Several well-placed GOP sources in Washington and Idaho have told CNN that embattled Republican Sen. Larry Craig is likely to resign soon, possibly as early as Friday.
Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho was arrested in June at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
A GOP source with knowledge of the situation told CNN’s Dana Bash that the Republican National Committee was poised to take the extraordinary step of calling on Craig to resign.
However, that move was put on hold, the source said, because top party leaders have received indications that Craig himself is preparing to step down.
In case the dimwitted values voters aren’t completely clear what this means, I will clear this all up:
Family Values- Admit to nailing as many prostitutes as you can from New Orleans to Washington, DC, so long as they are female and the governor of your state can not name a Republican in your place.
Not-Family Values- Denying that you rubbed your foot against another man’s foot in a bathroom stall, a clear indication you have teh gay.
I hope that is clear.
*** Update ***
Captain Ed answers his own questions:
However, if the party wants to start drawing these lines, then one has to wonder why David Vitter isn’t getting the same push. He didn’t plead guilty in court, but unlike Craig, he openly admits he broke the law and solicited prostitutes. Others serving in Congress at the moment have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors of more import than disorderly conduct without being forced to resign. If morality and credibility are at issue, why isn’t Vitter being held to that standard? It’s either that Louisiana’s Democratic governor would appoint a Democrat in his place, or that Vitter’s transgressions involved heterosexual sex and therefore are less objectionable.
Craig will depart soon, and these questions will fade away eventually. However, people will wonder whether the GOP decided to argue for standards in public officials, or whether they just found it easy to use Craig without endangering their political balance in the Senate.
I guess someone needs to do the legwork and run down all the members of both houses who have plead guilty to misdemeanors. That could be fun.
Paris Hilton
That’s Hot.
cleek
don’t forget this very important point, as NPR was so eager to point out when ostensibly discussing the apparent double-standard between Vitter and Craig: WILLIAM JEFFERSON’s FREEZER!!
Third Eye Open
Can’t a guy play out his fantasy of pooping his own adult-diaper without you moonbats raggin on him, and screaming for his head?
On the other hand, good, God-fearin’ ‘Mericans cannot stand by and let the moral fabric of our nation be torn asunder by the selacious footsy activites of Teh Gay Horde moles in the hallowed halls of our Congress.
Zifnab
Dude. Those ‘tards down in LA re-elected the corrupt motherfucker. What the hell do you do with that?
I’m more pissed at how Congress has repeatedly attempted to obstruct the investigation – Dems and Repubs alike – because of some random declaration of Congressional Privilege.
Why is it that Privilege only seems to get used when people are doing something horribly fucking illegal?
Quiddity
Does this make the Republicans look good? I don’t think so. Here we have the Republicans going all out against Craig who is charged with a personal offense, yet they didn’t care when other Republicans (Cunningham) were charged with abuse of public funds – which is arguably of more practical concern to the voter/taxpayer.
(related: I totally agree w/JC on Sam Brownback being more human than the other Republicans; and John McCain and Mitt Romney are truly distasteful.)
Michael Demmons
I guess great minds think alike!
http://gayorbit.net/?p=7789
SPIIDERWEB™
Thank you. The definitive explanation.
Will the wingers read it?
canuckistani
I don’t get it. What does William Jefferson’s Freezer have to do with Bill Clinton?
Zifnab
Brownback just does a better job of masking his intentions. His voting record and his private speeches to his Opus Dei friends are no better – often times even worse – than McCain or Romney. However, he gives plenty of lip service to “liberal” causes. Honestly, he reminds me more of Ted Haggard than anyone.
Fortunately, he couldn’t be farther away from the Presidency.
Paul L.
Can you cite where Vitter admitted he had sex with a large number of prostitutes?
Senator’s Number on Escort Service List
Bob In Pacifica
It’s not about misdemeanors. It’s about lying to themselves and the world about themselves and how their dishonesty destroys others.
Fascism seems to attract men who need to publicly demonstrate their masculinity. Witness Flyboy and his pal, Jeff Gannon, the man who could slip past the White House guards in the Age of Terror.
Just like everything else the Republicans pretend to be, their family values and the purity of their sexual desires are nothing more than pasteboard displays to fool the hicks. Shouldn’t we have Ann Coulter front-and-center to make a determination of sexual preferences of politicians?
The Republican Party of 2007: angry closet queens and their closeted fag hags, cutting out their pink triangles while Der Fuhrer portrays another character from The Village People.
John S.
He just calls escort services and visits brothels because he enjoys ministering his Christian values to women. Yeah, that’s it.
Are you really so fucking naive as to believe that?
The Other Steve
There was the DC madam, and then there was a brothel in New Orleans which said he was a regular there.
I guess you’re right. Vitter did obfuscate and lie about this, just like Craig.
AnonE.Mouse
I was all set to become a Republican until I found out about the initiation.
ThymeZone
Thank god, the delicate peepees of Minnesota are now safer.
And in other states where delicate men are unable to defend their own peepees in restrooms, great sighs of relief are being breathed now! Now they can sit in their stalls and not have their peepees peeped.
Here in Arizona, home of Manly Men, of course, we just make a mental note of the foolishness in the rest of the country and go on about our beezwax. We proudly defend our own peepees and never have to ask the government keep our peepees safe.
demimondian
TZ, I want to know what your plans are to protect the virtue of the delicate flowers of New Orleans’ Bourbon street whorehouses.
Tax Analyst
Well, there you have it: Arizona is NOT the place of Government of the peepee, by the peepee, and for the peepee.
They clearly all have a handle on their own peepees…no need for gum’mint intervention.
Those of you whose hands are not busy, please offer a salute to the self-sufficient Arizonans.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Gosh, there’s political concerns involved in politics? If the GOP didn’t figure that out, they’re bringing a knife to Sean Connery’s gunfight. I’m from New Jersey. Let’s ask Lautenberg what he thinks about who should be allowed to stay and who should be forced out. Ask McGreevey whether being outed as gay, even as a (D-NJ), gets you kicked to the curb.
Of course, some of it has to do with who will replace Craig vs. who will replace Vitter — if the GOP had a super-majority, Vitter might have been on the chopping block. Some of it might have to do with Vitter’s vote on immigration vs. Craig’s. Some of it has to do with attitudes about political norms in Louisiana vs. those in Idaho.
The simple fact is, most of it has to do with the fact that America — red state, blue state, purple state — feels differently about a guy calling a female prostitute for private sex, and trolling for gay sex in public restrooms. The latter’s just plain creepier than the former, and if there’s one thing a public person can’t be, it’s creepy (bought George Michael’s last CD? Neither did anyone else). See how infinitely-more-titillated the media, the blogs, the comedians and the talk shows are by Craig in comparison to Vitter.
How much of this is a homo/hetero component? Thought experiment: Imagine what would’ve happened if Bill Clinton had gotten blown by a male intern. Or imagine Craig had been loitering in a unisex bathroom, peeking and reaching in stalls women were occupying.
The fact is, the GOP knew that Vitter’s situation would blow over, and that Craig’s won’t.
ThymeZone
Or, just a foot tap will do.
demimondian
That would have been viewed as sexual assault, rather than a merely a lewd act.
Oops. Sorry, Eeel. Forgot — those facts aren’t your friends are they?
ThymeZone
We Manly Men of Arizona proudly volunteer to have the whores placed directly under us.
For protection, I mean.
AkaDad
One of the lessons I taught my daughter, was to always plead not guilty…
ThymeZone
Really? So, looking into a stall is a sexual assault?
So, a janitorial service worker who looked into a stall to see if anyone were in there …. guilty of an assault?
Wow, you learn new things here every day. Clearly we need more sex police. It’s an outrage that there is a public restroom in America where there is not a Sex Police officer there to protect our genitals, our values and our women.
I see the need for a private service here, an opportunity for profit. Since the government, run by liberals, isn’t interested in protecting Americans, I will start a Public Restroom Sex Police service and sell these services to nervous women and delicate men everywhere who just want to eliminate their waste in peace.
Necessity, as they say, is the foot tap of invention.
Tax Analyst
Shameless self-promotional item: I just penned a parody for the situation. Don’t know how many of you are acquainted with the original song, it’s from the 60’s.
Original Song – “The Rapper” by The Jaggerz
Parody – “The Tapper” by Tax Analyst
Well sir, this dude here
Wants to give some head to ya
He’s there at the airport
For his lust he’ll go far; in a toilet stall
Feel him peruse me
Staring at me through a hole in the wall
Tap-a-tap-a-tap
On the floor he’s tappin’
Tap, tap, tap
I know what he’s after
So he started tapping
As I’m taking a crap, man
He spreads he knees to
reach over his toes there to touch you
He’s crazy, this guy
He wants someone to suck his tool
Tap-a-tap-a-tap
This guy; he keeps tappin’
Then I laugh
He’s courtin’ disaster
He made his request then
OK, now I’ll arrest him
He’ll soon be disgraced
Shows his Senate ID badge to me
He knows now that he’s screwed
I said, “Sir, better come now with me”
Trapped, oh yes, he’s trapped
right there in the crapper
Trapped; he yaps
That sick, horny bastard
Trapped, oh yeah
One sick, horny bastard…
myiq2xu
Clinton’s full name is William Jefferson Clinton.
Now do you see the connection?
ThymeZone
Okay, I am off the public restroom, with TA’s ditty in my head.
I hope I make it back. If not, if my peepee gets peeped and I have to kill myself because there are no Sex Police there to save me, I just want you all to know, I love you guys and it was great sharing some pixels with ya.
So long, until we meet again.
ThymeZone
Good one.
Helena Montana
If I were Craig, I’d hang in to the bitter end, just to fuck with my loyalGOP “friends.”
John S.
No, but:
Might be.
The janitor at my office building usually doesn’t open locked stalls with people in them. If a janitor went into an open stall, that’s an entirely different story. I’m not really sure where your train of thought pulls into the station here.
Xenos
It may be a minor issue, since it appears they have Jefferson dead to rights, but at the moment he is just alleged to have accepted bribes, committed wire fraud, frozen currency violations, and so on. As he should be considered innocent until convicted, Jefferson should not be compared to admitted violators such as Vitter and convicted criminals such as Craig.
Let’s just compare him to Tom Delay.
ThymeZone
Right at the station where people start to realize how fucking ridiculous it is to have sex police sitting in stalls and snaring gay people?
The humorous comment I made (so identified here for those who have no actual sense of humor) was based on a vague description somebody made of “reaching in” to a stall. What that means, is TBD. Under the door? Over the door? Under the side wall?
To unlock a stall from outside, one would have to do more than just “reach in” in any stall I have seen in the last 40 years. But hey, I live in Arizona, where we take good care of our peepees at all times. To unlock, one would have climb or crawl in, would one not? Without some special key thing that they only sell at gay sex stores, I mean.
Does any of this start to sound ludicrous to you? That’s because IT IS. The whole fucking idea is ludicrous, which is the point, the whole point, and nothing but the point.
If it doesn’t seem ludicrous to you, then I would like to suggest the very nice people at the Republican Party might have something for you. It is there that the people who want a values-driven nanny state and a populace filled with fearful people hang out. The scairdy cats, the Minnesota Delicate Peeppe Men, the scolds, the crazy people, and the Brownbacks and the Huckabees and the Giulianis.
They will protect your stall, and your peepee will be safe!
ThymeZone
Of course, if I ruled the world, I’d take a few of those Lutheran Lake Wobegone Sex Police folks and retrain them and make them bridge inspectors.
Sure, I know a few peepees would go unprotected, but Im thinking, on balance, maybe keeping the bridges from falling down on your peepee is also important?
Rome Again
Minnesota would probably do best to consider that bridges might be more important, I think.
Tax Analyst
I can see where that might be more beneficial than having Potty Police PeePee Protection Personnel stationed at every Public Restroom.
Maybe they could just have “Peeking Permitted” and “Non-Peeking” section options for Public Restroom Accomodations.
If you don’t mind having your pecker perused (and then perhaps pursued), well, then you just have a seat in the “Peeking Permitted” (or “PP” for short) section.
ThymeZone
Something like that?
ThymeZone
Got it! I will invent the Super Peepee Protector Restroom Stall. Absolutely peep-proof.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
If you knew Craig’s story, you would know that, from his restroom stall, Craig reached his hand under the stall divider and into the next one slightly, allegedly “to pick up a piece of paper.” It’s apparently part of the intricate Mating Dance of the North American Airport Bathroom Perv.
Since Craig was not charged with sexual assault for his reaching into the stall, you may take back your original comment. Of course, ironically, you were also dead wrong about the facts and me not being friends. We’re BFFs.
ThymeZone
Didn’t it turn out to be a card that said “Police” on it?
Tax Analyst
Yes! A great Service to our Society. You could end up with a Medal of Some Type for that.
myiq2xu
Maybe someone who is familiar with the Minneapolis Gayport could tell us if the restroom Craig was busted in was adjacent to or between his connecting gates.
He stated that he used that restroom many times. I’m just curious, is Minneapolis the usual hub for flights in and out of Idaho? Since he’s flying on the public teat, I would think he’d go fastest rather than El Cheapo.
Tax Analyst
Fixed
ThymeZone
By order of the GOP.
myiq2xu
I just answered my second question myself by checking Expedia. There are connecting flights that go from DC to Boise that stop in Minneapolis, but only 3 out of about 42, and those are 3 of the 4 most expensive.
Tax Analyst
Yeah, that’s better…I don’t know how I missed it.
John S.
EEEL-
If a man reached into a stall where a woman was in your fantasy unisex bathroom scenario, I have no doubt it would be construed as sexual assault.
Of course that has absolutely nothing to do with Craig whatsoever, so who knows what this anecdote of yours was meant to convey.
Actually, I don’t think anyone can figure out what the fuck you’re talking about. Can you?
John S.
And my comment was in response to that being a man reaching into a stall where women were. I realize the scenario is absurd, but then again it came from EEEL.
myiq2xu
Is a “reach in” anything like a “reach around?”
ThymeZone
Don’t know, never saw either. In the stalls I use, no reach would reach anything but my ankle, which is of course enticing as you know, but not of any particular use to anyone.
I suppose if the gay fiend grabbed my ankle and dragged me out of the stall …. but see, us Manly Arizona Men don’t get treated that way. We just say , “Hey, unless you want to die in that stall over there today, I’d recommend that you withdraw your hand and be on your way.” And, they go away. Simple, really. Still haven’t need a Sex Cop to save me. Of course, I am getting older.
Tax Analyst
Yeah, those “geriatrica-philes” are just drooling at the thought of nailing some “Old Meat” at the local Public Restroom.
So you’d better watch your Old Ass from now on…
myiq2xu
If you Arizona men were as manly as you claim, then if he could reach your ankle he could reach something else.
“The water’s cold.”
“Deep too.”
Rome Again
Well, I happen to think you have cute ankles. ;)
ThymeZone
Yuck!
Oh, you meant me.
Damn you Tax Analyst!
ThymeZone
{ blush }
Thank you sir!
Oh, it’s you, Rome. I thought it was some guy outside my stall ….
Rome Again
::snap:: “Damn, brushed off again!”
JGabriel
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop:
Umm, not really. Especially once you add in the diaper-fetish, the adultery, the health risks to which he may have exposed his wife, and the family values hypocrisy.
Really, the Vitter and Craig situations are about equal in creepiness. And even if Craig’s pursuit of sex in a public space adds a level of ‘lewd conduct’ criminality to balance the Vitter’s prostitutional criminality, you’re still left with the fact that at least Craig wasn’t paying for sex.
So, if forced to make a choice, I’d say Vitter wins the creep factor contest.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
I think you’d be alone there, but to each his own scorecard.
Diaper fetish (of which I’d not heard, btw) vs. the mating dance in the public restroom — I’d be generous to call that even. Craig probably trumps Vitter in the adultery, the health risks (!), and the hypocrisy categories.
Paying for sex vs. anonymous gay sex — hey, we’ve all heard of famous people and pols busted for hookers. Craig was breaking new ground — so much so that entire columns are being dedicated to gay sex men’s room etiquette. And to find out a Louisiana politician frequented a hooker would not exactly shake the foundations there on the bayou. They’ve seen much worse.
But mainly, it’s the whole public place vs. behind closed doors thing. We’ll see. The comics spent 2 days on Vitter — they’re working on three now with Craig. No end in sight.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Apparently, you’re the only one having trouble, John. And that just shocks me!
grumpy realist
I also wonder (aside from the heterosexuality vs. homosexuality thing) whether it’s that Vitter is from a stereotypically sleazy area of the South and this is seen as just another “boys will be boys.”
JGabriel
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop:
JGabriel
(Re-post, to correct formatting errors in previous post)
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop:
JGabriel
Ok, I give up on the formatting. Something is clearly wrong with the system, because the preview showed everything correctly.