There's got to be a police report. FOIA?

I sense a weekend in luxury rehab someplace in the backwoods of Montana and some serious praying to get the gay out for the Senator.

This brings new meaning to the phrase, "Trolls in the bathroom."

The Craigster caught doing lord knows what in an airport mens room. Another member of the current Republican herd bites the dust. Sure, this type of behavior wouldn't be a big issue among progressives were it one of their own (see Barney Frank), but some of us expect better from our elected leaders. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, Larry. The Trollbot won't shed many tears for you and knowing Idaho, your replacement will not be a Democrat. I just hope it's a good classic liberal type rather than some bat shit crazy religious right goon.

Trollbot,

Let's please divide sexual orientation from a crime here.

Barney Frank has not, to my knowledge, committed a crime here.

Larry Craig committed a crime. Ironically, he also committed this crime in the light of his highly anti-gay stances (talk about self-loathing!). This fact is nothing new in Republican circles. Although, it is sad, "outings" such as these are highly entertaining.

Both are gay, but it has nothing to do with committing crimes.

Didn't Barney Frank solicit a male prostitute?

Solicited, shacked up with and had a prostitution racket running in his home, but why split hairs? Barney Frank is a progressive hero and Larry Craig will burn for whatever it is he did.

Jeepers, peeps. Discover the Wiki.

In 1990, the House voted to reprimand Frank when it was revealed that Steve Gobie, a male escort whom Frank had befriended after hiring him through a personal advertisement, claimed to have conducted an escort service from Frank's apartment when he was not at home. Frank had dismissed Gobie earlier that year and reported the incident to the House Ethics Committee after learning of Gobie's activities. After an investigation, the House Ethics Committee found no evidence that Frank had known of or been involved in the alleged illegal activity.[1] Gobie disputes Frank's account.

Idaho's Craig was found guilty of a crime.

Miles really takes the cake.

Wasn't BrokeBack Mountain filmed in Idaho?

While everyone is fascinated with Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig jerking off in Minnesota airport men's room and Alberto I Wipe My Ass with the Constitution Gonzales desertion of the ship of state, the markets are tanking for the third week in a row.

Not only is the Multi-Millionaire Media wall to wall with this bullshit, but I had to drill down to a fourth-tier conspiracy nutjob blog to find ANY news about the markets. "Blogtopia" (yesssssss, skippy said it) is pathetic.

After all these years of getting caught in restrooms and parks, would you not think that the GOP bigwigs could arrange for some sort of an "in call" service to satisfy their kinky cravings? Perhaps that guy with the fake press credentials (Jeff somebody???) is again offering his male-escort services now that the White House does not use him as a shill at press conferences.

Jerking off in a mens room? Was that all it was? I'd tell Larry to get a room, but you know what they say about men and masturbation. There are those that do and those who lie about it.

"Not that I know of."

Kudos torridjoe (aka Mark Bunster)! That's one of the more intelligent things I have seen from you thus far.

Craig is charged with something that probably should never have been a crime in the first place. Granted the guy is as two faced as the come and questions about his sexual orientation have been floating arond for years. But should this really be a crime?

MW

So, Craig solicited sex from someone he never saw [besides his shoes], talked with, or knew the name of. Gay or straight, that's pretty darn creepy.

Dude - I always joked that anti-gay activists were all gay, but who knew it'd actually be the truth?

Barney Frank was had an ongoing relationship with a prostitute. Whether he was paying for it or not (beyond their initial consultation?) seems like splitting hairs to me. Just because O.J. was found "not guilty" doesn't mean he's innocent. Back in the day, a U.S. Senator didn't get investigated or prosecuted for these kinds of (ahem) oversights.

If closeted Republican Senators looking for a quickie in the twin cities airport lavatory doesn't qualify for sexual minority status, I don't know who will. We're supposed to be tolerant of sexual minorities, remember?

Goose. Gander.

I don't have any problem with Craig's alleged sexual preferences, I do find his behavior "tacky" but the part that gets my "goose" is the hypocricy. The vote pandering lying hypocricy. Gander

It's been an open secret that Craig is gay since at least 1983. A great place to follow the continued outing of closeted GOPers is http://www.blogactive.com/

Here's the URL.

The anti-gay laws have been on the books for a while, and they were/ are embraced by the likes of Craig, Foley, and others. I have no big problem with these people, altho I would like to know if they prefer to give or to receive. A wet mouth is a wet mouth, where as a dry ass is another story. Being a politician who's job seems to be giving it to the public anus, I wonder if he is a giver or a taker. "Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit". Freda Adler

Of course Barney Frank is one of the good guys. I only asked about him because Liberal Incarnate said: Barney Frank has not, to my knowledge, committed a crime here.

In fact, Frank did commit a crime, as recounted in a Washington Post story from 1989: Frank, one of two openly gay members of Congress, confirmed Friday that he paid Gobie for sex. . . . So Backbeat, Lestatdelc, and T.A., are you telling me that Barney Frank falsely confessed, or was prostitution legal in 1989? Perhaps you're not as good at Google as you think you are.

M.W.'s right, this shouldn't even be a crime. Probably 100 feet away, a straight guy was picking up a girl at the airport bar, hoping for sex. But two men picking one another up in the bathroom is a crime? Whatever. You can take joy in that. I find it sad that Craig grew up so repressed that this is how he expresses his sexuality.

I don't actually understand how the sex act was going to occur... craig was reaching under the stall... what exactly was going to happen?? They were just going to play footsie?

Google is now able to determine sexual intent? Wow.

I knew they had glory holes at the Twin Cities airport but do you have a map of where the XXX video screens are located. It'll make my next layover something to look forward to.

I'll have to see a doc about my restless leg syndrome first: no wonder Mom kept telling me to quit tapping my foot at the dinner table. How did she know?

Thanks for the informative link, Kari. So, I wonder, do folks go into these stalls with a cordless drill and carbide tipped bit to drill penis-size holes? Has anyone ever studied the difference in the average diameter of penis-sized holes in various parts of the world? Also, is sticking one's penis through a hole in a wall, condom clad or not, ever really "safe"?

I think it's pretty funny that every time a prominent Republican does something wrong (and that seems to be every other week), Republcians respond that a Democrat something similar 15 or 20 years ago. That's pre-school logic: two wrongs make a right.

Also, Republicans seem confused about what Larry did that was wrong. It doesn't bother me that he's gay (that's his business). It doesn't particularly bother me that he solicited sex (though I would expect more from a U.S. Senator). What bothers me is he's a hypocrit.

"THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR"S MEMBER LEST THOU FEELEST THE SHORT ARM OF THE LAW!"

Larry Craig pleaded guilty to lewd conduct in an airport men's room. He said "In hindsight...". Isn't that what the problem was?

Too sweet. Homophobic republicans are so gay. Let us pray. Thank you Lord for your destruction of the sinful, prideful, morally bankrupt republican party so that all of your children; red, white, brown, yellow, straight or gay can live in a country where they will be respected and valued for the content of their character. Amen.

Many people may be outraged about this story for many reasons, but imo the hypcrisy is the primary issue. I don't care that he's gay. I do care that he's a closeted gay public servant who promotes anti-gay legislation, that he is a US congressman soliciting anonymous sex in public restrooms, and that he has almost certainly either diddled or tried to diddle minors working in the page program.

That's a long way from having an affair (straight or gay, married or single), or even a one-night stand, with someone able to consent and under private circumstances.

I certainly don't expect superior character from politicians anymore, but really... this is well below even the very modest standards of personal behavior I have come to expect. Whether public restroom solicitation is "OK" or not for a private citizen can be debated elsewhere. He's a freakin congressman, and worse, one who has sought to legislate what he thinks is "OK" for other people as if he had the moral authority to do so, which he would not have even if his character were beyond reproach.

And if I'm reading this correctly, he tried to intimidate the arresting officer with the fact that he's a congressman.

And he continues to avoid responsibility for his actions.

Comparing him or his situation to anyone/anything else is gratuitious. He's a sleazebag unworthy of the office he occupies.

First of all. I feel bad for Craig's family and pity him for being one of many closeted gay/gay-bashing Republicans.

This isn't a total surprise. In 1983 two Congressmen were reprimanded (I'm not sure if it was a censure or what) for having sex with pages, Gerry Studds, D-MA with a male page (He was re-elected) and Dan Crane R-IL with a female page (He was defeated). Then Congressman Larry Craig promptly took the the House press gallery to assure the world that he was not involved. Trouble is, no one had accused him. It made Craig something of an inside the beltway joke... and raised eyebrows.

Craig can like ducks, for all I care.

Well, apparently, he is no beaver fan...

Why it took two months, and how the story was broken, are much more compelling issues, IMHO.

Is attempted bribery accepted as endemic? What about his "anti-enforcement attitude", as he would put it?

The police said the sting was based on reports. Used to be you didn't get the airport police without a lot of complaints. Is this another added bonus of the post-9/11 airport?

Doesn't just being in an US airport mean you're inflexible and stupid? A love all the folks that preach that they'd defend their most insignificant right with the last drop of their blood, and then voluntarily relinquish most all of them to save a couple of hours.

A few points... 1) This was a police sting, plain and simple. 2) It's not inconceivable that Craig was being targeted. Possibly he'd been seen loitering at this restroom before (changing planes). Funny how the plainclothesman got there just a short time before Craig. Did he have a heads-up? 3) Getting tempted by danger is not the same thing as being Gay. 4) Nothing happened, did it?

Sallie Parker says:

1) This was a police sting, plain and simple.

You mean, mean a police operation designed to catch people doing illegal things with the use of undercover officers pretending to be ordinary citizens? Well... yes, that's exactly what it was. You say it as if the way he was caught somehow invalidates the arrest.

2) It's not inconceivable that Craig was being targeted. Possibly he'd been seen loitering at this restroom before (changing planes). Funny how the plainclothesman got there just a short time before Craig. Did he have a heads-up?

The report says:

" Airport police previously had made numerous arrests in the men’s restroom of the Northstar Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal in connection with sexual activity. "

This was not the first or only arrest, and sounds like an ongoing operation. The suggestion that the police were out to get him specifically looks pretty weak.

3) Getting tempted by danger is not the same thing as being Gay.

Anonymous, risky sex in public restrooms isn't the same thing as being gay either. As I say, I'm disappointed by what he was doing here, not the fact that he was trying to do it with another man. 'Tempted by danger'? What does that even mean, and is it meant to excuse him? Even if that were somehow the root motivation of his reaching under a bathroom stall to connect with a strange man, do you think that's acceptable behavior for a US congressman? This sounds like nothing more than an empty rationalization to avoid the sexual content of this episode, and by extension the hypocrisy.

4) Nothing happened, did it?

If you mean to say that Craig was unable to consummate his relationship with the undercover police officer, then sure, "nothing" happened. I doubt even the most generous hazard pay would cover going through with a decoy flirtation like this outside of, say, missions involving national security. The officer's job was to catch sleazebags trying to get off in a public restroom. I suggest to you that if they were trying to 'get' Craig in particular they would have gone a lot farther with the ploy in order to obtain more explicit and visually damning evidence, but the arrest appears from the report to have been pretty routine for what the operation was trying to address.

He was in the wrong place at the wrong time DOING THE WRONG THING, and he is a US congressman. It is what it is, and lipstick won't help.