Forever Larry

Great news, just in time for the moderators of the Fox News debate to ask the squirming GOP candidates about it:

Sen. Larry Craig is reconsidering his decision to resign after his arrest in a Minnesota airport sex sting and may still fight for his Senate seat, his spokesman said Tuesday evening.

"It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore, that the only thing he could do was resign," Sidney Smith, Craig's spokesman in Idaho's capital, told The Associated Press.

"We're still preparing as if Sen. Craig will resign Sept. 30, but the outcome of the legal case in Minnesota and the ethics investigation will have an impact on whether we're able to stay in the fight — and stay in the Senate," Smith said.

Now we know why Gov. Butch Otter didn't follow the pack (including some GOP officials happy to leak to reporters) and immediately announce a Craig replacement.

So who's angrier about this? National Republicans who might have to fight this scandal in what's supposed to be their Petraeus-driven comeback month? Or political reporters who have to fly back to Boise?

(I love Boise, especially the Record Exchange and the Hastings on East Boise Ave., but it's a pain to fly to.)

UPDATE: The Idaho Statesman reports that Craig had reshaped his Saturday statement to leave a little wriggle room. Not that you horrible people noticed, so busy were you dancing on his grave.

Comments

[iih]

National Republicans who might have to fight this scandal

Scandal? What scandal? This whole thing is too ridiculous and shows how low politicians can get on both sides (except RP and may be Obama, regardless of how one feels about his socialist policy stances).

[Jim Walsh]

I was hoping from day one he would fight it, if only for the entertainment value.

[Aresen]

"Not that you horrible people noticed, so busy were you dancing on his grave."

Never count on a person being dead, unless you have seen the body. Even then you can be mistaken.

- Bene Gesserit Axiom

[Tacos mmm...]

That is what Boise if famous for - its Hastings.

[Thomas Paine\'s Goiter]

What is the scandal? That he's gay? I'm still confused by this whole situation.

[Warren]

Bonus points to Aresen for the Herbert reference.

[Rhywun]

What's a "Hastings"? [Oh, tacos? Thought maybe it was a kind of potato.]

NB. I lived in Boise for one year when I was three. It's where my mom divorced my awful father and carted us 4 kids back east. My mom said it was kind of backwards there. I have a map of the city from 1974. The road graphics are differentiated according to paved, gravel, and dirt streets. Our street in the north part of town was a gravel street.

[tarran]

In one of Louis McMaster Bujold's books, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan cautioned against considering someone dead until seeing a corpse that was not only dead but rotted.

Of course she was talking about her son at the time... Kind of sick when you think about it...

[sixstring]

What a first class rube. He can't even call his own lawyer without screwing it up. He doesn't need a lawyer, he needs a babysitter.

[fishfry]

Can't decide if he's guilty or innocent, gay or straight, quitting or fighting. This guy is having a public meltdown. What Clinton did for blowjobs, Craig is about to do for toilet sex.

And one thing Craig can say that Clinton really couldn't: I did not have sex with that officer!

[bob]

Anyone see Arlen S.P.E.C.T.R.E. tonight saying something to the effect of "I used to be a DA and it's still possible that Craig could withdraw his guilty plea". I'd like to ask Arlen (under oath) how many guilty pleas he allowed withdrawn while he was sitting DA? I'd wager that number is "less than zero" (anonymous gay sex pun intended).

[Seitz]

Time to nail him for perjury. If he says he lied in front of the judge when he took the plea bargain, I say add another count!

[e]

Leave him some room for some wiggling and possibly some tapping as well - he's got a wide stance.

[ChrisL]

The whole fiasco reminds me of a book I read in
undergrad sociology:" Tearoom Trade". It was mostly about homosexual behavior occurring in public heads, primarily in parks. Craig should recant his guilty plea. After all, he's not a homosexual... ... ...

[John]

Meanwhile, John Edwards proposes what has to be the creepiest most totalitarian government policy I have ever heard of in this country; government mandated visits to the doctor to include mental health visits. A major party Presidential candidate proposes such an egregous violation of basic rights to privacy and personal autonomy and what is the reaction at Reason? Cricketts chirping. Why talk about that when some back bencher no one had ever heard of two weeks ago turns out to be an old pervert? Is there anything the Democrats could propose that might stir Reason? Re-education camps perhaps?

[madpad]

John's comments about Edward's increasing creepiness notwithstanding, I saw this story (first one on my new supplement this morning) and have been smiling ever since.

The only thing funnier than a dissembling old closet queen in a public thrashing over his tawdry (but plainly non-criminal) act of flagrante (sorry...'flagrant') hypocrisy is for him to become a ridiculously embarrassing spectacle for a bunch of other hypocritical nitwits.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Craigs stays or Craig goes, it's all the same to me, but now I have to go buy popcorn for the festivities.

And John, Edwards has been losing momentum and is willing to say anything right now and I'm sure Reason will get to his lunacy soon enough, just keep your shorts on. Hopefully they'll do a nice little montage of crazy Edwards.

[lunchstealer]

Y'know, Butch Otter doesn't quite make the cut as a porn name, but it does kinda have that male-stripper-stage-name quality.

[Ali-Bubba]

We can thank Arlen Specter for extending this ridiculous story.

[Eric Dondero]

This sucks. Word on the street had Otter appointing a libertarian-leaning GOPer to replace him, like Bill Sali.

Now we gotta deal with at least another year and half with boring-ass conservative Craig.

[Lamar]

This is probably bad for the GOP since instead of a shiny new, non-gay GOP Senator running for re-election, they'll get either Senator Wide Stance or somebody who'll look sort of like a second choice to replace the not gay senator, and the gayness will still hang in the air.

I'm sure the GOP isn't happy with Craig. And, as Eric Dondero suggests, the country is also a little worse off.

[madpad]

I'm sure the GOP isn't happy with Craig.

Gee..ya think?

And, as Eric Dondero suggests, the country is also a little worse off.

Since the GOP has pretty much sucked as a whole for some time now, it's neither worse nor better because of Craig.

If it (and/or the country) is any worse, it's probably mostly due to the irrational stance of the GOP when it comes to homosexuality in the first place. If Craig's turnaround forces the GOP to continue to look silly and backward over gays, then it might not be all that bad.

[cliff]

I move that we rename Senator Craig. How about Senator Widestance Blowback, it has a nice ring, almost southern.

[joe]

I would like to announce that I am reconsidering my decision to stop poinint and laughing at him.

Republicans '08: That Episode With That Other Man In the Public Restroom Was All a Big Misunderstanding

[joe]

TPG,

Among the Repubicans, the scandal is that is gay.

Among the rest of the country, the scandal is that he is a married man trolling for anonymous sex is a men's room.

[de stijl]

(I love Boise, especially the Record Exchange and the Hastings on East Boise Ave., but it's a pain to fly to.)

Yeah, coming from the East Coast you almost have to connect through MSP. Careful which bathroom you use when you're there!

Why no pressure on Sen. David "Diaper Play" Vitter to resign? He actually got his freak on, as opposed to Craig who got cop-blocked. What could be the difference between the two situations that drive such differing responses from the Republicans? I wonder what it is.

[joe]

Since Vitter is obviously a frequent flier and VIP, why would he use the public restroom, rather than a lounge?

Especially if, as he told the cop, the stalls were all full when he walked in?

[joe]

Er, Craig, not Vitter.

[tobycat]

Good. Craig should stick it out for the remaining two years. Er, that is, I mean...

[Aresen]

tobycat wins the thread!

[Kevin]

Stop with the love for Boise, Dave. We've got enough people moving here already. And yes, the Record Exchange does indeed rock.

[ChrisO]

Craig needs to say until as long as the story has humor value. After that, whatevuh.

[John in Nashville]

Perhaps Senator Craig took offense at the different treatment afforded him compared to that afforded David Vitter by their Republican colleagues. The ostensible basis for that difference is that Craig pled guilty to a minor criminal offense, while Vitter merely admitted to "serious sin" after his number was found in the records of an escort service. (Another distinction is that one of them probably actually had sex, while the other merely intended to.)

Given that Craig's plea is the peg that the Vitter supporters are hanging their hats on, it makes sense for Craig to attack the validity of the plea--a claim which has at least an arguable basis.

Perhaps Craig took offense at Senator Mitch McConnell, who has himself been the subject of innuendoes* as to which team he bats for,** characterizing Craig's stall* tactics as "unforgivable". What a Christian position to take!

BTW, I wonder what Vitter's fellow Roman Catholic Republicans would have said if he had admitted using a condom while whoremongering.
____________________________

* Puns intended
** See, e.g., http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/03/progressives-will-not-use-mcconnells.html

[ed]

And yet, after all these centuries, Senator Ted Kennedy is still Senator Ted Kennedy.
Maybe Craig should drown one of his sleazy partners.