

[Cesar]

Sounds like Butch Otter will pick a good replacement, he seems like my kind of Republican.

[Susan Mac]

If Larry Craig had the courage to come out of the closet he would gain alot of respect, although he might have to change political parties. As it is, he appears to be a lying cowardly, hypocrite. He has a long history of homosexual encounters. If he's "not gay" as he claims, then what is gay?

[KenK]

The hypocrisy bothers me - otherwise who cares.

One thing - the phrase "Toe tapping good time" will never quite seem the same to me.

[Lamar]

"If he's "not gay" as he claims, then what is gay?"

An explanation of gay. Yep, Craig's gay.

[TLB]

1. If the GOP were smart, they would have used this as an opportunity for a ParthianShot by attempting to portray the Dems as intolerant.

2. If I were smart, I would have made a video of the incident involving clown shoes and RonaldMcDonald (image: rounded fingers in the white gloves coming from the other stall, etc.)

[Andrew Ian Dodge]

His future was always in someone else's hands...that is the way he liked it.

[Ruthless]

What about the undercover cop who has to sit an 8 hour shift on a toilet seat in an airport toilet no less?
Not being a professional, beyond about 20 minutes puts my legs to sleep big time.
We can be thankful and tranquil and proud that man has been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud, and our government can hire twits with buns of steel, or cast iron, or putty. Whatever.

[prolefeed]

If Larry Craig had the courage to come out of the closet he would gain alot of respect, although he might have to change political parties. As it is, he appears to be a lying cowardly, hypocrite. He has a long history of homosexual encounters. If he's "not gay" as he claims, then what is gay?

1) He would have had to move to another state in addition to changing parties -- oh, and embrace socialized medicine, and -- screw it. He would have had to change careers.

2) Gay, in CraigsWorld TM, is doing gay stuff other than the gay stuff he does. Oh, wait, didn't Clinton also define blowjobs as "not sex"? The Clinton Defense TM!

[joshua corning]

1) He would have had to move to another state in addition to changing parties -- oh, and embrace socialized medicine, and -- screw it. He would have had to change careers.

The party he could have switched to did not have to be Democrat....

How about Libertarian?

[Alice Bowie]

They may be a slight possiblity that Larry Craig was framed.

I don't think someone should loose their jobs over this...especially after pleading guilty to SIMPLE DISORDERLY CONDUCT...which is not a crime.

And ZACK;

that video was awful...

[Alice Bowie]

Correction...
This is a crime...but not a serious enough crime that someone should have 2 loose their jobs over.

If u ask me ... traffic offenses like speeding, passing a school bus, running red lights pose VERY SERIOUS threat to human lives...and these are not recorded as criminal offense.

As much as I hate hypocrats....i feel kinda sorry 4 da guy.

[Legate Damar]

I'm going to pretend this is the weekend open thread, so:

I just gave Dr. Paul $100 earlier today. My first contribution to a campaign ever. And, because it was Dr. Paul, it felt good! Like shrimp stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon, and deep fried.

Crap, now I'm hungry...

[ed]

It's odd that, amid all the finger-wagging and schadenfreude over a presumably gay Republican getting caught, hardly anyone is discussing what he got caught at, and whether cruising public restrooms for annonymous sex is healthy, rational or dignified behavior for anyone, gay or straight.

Here in South Florida, the mayor of Fort Lauderdale is under fire from the gay community for his anti-gay-sex-in-public-restrooms stance. Local gays smell homophobia and demand his ouster. National gays are organizing tourist boycotts of Fort Lauderdale. Because if you can't travel to South Florida to enjoy the sun, beaches, fabulous seafood and annonymous sex in public restrooms, why bother?

People have become so blinded by their own ideologies that they can no longer think straight. Or gay, as the case may be.

[Plant Immigration Rights Suppo]

Ed, to me, this is a property rights issue. If I own a mall or an airport it should be up to me, as the owner, to determine what kind of behaviour I will allow in the restrooms. If my establishment caters to families that might bring in small children I probably would not want people having sex in there. Sorry, get a room. But if I ran a strip club things might be different.

[LibertyPlease]

"I just gave Dr. Paul $100 earlier today. My first contribution to a campaign ever. And, because it was Dr. Paul, it felt good! Like shrimp stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon, and deep fried.

Legate Damar, good job! I just got back from his Ft. Worth Straw Poll / Rally. It's great to hear sense come from a politician.

[Larry]

I'm not gay!!!!

But I might be a dumb cocksucker...

[Anonymo the Anonymous]

1. If the GOP were smart, they would have used this as an opportunity for a ParthianShot by attempting to portray the Dems as intolerant.

Some did try this (more the pundits than the pols themselves) but it didn't really work, because it's moronic. Though thanks for teaching me a new term. Surprised I'd never heard that before.

[Anonymo the Anonymous]

Haven't seen it noted here yet so for your enjoyment:

Jesus fucking Christ, I can't believe this. Who's the worst in all of this: Rove, for writing it; National Review, for publishing it; or the 27-percenters who will believe it? I'm leaning toward NR.

[dhex]

whether cruising public restrooms for annonymous sex is healthy, rational or dignified behavior for anyone

better there than public parks, bro.

[James Kabala]

Libertarian angle: Very few articles on Craig's troubles have mentioned that he was one of the four Republican senators (with Hagel, Murkowski, and Sununu) who briefly opposed re-authorization of the Patriot Act back in December 2005 before some small changes by Bush caused them all to cave. I wonder if this has anything to do with his quick abandonment by the GOP leadership.

[Syd]

TLB | September 1, 2007, 7:15pm | #
1. If the GOP were smart, they would have used this as an opportunity for a ParthianShot by attempting to portray the Dems as intolerant.

Wouldn't that be really stupid, seeing as how it was the Republicans who pushed him out?

[Ed]

...regarding immigration and Senator Craig:

"If Americans are willing to be undercover cops in airport mens' rooms, I find it hard to believe there are ANY jobs Americans won't do."

[Grand Chalupa]

Libertarian angle: Very few articles on Craig's troubles have mentioned that he was one of the four Republican senators (with Hagel, Murkowski, and Sununu) who briefly opposed re-authorization of the Patriot Act back in December 2005 before some small changes by Bush caused them all to cave. I wonder if this has anything to do with his quick abandonment by the GOP leadership.

Either that or you know, the sex in public bathroom thing.

[Libertarian Racist]

As long as one isn't sucking NIGGER cock, it is okay by me.

[Stevo Darkly]

What about the undercover cop who has to sit an 8 hour shift on a toilet seat in an airport toilet no less?

Not being a professional, beyond about 20 minutes puts my legs to sleep big time.

You can keep the circulation in your legs going if you just shuffle your feet around a lot.

[CS]

I guess many people are upset about this because they can imagine some innocent, rosy-cheeked young lad misinterpreting these signals and consequently suffering A Fate Worse Than Death.

[Kevin]

Here in Idaho, we have a saying for when emabarrassing stuff like this puts us on the national stage for the wrong reasons: "Hey, look over there...it's the Boise State football team! Remember the Fiesta Bowl? Anybody?".

[independent worm]

I like the new spin:

"Yes, I pled guilty, but in retrospect, I should not have, and in fact, I am actually innocent. If only I had taken the time to have a lawyer explain to me that pleading guilty is an admission of guilt (unless tendering either an Alford or "no contest" plea, which I also didn't know about) then I would have fought this charge that I am innocent, not guilty, of committing."

At least it's creative. And not the same old "my problems are because I'm an alcoholic, ooooh you know I'd love to talk more and set the record straight but gotta run, rehab started five minutes ago!!"

[Eric Dondero]

Ummm, maybe because Vitter wasn't having sex with women in public restrooms.

It's not the homosexual sex that's the gross part with Craig. It's the location.

[Dr. Gulag]

>>.As it is, he appears to be
>>a lying cowardly, hypocrite.
>>He has a long history of
>>homosexual encounters.

I still can't figure out which part of that is illegal, and why the police are running stings in rest rooms when there are still so many untapped wrong addresses to be attacked with SWAT teams.

Seriously, if I were a cop I'd quit before accepting gay bathroom duty. Is this the best this dubmass society can do?

[Dr.Gulag]

>>>Wouldn't that be really stupid,
>>>seeing as how it was the Republicans
>>>who pushed him out?

That was his point, genius. INSTEAD of pushing him out, use it against- oh, what's the use...

[LarryA]

You can keep the circulation in your legs going if you just shuffle your feet around a lot.

I thought that was the signal Craig got nailed for using.

The three-term Republican senator had maintained that he did nothing wrong except for making the guilty plea without consulting a lawyer.

Excuse me? Isn't this one of the folks who writes the laws we're supposed to follow? If he doesn't understand...

[James Kabala]

Grand Chalupa: Sheesh, I know THAT, but I wonder if they might have broken more slowly with someone who had been getting along with the leadership lately.

[Grand Chalupa]

I doubt it. Seems to me the act would've quickly brought down anybody in the party.

Craig didn't admit, he didn't ask for forgivness, he didn't check into rehab. How could anybody defend him?

[crimethink]

Just an aside, what rehab would Senator Craig have to check into? Toilet Fuckers Anonymous?

[crimethink]

You can keep the circulation in your legs going if you just shuffle your feet around a lot.

ENTRAPMENT!!!

[Someone Who Doesn\'t Want to L]

Am I the only one who read:

Our old friend C.L. "Butch" Otter, the governor of Idaho, has the right to choose Craig's replacement. The smart money is on Jim Risch, the man who served as acting governor last year but stood aside to let Otter win the GOP nomination.

and thought, what did C.L. "Butch" Otter have on Risch that made him stand aside? We may have another bathroom sex scandal in just a few weeks!

[joe]

ed,

The police can do a perfectly good job of keeping public rest rooms safe without grandstanding politicians trying to use the situation to raise their political profiles.

Think of the difference between the stiffs at the FBI and CIA doing their jobs in counter-espionage in the 1950s, and Joe McCarthy waving around his silly list and flaming the opposition party as traitors.

The Mayor of Ft. Lauderdale needs to STFU and let the police do their job.