Sen Craig takes it up the ass!

[silenus]

@elucidator

Ewwwwwwwwe!

No, he’s gay, remember?
Ram it, baby. Ram it.

[5que]

@Bearflag70

Perhaps he had one foot protruding way out under the wall on both sides, and perhaps he had one hand grabbing the wall from underneath on both sides. I can see where this might give someone plenty of leverage to force a good BM.

I think that’s what killed Elvis…

[saoirse]

Originally Posted by Bearflag70
Perhaps he had one foot protruding way out under the wall on both sides, and perhaps he had one hand grabbing the wall from underneath on both sides. I can see where this might give someone plenty of leverage to force a good BM.

You know, a lot of those right-wing types don’t like to eat vegetables at all.

[wring]

Scene in divorce court:

“Your honor, the evidence will show that the plantiff’s husband was seen entering the mens room of several airports. We rest our case.”

[Unauthorized_Cinnamon]

In answer to some of the questions that have come up -

Evidently this bathroom was known as a spot where men have sex with each other - not just to the sadly-desperate gay community, but to law enforcement, who have gotten many complaints about people having sex there.

It’s pretty clear to me, if the officer’s report is accurate, that Craig was looking for bathroom sex. Perhaps more telling than the foot touching or hand motions was his initial contact, where he stared through the crack in the officer’s stall door and made and held eye contact. Even women, who don’t have so much atavistic fear of being thought queer, would not do such a thing in the normal course of using the toilet. If you’re in the bathroom “for its intended use” as the officer puts it, and you happen to glance through a door crack and catch someone’s eye, the normal reaction is to look away hastily.

Craig said the reason he was running his hand along the bottom of the stall divider was that he was reaching for a dropped piece of paper. Which wasn’t there, according to the police report, and even if it was, fondling the toilet cubicle is an odd way to retrieve something on the floor.

I suspect he pled guilty hoping no one would notice, especially since the crime he pled to was “disorderly conduct,” not something inherently associated with illicit public sex.

Speaking of which, I’m pretty damned liberal about allowing consenting adults to chose what to do in their sex lives, but I can understand why cruising for sex in a public bathroom should be illegal. If you’re outrageously flirting in a bar, presumably your plan is to go to a private place for consummation. Subjecting random strangers to intimate observation of your copulation is (in addition to being incredibly tacky) worthy of legal prohibition, IMHO.

Also, I agree I don’t give a tinker’s cuss if he’s gay. Whatever. It’s the hypocrisy of pushing anti-gay agendas and generally being a hateful asshole, while concealing membership in the persecuted group.

[saoirse]

@Unauthorized Cinnamon

Also, I agree I don’t give a tinker’s cuss if he’s gay.

Nitjack: a “tinker’s dam” is a wax plug, not a curseword.

[Unauthorized_Cinnamon]

Counter nit-pick: it seems the OED, plus Monty Python disagree.

[Bricker]

@BJMoose

Count me with the folks who figure he copped a plea in hopes nobody would notice the incident. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, he’s obliged to recant his plea.

There is one question: given how many legislators are lawyers, is Craig a lawyer? If so, his whine about “lack of counsel” rings hollow. In any case, appearing pro se was his choice. (What’s that old line? It runs something like, “Anyone who defends himself in court has an idiot for a lawyer and a fool for a client”.)

As a former defense attorney, I can offer a couple of insights:

1. The state pays for an attorney only if you’re going to face jail time. I had many many clients with previous convictions on their records that were secured because the client entered a pro se guilty plea because no jail time was involved… and then, when the previous conviction raised its ugly head because of a new charge and would impact sentencing guidelines, would try to attack the original conviction because of their lack of a lawyer. In other words, amongst the population that was the usual clientele of a public defender, ill-considered pro se guilty pleas were depressingly common.

2. The Senator is not himself a lawyer.

3. I would HOPE for… but not place too much money on a bet for … the proposition that your average senator is a bit more savvy than your average client of a public defender.

@sachertorte

I agree that he probably entered the guilty plea in hops of keeping the situation quiet, but I’m also curious as to whether he’s trying to avoid having to state under oath that:

1. he’s not a homosexual
2. he’s never engaged in homosexual conduct
3. he’s never solicited sex in a public bathroom in the past

Would these be questions that come up in a trial? If so, he’s probably afraid of being Mike Jonesed. Somewhere out there is someone who can definitively state he’s had sex with Craig.

It’s a close question.

As a general rule, your prior bad acts are not legally relevant in your trial for your current bad act. However, they are admissible under limited circumstances, and one of those circumstances is absence of mistake. I would offer this shoot-from-the-hip opinion: he would probably be safe as long as had no previous arrest or convictions. If he were asked if he’d ever done it before, even if he lied under oath and denied it, the prosecution probably couldn’t call a rebuttal witness to impeach that testimony, since it is ultimately collateral to the issue of fact being decided.

But it’s a gamble. And if he DOES have some prior arrest or conviction, it’s a much closer question and might well be resolved against him.

[MovieMogul]

Here’s an incredibly thorough and well-researched article itemizing the myraid of conservative pundits and columnists who knew about the rumors about Craig last October but repeatedly cited his behavior as irrelevant and condemning the man making the accusations as simply trying to skew the congressional election (which, as it happens, didn’t even involve Craig that year).

Now, of course, with the election in the past, these same conservatives who were trying to diminish the importance of Craig’s habits are now railing against him in the strongest terms (without, of course, bringing up why they weren’t in such a tizzy months ago).

[Bricker]

@ArchiveGuy

Here’s an incredibly thorough and well-researched article itemizing the myraid of conservative pundits and columnists who knew about the rumors about Craig last October but repeatedly cited his behavior as irrelevant and condemning the man making the accusations as simply trying to skew the congressional election (which, as it happens, didn’t even involve Craig that year).

Now, of course, with the election in the past, these same conservatives who were trying to diminish the importance of Craig’s habits are now railing against him in the strongest terms (without, of course, bringing up why they weren’t in such a tizzy months ago).

That’s a despressing panoply of hypocrisy, all right.

[pravnik]

If all that’s required to get some public restroom action is a discreet toe-tapping, I wish somebody would have told that guy back in undergrad who cruised the campus bathrooms late at night, because when he was trying to send the message, it wasn’t his toe and he wasn’t just a-tappin’.

[villa]

@saoirse

You know, a lot of those right-wing types don’t like to eat vegetables at all.

Too busy eating meat it seems.

[samclem]

:::imagines a bathroom, and in comes Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. He enters a stall. ::::
That poor guy would have been lucky a SWAT team didn’t execute him in the stall. :eek:

[dwc1970]

Closeted Republican Admits, “I’m Gay”

[Sophistry_and_Illusion]

@Ponder Stibbons

Pardon me, but if he’s anti-gay wouldn’t that also make him *anti-*asshole?

Well, he’s not against assholes as long as people are using them for their God-given purpose, and not stickin’ stuff in 'em (unless the people are straight, of course, in which case sodomy is just okey-dokey.)

[Green_Bean]

@elucidator

Nothing even remotely similar has ever happened to me. I assumed that was pretty much every other guys experience as well.

I’d expect that a gay bathroom sex cruising type soon learns to differentiate between another gay bathroom sex cruising type and an ordinary guy minding his own business and taking a dump. And I’d also imagine that if the gay bathroom sex cruising type wasn’t sure, that he would make some subtle signals that another gay bathroom sex cruising type would pick up on, but that the ordinary guy wouldn’t even notice.

So I doubt that an ordinary guy really needs to worry about whether the bathroom is a cruising spot or not. If you just use the bathroom for it’s intended purpose, and don’t play footsie with anyone, you’ll probably be left alone.

Reminds me of a story from my college years–So this guy I knew named Sean was pooping in a stall in some bathroom on campus. He absentmindedly started tapping his foot. He suddenly realized that the guy next to him was tapping his foot too! So Sean stopped. The other guy stopped. The other guy tapped. Sean, having no idea what was going on, tapped back. The other guy tapped. Sean tapped again. He was sitting there thinking “okay, that was REALLY weird” when he looked down and realized that the guy was half under the stall with his pants down and his penis out! Sean bolted out of the stall, and in the next few days, proceeded to tell anybody and everybody the story. He learned that that bathroom was a known cruising spot, and he had inadvertently given and confirmed “the signal.” Oops. Yeah, he got laughed at a lot–but he was the one laughing the loudest at himself.

[HMS_Irruncible]

All I have to say to Sen. Craig is… this

[elucidator]

Am I the only guy here thinking “I’m never tapping my foot in the john again, ever!”

[netsplit]

“Sen Craig takes it up the ass!”
pics or it didn’t happen :eek:

[dnooman]

I don’t care if he’s gay or not, but if he is, what’s up with the denouncement? Is he like Scott Thompson’s character in Brain Candy?

Now he’s lost the gay and straight vote. Also, he seems to have misplaced his pants.