Craig Says Not Gay, Did Nothing Wrong

When Senator Larry Craig scheduled a press conference this afternoon, many naturally presumed he would resign or at least offer some plausible defense of his actions. Instead, we got this:

Under fire from leaders of his own party, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig on Tuesday the only thing he had done wrong was to plead guilty after a police complaint of lewd conduct in a men’s room. He declared, “I am not gay. I never have been gay.”

“I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport,” he said at a news conference with his wife, Suzanne, at his side.

So . . . did he think it there was likely to be a woman in the other stall of a men’s bathroom? And, if he did “nothing wrong,” why plead guilty of a crime?

FILED UNDER: Congress, Law and the Courts, LGBTQ Issues, , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Triumph says:

    It is clear what happened—as he intimated, he was set up by the Idaho Statesman.

    This is just another example of the liberal media creating a story out of thin air because they hate a conservative like Sen. Craig.

  2. Mike says:

    He’s not gay – his boyfriends are – another brilliant explanation from another brilliant Senator – is it dark in that closet?

  3. M1EK says:

    Senator Craig is clearly really Bruce Heffernan.

  4. An honest post about what happened.

  5. Len says:

    Hey… if you can’t believe a United States Senator, who can you believe?

  6. Michael says:

    Perhaps the undercover cop was a large black man, and Senator Craig was just scared of being another statistic.

    Oh wait, I think someone already used that one…

  7. just me says:

    I admit that I didn’t know there were secret signals gay people use in bathrooms to get sex from other gay men.

    It bothers me a bit that in this case at least there wasn’t actually any sex or overt intent to have sex.

    However, the fact that he plead guilty makes the above point moot, and frankly I just can’t believe a US senator would be dumb enough to plead guilty to this kind of charge without seeking the advice of a lawyer. I just don’t believe him.

    He should resign. Not sure that he will, but he should.

  8. Michael says:

    Yet another case of “I’m not gay, I’m just an idiot, so you can still trust me to run your government” syndrome.

  9. markm says:

    Three things.
    1) You have to give it to a Senator (no pun intended) that can quickly come up with the “WHAAAT, i’ve got a naturally wide growler stance” excuse on the fly. He’s a thinker.
    2) I read somewhere that he pulled (again, no pun inteded) the “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!!?!?” card. Nice touch.
    3) You have to appreciate that he got busted but didn’t do anything AND plead guilty for the non event yet felt the need to keep it on the down low..and felt the need to drag his wife to the presser.

    Dunno if he’s got mo’ tendencies but where there’s astro glide, there is fire.