# Senator Larry Craig is staying! **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 4, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546 "2007-10-04T20:46:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/41 "2007-10-05T13:28:58Z")
[QUOTE=Tinkertoy] He is. I do. The sooner the better. Of course I’ve felt that way for 20 yrs now. Oh! I forgot he’s not gay. the Democrats framed him and Hillary is behind it. And he will be elected again. So goes the talk of the local Repubs. Which is about everyone but me. [/QUOTE] An interesting scenario, if what you’re saying is true, would be for the Senate to expel him and his constituents to vote him back in. Can the Senate exclude a duely elected person from even taking a seat? I’m supposing they can. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/42 "2007-10-05T14:22:37Z")
[QUOTE=flurb] A two-thirds vote is required for expulsion. [/QUOTE] You’re right, my mistake. Why did he go all the way to Minnesota for action, anyway? Is there no balm in Gilead? Are there no hos in Idaho? ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/43 "2007-10-05T14:50:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Just FTR, here is the 2008 GOP Convention logo - an elephant taking a wide stance. In prison stripes, no less. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/44 "2007-10-05T15:54:47Z")
[QUOTE=spifflog] Is this a good move? [/QUOTE] Yes, it’s a good move. No, wait, it’s a _great_ move. Now, if Cheney would only shoot himself in the face with a hunting rifle, the year would be complete. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/45 "2007-10-05T20:38:25Z")
[From CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/05/craig.staying/index.html): > [@](#): > > Jasper LiCalzi, a political science professor at Albertson College of Idaho, told the Idaho Statesman that some voters still back Craig. > > “There is core support here that thinks Craig has been railroaded, and **there’s another group that thinks he should stick it out** ,” LiCalzi told the newspaper. Good night, everybody! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/46 "2007-10-05T20:53:15Z")
Try the veal, and don’t forget to tip your moderator. ---
**Author:** ![Tabithina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f04885/32.png) [@Tabithina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabithina)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/47 "2007-10-05T22:40:36Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] Try the veal, and don’t forget to tip your moderator. [/QUOTE] No, try the [Super Tuber!](http://www.virtualcities.com/ons/id/gov/idgvlc10.htm)😃 ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/48 "2007-10-06T00:06:30Z")
Why on Earth would he leave the Senate? Haven’t you heard of the action that can be had on the second floor of the Hart Senate Building? The dividers are practically three feet off the floor! ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/49 "2007-10-06T01:35:03Z")
According to Republicans, only Democrats want to cut and run; he’s just following the party line in staying. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/50 "2007-10-06T01:39:30Z")
[QUOTE=NurseCarmen] Why on Earth would he leave the Senate? Haven’t you heard of the action that can be had on the second floor of the Hart Senate Building? The dividers are practically three feet off the floor! [/QUOTE] No, I hadn’t. I’ll take your word for it. Thanks for sharing. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/51 "2007-10-06T14:31:14Z")
[QUOTE=plnnr] Can the Senate exclude a duely elected person from even taking a seat? I’m supposing they can. [/QUOTE] The House can, and has - _viz._ Adam Clayton Powell Jr. > [@BG](#): > > Why did he go all the way to Minnesota for action, anyway? Northwest via MSP is almost the only way to fly from DC to anywhere in Idaho. Or Montana or the Dakotas either, if you check the schedules. A little quickie while waiting for the next plane could have a great deal to do with the attractiveness of the place to the cruising set. [quote=If he had just started out lying from the beginning like Clinton, he probably could’ve convinced people and a judge that the cop misinterpreted him.[/quote] That’s what the “wide stance” and “just picking up a piece of paper” stuff was about, remember? There’s also the bit about showing the cop his Senate ID to try to prevent being arrested, ya know - that bit alone would be enough to keep the RW talk shows humming for months. > [@Marley23](#): > > The plea doesn’t change anything material. It does in his mind, where he apparently thinks he got busted for being gay, something he finds abhorrent. A dismissal of the case would also provide those Senators so inclined an excuse to avoid holding ethics hearings. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/52 "2007-10-07T14:15:11Z")
Fellow Idahoans offer Craig their own special brand of recognition: [Sen. Larry Craig chosen for Idaho Hall of Fame](http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/07/craig.hof.ap/index.html) > [@](#): > > Sen. Larry Craig has been chosen for induction into the Idaho Hall of Fame, despite his well-publicized arrest and guilty plea in an airport sex sting, officials said. > > The nonprofit Idaho Hall of Fame Association picked Craig in March, months before he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after a Minneapolis airport police officer accused him of soliciting sex in the men’s restroom, the organization’s board chairman said. > > “Larry Craig has made a great contribution to Idaho over the period of 20-some years. At the time it was considered, this other matter had not come up,” Harry Magnuson told The Spokesman-Review newspaper Saturday. But then, in Idaho it appears there’s not a teeming throng from which to choose: > [@](#): > > Several people are scheduled to be inducted during the October 13 ceremony alongside Craig, including Gov. Butch Otter, Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, Boise State University football coach Chris Petersen and John Grossenbacher, director of the Idaho National Laboratory nuclear and energy research center. > > About 100 people have been inducted into the hall since 1995, including the late Nez Perce Tribe leader Chief Joseph, Coeur d’Alene writer and historian Louise Shadduck, World War II fighter ace Gregory “Pappy” Boyington and newspaper and hospitality magnate Duane Hagadone. One wonders where Sen. Craig’s plaque will be located. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/53 "2007-10-27T15:44:09Z")
Update: [D.C. man claims to have had sex with Craig 20 years ago.](http://wonkette.com/politics/larry-craig-scandal/exclusive-i-had-sex-with-larry-craig-314897.php) And he remembers Craig as a lousy fuck, too. With an arrogant attitude. > [@](#): > > It was late in the Spring of 1987, and Phillips was a graduate student at George Mason University. “One of my favorite hangouts was The Follies,” Phillips explains, referring to the notorious and now-closed go-go boy bar La Cage aux Follies on Capitol Hill. “There were so many closeted neocons who trolled for cock and ass there, particularly cock and ass on younger men: Terry Dolan, Jon Hinson, and a bunch of other men who seemed to run in a close and secretive group. I had sex with some of them at The Follies, and I even went home with a couple of them — at different times, at least — based on smooth talk and their attraction to a 20-something geek. One of them I would later recognize as Larry Craig.” > > One night, Phillips continues, “I followed [Craig] from The Follies to a Capitol Hill neighborhood, parking on the street no telling how far from his house. We walked up the alley and through the back door of a house, with him repeating several times, ‘You were never here. You don’t know me. Right?’ and me responding, ‘Right!’ in boyish submission. As we tiptoed from the back door to the stairs to the upper floor, as if somebody else was home, he turned to grope my crotch and brush my face with his hand.” The house’s decor led Phillips to believe that this was a married man: “The bric-a-brac with family pictures didn’t scream ‘old queen’ to me; it announced a woman’s influence. Still, we made our way upstairs. > > \ > > Mr. Phillips’ next claim is startling, indeed: “On the way back through with shit all in my briefs and feeling totally humiliated I let my eyes wander and saw on a table a small envelope, like one from a gift or a floral arrangement, with ‘Suzanne Craig’ neatly written on it. This memory,” Phillips insists, “I noted about three hours after hearing Craig’s voice again, the night before I saw a current picture of him and a good day before I heard of his wife in the news. ‘That’s who’s going to fuck me up if she finds out,’ I thought. As he reached for the door, he took a $20 bill from his wallet, shoved in my front pocket, adding ‘Remember, I can buy and sell your ass ten thousand times over. You were never here. Don’t try to come back here. You don’t know me. > > “When I next heard that voice two months ago,” David concludes, “my mind went right back to that encounter, leaving me feeling cold and used all over again. I wish I hadn’t been a screwed-up kid at the time and had had the presence of mind to tell him to keep the money he shoved at me like I was part of the trade common to The Follies.” ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/54 "2007-10-27T18:28:21Z")
From what I’ve gathered, probably pretty much everybody in Idaho thinks the man is being an idiot, though exactly why might vary. I think “just shut up and go away” is the general attitude. For a guy who wanted this kept quiet, he’s sure talked about it a lot. And the more he does, the stupider the whole situation looks. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546/55 "2007-10-27T19:16:02Z")
It just gets better and better with this guy. [Craig used campaign funds on lawyers in ethics probe](http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/26/craig/index.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-larry-craig-is-staying/421546.md?page=2)