Dangerous? I walked right by that restroom on Sunday and again on Wednesday – I didn’t feel any sense of danger! Have you got a cite for this dangerous?
IMO, such vice-squad stings are generally an anti-gay effort, to ‘clean up the town’ (say, before the Republican National Convention arrives). The police always say it was because of public complaints, but (as in this case) they can never produce any actual evidence of any such complaints. And for a policeman, sitting inside in air-conditioned comfort in a restroom sure beats standing outside dealing with the horrendous traffic & parking problems in this mismanaged airport.
Remember that this MAC police is controlled by appointees of the right-wing Republican governor of Minnesota, and right now that governor can use any distraction from the neglected infrastructure of the state. Besides the bridge that fell down a month ago, one of the main runways of this airport is shut down for repair right now!
The concern I have with this view is that one way to look at the whole mess is that is not too far off from the guy being fired for being gay (or at least looking for gay sex). Even though he has chosen to associate himself with an on-the-whole homophobic organization, that still doesn’t mean he should be fired for same-sex sexuality.
In the same way the ACLU defends the free speech right of the most detestable speakers, shouldn’t those who oppose discrimination based on sexual orientation be bothered by someone suffering professionally because of the exposure of his same-sex trysts.
Not to hijack the thread, but I’m curious. What would the next step have been if the cop had been another guy looking for what Larry Craig was?
Would they have sex right there in the restroom?
Talk and exhange #s to meet later?
Go get a hotel room?
I disagree that anyone wants to punish him for being gay. While I’m not the biggest fan of homosexuals, I don’t care what consenting adults do in the privacy of their homes.
What would bother me about Larry Craig’s actions is that:
He has a wife he has pledged his love to.
and
He is looking for anonymous partners in bathroom stalls.
I could see where the voters of Idaho would say, “Wait a minute!” I think I would rather have someone else speak for me…
I think the most that should happen is censure for “conduct unbecoming a senator.” What he did was a misdemeanor (he got a fine, no jail time). Let him sit out the rest of his term (if he so wishes to serve) perhaps a bit humbler than he was before.
I don’t think it merits anything but censure at worst. It’s funny how the GOP is trying to paint a little restroom cruising as the crime of the century in order to avoid having to say out loud that they just don’t want a known queer holding a senate seat. I say he was elected and he has a right to be there. He didn’t lose that right just because it has now become public knowledge that he likes a bit of cock now and then. A misdemeanor solicitation incident is not a big deal. I think a DUI, for instance, is worse than cruising a men’s room, but no one would get forced out for getting a DUI.
May have been answered the other night on the NBC News. Tim Russert commented:
“I talked to Republicans today, and they have a simple answer. They just want Senator Craig to exit, to leave. Why? Because they believe the Senate seat in Idaho is a safe Republican seat. George Bush carried that state by 67% of the vote. Any Republican can hold on to it, except maybe Senator Craig.”
I’m sorry to be cynical, but I believe a significant % of this is pure politics. Not gay-bashing. Not “protecting the family.” Just politics as usual.
The GOP can’t fire him. Only the citizens of Idaho can do that, and they can do it on any grounds they damned well please, but they have to wait until November 2008 to do so.
What we have here is pure power politics, and it’s all good.
First, you have the GOP: primarily a political syndicate dedicated to further enriching the already-rich, it has to run on other things to get actual votes from actual people. The main source of its votes has been religious/social/cultural conservatives. The money people haven’t ever really cared about the fundie agenda, but have been willing to placate it somewhat in return for their votes. Guys like Mark Foley and Larry Craig are evidence to the fundies that the party still isn’t their party, and they feel it damned well should be, since they’re providing the votes. So there’s increasing tension between the money base and the voting base of the GOP. That’s all good.
Second, you have the fact that younger voters are much more relaxed about gays than older voters are, and are disgusted about how the GOP regards them. This is hastening the day when the GOP won’t be able to pursue this agenda, or any of its agendas, really, because of a generational shift against it.
I relish the GOP’s bashing of gays and immigrants and whatnot now. I’m watching them dig a hole they won’t be able to get out of. They’re killing themselves with Hispanics. They’re killing themselves with young people. There just aren’t enough xenophobes to go around anymore. The GOP can really only win by fooling people about the nature of their agenda, and they’ve become a bit too obvious lately. Their bad.
I agree with the spirit of this 100%. Not sure if I care whether he is having sex with animals, but I do care about whether he is using his position to coerce or solicit minors for sex. I’m sorry but consensual sex between two adults is none of my business, Republican or Democrat. This is completely overblown and the Republicans are overreacting to their own detriment.
Odd. I thought the reason Blackwell got beaten so badly in the governor’s race was because his party was mired in scandal, the state’s economy was in the toilet* and Blackwell himself had abused his office for political gain.
I’m trying to imagine a comedian opening with this line.
“…and boy am I tired!!!”
Nah.
*sorry, trying to make this relevant to the Craig case.
<NITPICK>Gotta call BS to the blaming the airport runway closure on Pawlenty. The MAC has been trying to close the runway since the mid-1990’s, back when Arne Carlson was Governor. It’s needed work for a decade, and they put it off to build the light rail.
I live <3 miles from the airport (under the backup runway, natch), and we’ve been warned this was coming for 5+ years.
Gov. Pawlenty doesn’t seem to have a dog in this fight.
</NITPICK>
The MAC police officers seem to have done their job, and landed a bigger fish than they expected.
I’d like to believe that if they were attempting to entrap someone, and caught a US Senator, they would have recognized the amount of crap pursuing a conviction would cause. The fact that they continued to prosecute leads me to believe that they felt they were on solid legal ground.
I say yes, but ONLY becasue he’s a hypocrite- he’s a Republican who I am sure at some point has voted against gay rights bills. He’s too stupid to realize that it is his own party who is mostly responsible for him HAVING to cruise public bathrooms for sex, that he could do it out in the open if those of his ilk weren’'t such close minded assholes.
And also, maybe a bit because he lied to police- you were picking up a piece of paper off a public restroom floor? Really? I’m a pretty nasty person, and I wouldn’t pick up a dollar bill off the floor in a place like that. And you are so “wide” that your feet go under the adjacent stall when you pull your trousers down? Really? How big are these stalls? And who pulls their pants down AFTER they sit down? Why didn’t the cop call him on any of that?
And regardless how you feel about gays, public sex is not a good thing- you know the children and all could see you.
I disagree. Regardless of how you feel, or the actions of the conservative Republicans, a man with Larry Craig’s wealth could surely hire high-priced gay escorts to satisfy his lusts. In no way is he in a position of “HAVING to cruise public bathrooms for sex”
In other words, we aren’t talking about a guy making $12 an hour trying to get his homosexual rocks off in a small town. This guy is a rich Senator who can truck gay ass in by the gross ton…
Agree that he probably gets off on the trolling in the park, but being “caught” with gay escorts still has a huge stigma that would be greatly lessened if not for the efforts of the Republican party.
This is an inapt analogy - Stevens hasn’t been adjudicated guilty. If the response is muted after (if) Stevens is convicted, then your point would be valid.
Oh hell yeah, the Dems would come down like a load of bricks on a Democratic Senator in the same situation. In fact, I’d say they would come down harder. No party that has family/cultural values as an overall liability is going to even think of defending to the tiniest degree a politician caught cruising for anonymous sex in a public restroom.
The Democrats would probably respond differently than the GOP would if word leaked that a Democratic Senator had had a gay affair, in the privacy of his own hotel room. But not for this.
