Senator Craig has decided to stay in the Senate. Is this a good move? A bad one? If he was your Senator, would you want him to resign?
A good move for Larry Craig? I guess so. His political career is over anyway - staying on, in this case, means serving out his term, which ends in January 2009 - and his image probably can’t get worse. Perhaps he hopes that if he gets picked on enough, it will rehabilitate his image.
I expect the Republicans will do their best to nudge him out, though. He’s embarrassing them, and I think they would really like to keep phrases like “Republican Sex Scandal” out of the headlines for a little while.
Here’s a cite for Craig’s decision and today’s news, by the way.
“I’m here! I’m not queer! Get used to it!”
- Gleefully stolen from Talking Points Memo, without which no citizen can hope to remain informed.
The longer he stays around, the better it is for him (in the financial sense) and the worse it is for the GOP. He’s putting his personal situation above the good of the party. I guess we should congratulate him for that.
Frankly, it wouldn’t bother me much if my Senator does a little foot tapping in a bathroom stall as long as he pushes the political agenda I agree with. Same thing with a president-- if he’s getting a little action on the side, good for him. I’m more concerned with his policies. I’d much rather have a Bill Clinton in the WH, getting BJs from Monica, than Bush, getting no BJs. The latter got us into a mindless war, and the former did a pretty good job overall. Now, I don’t know much about Craig, but I suspect he’s a bit too conservative for my tastes. I probably wouldn’t want him as my Senator even without the foot tapping.
Depends on what his stance is on important issues.
I think the GOP should do the right thing and lead a move to expel him from the Senate…
I don’t like the whole idea of a party trying to force a guy out just because they’re embarrassed that he’s gay, so I’m glad Craig is giving them the bird. I doubt I agree with him on much but he was duely elected and he has the right to be there. I wish he’d quit trying to deny that he’s gay, though. At this point his political future is gone so he might as well just drop the pretense. I think he should stick it to the party and just start flaming around the rotunda like Richard Simmons. It would be funny and I would respect him for it.
I’d keep him if it was a wide stance.
On what grounds?
There’s a cheap irony in this situation in that the GOP has been signalling Craig and figuratively tapping their feet out of exasperation and impatience to get him to vacate his seat – only now he can’t be budged!
I guess the GOP will just have to suck it up.
Touché ! 
Hell yes I would want him to resign. I don’t care if he is gay or not - that is between him, his wife and his god. I wouldn’t want him to continue serving because this event has showed he has terrible judgement. Who on earth pleads guilty if they think they are not guilty?
IIRC, he plead guilty in hoping that this would stay out of the news - Bad Judgement
He has made a half assed defense of his actions in the bathroom - Bad Judgement
Now, because the story had come out he thinks he can change his plea and have people believe his entire cockeyed story? You better believe that is Bad Judgement.
Seriously, did anyone buy that “wide stance” argument?
Was Larry Craig convicted of being gay? I think not. Solicting random casual sex in an airport restroom is not what a 60+ year old U.S. Senator should be doing.
He would have faced the same charges had he been getting a blow job from a female in a public area of the airport.
The “gay” thing is a red herring…
Yeah, but would the Republicans have tried to force him out if that’s what he’d been busted for? I don’t think so, but I’ll admit I’m biased.
if bad judgement is grounds for expulsion then ther would be nobody left in eithr house (starting with everyone who voted to let Bush invade Iraq).
He pled guilty to misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. I wouldn’t consider that to be as serious as even a DUI conviction, yet we’ve seen Senators and Congressmen get busted for that before without being expelled. If Patrick Kennedy can get away with this and keep his seat, then I don’t see how expelling Craig can be justified.
The “gay” thing should be a red herring but it is not. He is in trouble because it was gay sex if it was heterosexual sex he might have received a little flack about it but it would be forgotten.
He was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, not soliciting sex (which…who cares anyway?).
He would have been convicted of more than disorderly conduct if he’d actually been caught in a sex act, but I still wouldn’t consider it much of a crime, and he definitely wouldn’t be getting targeted for expulsion by the GOP if it was a woman. They’d probably be slapping him on the back.
No, the disorderly conduct conviction is the red herring. The GOP wants him out because they’re embarrassed to have an outed homosexual in a Senate seat. If he’d been busted for a DUI they wouldn’t care. Let’s call a spade a spade, here.
Strictly speaking, they don’t need grounds. Each house controls its own membership and can expel a member by majority vote. Of course, they might be concerned with setting a precedent . . .
I’m not talking about expulsion. I agree that others in government have gotten away with worse. However the things that will plague Craig are the cries of hypocrisy (the whole gay issue) and the lame cover up attempt and his change of tune with regards to the whole situation.
I think the only reason that Republicans would try to force him out is the gay thing and I already said it would be sad for someone to lose their job because of that (or, at least I said that in a post that somehow got eated). However, I still do think that he should resign. For the record, Kennedy should have resigned as well.
Don’t these people have a code of ethics to follow?
That’s funny, I used the same example when I was reasoning this out with myself. I think it’s correct.
This is silly. He was convicted of disorderly conduct for an incident in which he solicited sex in a bathroom. The fact that he plead guilty to a lesser charge doesn’t mean he didn’t solicit sex.