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LOU CHIBBARO J
Friday, August 31, 2007
News
this
week
that
Republican
U.S.
Sen.
Larry
Craig
of
Idaho
had
been
arrested
and
pleaded
guilty
to
a
disorderly
conduct
charge
for
allegedly
seeking
a
sexual
encounter
in
an
airport
restroom
has
triggered
yet
another
congressional
sex
scandal
with
possible
implications
for
the
2008
elections,
according
to
advocates
for
both
major
parties.
Craig,
who
declared
in
a
press
conference
on
Tuesday,
“I
am
not
gay
and
never
have
been
gay,”
became
an
instant
news
media
sensation,
generating
public
discussion
on
the
often
hidden
topics
of
gay
sex
in
public
restrooms
and
undercover
police
efforts
to
crack
down
on
such
activity.
Police
at
the
Minneapolis-St.
Paul
International
Airport
said
an
undercover
officer
arrested
Craig
June
11
in
a
men’s
public
restroom
after
he
made
non-sexual
gestures
inside
a
stall
with
his
hands
and
feet
that
suggested
he
was
soliciting
the
officer
for
a
“lewd
act.”
Police
said
they
sent
the
officer
to
the
restroom
in
response
to
complaints
by
the
public
about
sexual
activity
there.
Craig
has
denied
he
was
seeking
sex
in
the
restroom
and
has
insisted
police
misunderstood
his
gestures,
including
the
sliding
of
his
foot
into
an
adjacent
stall
so
that
it
touched
the
foot
of
the
plainclothes
officer.
According
to
police,
Craig
stated
that
“he
has
a
wide
stance
when
going
to
the
bathroom
and
that
his
foot
may
have
touched
mine,”
the
arresting
officer
wrote
in
a
police
report.
By
Wednesday,
three
Republican
senators
called
for
Craig’s
resignation
and
GOP
Senate
leaders
removed
him
from
senior
committee
positions.
Republican
presidential
candidate
Mitt
Romney
quickly
removed
Craig’s
name
from
the
Romney-for-president
web
site,
where
he
was
listed
as
chair
of
Romney’s
campaign
in
Idaho
and
described
Craig’s
situation
as
“disgusting.”
Senate
Minority
Leader
Mitch
McConnell
(R-Ky.)
joined
other
GOP
Senate
leaders
in
calling
for
an
ethics
committee
investigation
into
Craig’s
conduct
over
the
airport
arrest.
By
the
Blade’s
press
time
Wednesday,
not
all
elected
officials
were
calling
for
Craig
to
resign.
Rep.
Barney
Frank
(D-Mass.),
one
of
two
openly
gay
members
of
Congress,
said
Craig
should
be
allowed
to
finish
the
remainder
of
his
term,
which
ends
January
2009,
and
have
the
option
to
go
before
Idaho
voters
in
the
2008
election.
“What
he
did,
it’s
hypocritical,
but
it’s
not
an
abuse
of
his
office
in
the
sense
that
he
was
taking
money
for
corrupt
votes,”
Frank
told
the
Associated
Press.
“I
think
people
should
resign
when
they
have
clearly
done
the
job
in
a
way
that
is
dishonest.”
“It’s
one
thing
to
say
someone
can’t
be
trusted
to
vote
without
being
corrupt,”
Frank
added,
“it’s
another
thing
to
say
that
he
can’t
be
trusted
to
go
to
the
bathroom
by
himself.”
Gay
activists
were
quick
to
point
to
Craig’s
longstanding
record
opposing
gay
civil
rights
legislation
in
his
career
of
more
than
20
years
as
a
congressman
and
senator,
including
his
vote
in
1996
against
a
bill
calling
for
banning
employment
discrimination
against
gays.
He
voted
twice
for
a
proposed
constitutional
amendment
to
ban
same-sex
marriage
and
has
expressed
opposition
to
allowing
gays
to
serve
openly
in
the
military.
“Senator
Craig
is
the
latest
in
a
string
of
public
officials
who
have
yet
to
learn
that
the
days
of
treating
Congress
as
a
game
of
charades
where
you
say
one
thing
and
do
another
are
over,”
said
Joe
Solmonese,
president
of
the
Human
Rights
Campaign,
the
nation’s
largest
gay
civil
rights
organization.
“Throughout
his
career,
Senator
Craig
has
readily
espoused
his
so-called
moral
values
in
an
attempt
to
score
political
points
by
passing
judgments
and
dividing
our
country
without
regard
to
his
own
personal
life,”
Solmonese
said.
Other
gay
activists,
while
saying
they
don’t
condone
public
sex,
expressed
concern
that
Craig’s
current
predicament
was
brought
about,
in
part,
by
the
type
of
police
sting
operation
that
gays
have
long
criticized
as
abusive
and
unnecessary.
Sean
Kosfsky,
director
of
policy
for
the
Triangle
Foundation,
a
Michigan-based
gay
advocacy
group
that
monitors
law
enforcement
issues,
said
it
was
ironic
that
an
anti-gay
politician
like
Craig
became
ensnared
in
a
police
operation
that
appears
to
be
unfairly
targeting
mostly
closeted
gay
or
bisexual
men
for
arrest.
Kosfsky
and
other
activists
have
called
on
police
to
deploy
uniformed
officers
to
discourage
and,
if
necessary,
make
arrests
in
cases
where
public
sex
is
a
problem.
They
have
argued
that
sting
operations,
which
critics
call
“entrapment”
schemes,
are
unnecessary
and
rarely
result
in
stopping
the
problem
of
public
sex
or
sexual
solicitation
in
public
places.
“Senator’s
Craig’s
arrest
was
one
of
thousands
of
these
arrests
that
take
place
across
the
country
each
year,”
Kosfsky
said.
Matt
Foreman,
executive
director
of
the
National
Gay
&
Lesbian
Task
Force,
criticized
Republican
leaders
for
reacting
more
harshly
toward
Craig’s
situation,
which
involved
a
gay
angle,
than
toward
U.S.
Sen.
David
Vitter,
a
Republican
from
Louisiana,
whose
telephone
number
turned
up
in
the
records
of
the
owner
of
a
female
escort
service
known
as
the
Washington
Madam.
“Let’s
see,
one
Republican
senator
is
involved
in
soliciting
sex
from
a
man
and
the
Republican
leadership
calls
for
a
Senate
investigation
and
yanks
the
rug
from
underneath
him,”
Foreman
said.
“Another
Republican
senator
admits
to
soliciting
the
services
of
a
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