I am not one of those gun toting, flag waiving, “USA is the best” chanting, God fearing, sex is dirty, type of Americans. But, I had to poke in here and say your thread title, and contents, irk me.
There are plenty of people who realize that there are bigger things than one man getting caught doing what may or may not have been soliciting what may or may not have been gay sex in a public bathroom. But the fact of the matter is, the so called “gay agenda” is newsworthy because it is something that many cannot comprehend. And this story has with it an appeal to both sides of the extreme political spectrum.
For the extreme social right wing repubs it is a story about how degenerate the gay culture is, for the extreme social left wing dems it is a story about hypocrisy of the extreme social republicans. WIN-WIN for the news outlet because they are sure to appeal to a wider range of audience.
Almost everyone that I know (both sides of the aisle) does not give a rat’s ass about this story. You may see the crass, in your face, caught you with your pants down, Americans due to the media you choose to pay attention to, but rest assured there are many thoughtful, big picture types of people who have convictions do not hinge on the sexual orientation, or desires of a senator.
Flawed, but intelligence is always flawed (a fact that is always forgotten in hindsight, by everyone), and the majority of congress, on both sides of the aisle, bought into it at the time.
It wasn’t, but it was an active supporter of other terrorist acts.
Apparently the concept of at will employees is lost on the left. He had every right to fire them, just like President Clinton or Obama (if they are elected) will have every right to fire members of their administration that they feel aren’t with whatever program they decide to push.
Just wanna say that I’m old enough to remember these exact words being said about Nixon et al after Watergate. The more things change, the more they remain the same…
ETA: and the helluvit was, Nixon eventually turned into some sort of sainted Elder Statesman; don’t think that wasn’t surreal to watch. Give it 20 years, it’ll be GW’s turn.
Yeah, but Nixon did have the meeting in China and had foreign policy experience prior to Watergate. The American people didn’t completely judge Nixon on Watergate.
I can’t imagine anyone admiring Bush’s Iraq war 20 years from now. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong…
For what it’s worth, the day Gonzalez announced his resignation, NPR talked about it all damn day. Since then, I’ve heard many mentions of it, though they’ve gone back to their regular programming.
They’ve also mentioned the Craig guilty plea, and covered the political fallout, but it’s been mentions during the news bites at the top of the hour, not obsessive coverage.
On the way home from the mall today, I heard discussion of who will/should be the next AG, whether Fred Thompson is all flash, no content, more generalized discussion of Republican candidates, and whether the Petraeus report will be at all independent and reliable, or so massaged by the Pentagon and White House mucky mucks as to be irrelevant.
So that is why I get my news from NPR, not CNN or something. I agree, from seeing bits of CNN and Faux News at the gym, that a large proportion of our media consumers don’t have the neural equipment and/or inclination to take in important news. But some of us are out here, trying to pay attention to the real issues, I promise.
Oh, and I also followed the Craig story, and I’m glad he got nabbed and shown up for a hypocrite. I think it’s newsworthy, just not that it should eclipse everything else.
Yeah, that’s true, but in any of America’s entertainment industries (music, theater, arts, politics), if a person simply lives long enough, suddenly they get turned into Sainted Elder Statesmen. I give you Roy Orbison, Jack Palance, and now Tony Bennett as prime examples.
And it happened with Gerald Ford, too, and he didn’t have any particular track record, either. And Reagan, whose only track record was the “he stopped the whole Cold War!” line spouted by conservatives. And of course Jimmy Carter would have been beatified by now if he wasn’t a Baptist.
Sheer longevity counts for a lot, and America can have a very selective memory. If he’s still around in 2027, yeah, I’d look for a lot of Iraq War Revisionism to start to kick in.
Along with nostalgia for Paris Hilton, Michael Vick, and “who was that senator who got caught in the gay bathroom?” See what we all have to look forward to?
Biggirl, ya know; A bunch of powerful men with sanctioned hard-ons for power and wealth is scary, and confusing, especially since they say they really want to protect us from worse scary guys with Evil hard-ons that will fuck with our very way of life. It’s rather overwhelming, what’s a poor soul to do?
Tappy McWidestance, with his mere desperate hard-on, looking for some simple immediate relief, well, that’s so easily scary. A public restroom, somewhere we commoners could witness this actual hard-on exchange, with real jizz and dither, that is an abominable threat. Easy to flesh out, and comprehend. He’s just catering to his basic needs, a selfish simpleton, rather than going for the top-level Dickitude needed to Get-R-Done. What a dweeb! No profit from that kind of activity. He wasted his priviledged hard-on, and for that, he must be thrust out of the Republican party.
It’s a matter of public trust. Good Americans want their elected officials to have the time-honored hard-ons with appropriate avenues that benefit us all as patriots. Senator Craig broke with that tradition in a manner that disgraces all God fearing American bearers of hard-ons.
Like David Vitter, who’s still in the Senate today. Remember, kids: soliciting strangers for consensual, non-commercial sex is nowhere near as patriotic as asking a hooker to force you to wear a diaper, as long as the hooker is of the opposite gender.
If you think Fox News gives a wet squirt about any number of furriners dying compared to the domestic scandal du jour, you either don’t know Fox News…or else you’re a loyal viewer.
This is a complete misstatement of what the law is. The President can generally fire AGs for any reason, but there are several reasons which he cannot fire them. It is illegal to obstruct a criminal prosecution, and if an AG was fired in furtherance of an illegal act, than the firing is illegal.
And I should point out that an at-will employee cannot be fired for any reason either. An employer certainly can’t fire an at-will employee because of his race, for example.
Yes, I am a loyal Fox viewer–so what? How is that possibly relevant to anything? I am also a loyal cnn.com viewer, a loyal Drudge viewer, and a loyal bbc.co.uk viewer. I also frequently check in with the Mumbai Mirror and Pravda. So what?
They featured this on their front page at the time, which was Monday, August 27–“Mother’s Fateful Decision Leads to Death”.
So yeah, I do believe that if more women and children had been dying horribly in Greek forest fires this week, or if there had been another hurricane hitting the U.S.–“If it bleeds, it leads”–then Craig’s woes would have remained in the “Politics” sidebar. But it was a slow news week, the Utah miners were a fizzle, so…
My conclusion is simple: the GOP hates blowjobs. They impeached Clinton over one, and now are tripping over themselves to throw one of their own to the dogs over another one (he didn’t even get one - he just TRIED to!)
So. Unwarranted war? No problem, and you’re a traitor for saying it is. Wipe my ass with the Constitution? Don’t mind if I do! Solicit some head? You’re OUT of here, buddy! :rolleyes:
Maybe that’s the problem republicans have with teh gays - they think they’re all like Foley and Craig.
I’ve always considered the second amendment of the constitution to be an escape clause. But since “The Glorious Revolution” was as much terrorism as anything else, the escape clause should only be invoked in extreme circumstances.
I love the irony. Arab terrorist were the reason for the constitution and the reaction to Arab terrorist may be the reason for its demise.
I agree with Biggirl.
Why blame this on the media? The media just slaps-up whatever they think people will watch and, in this case, they are correct. They were correct with Paris Hilton and I see on Google news today that the media is also correct with their never-ending tale of Princess Diana. If there were (was?) an audience for non-partisan news and analysis of political stances and statements then CNN/FOX/whoever would be all over it.
Individuals can be extremely intelligent. People in wholesale quantities are just about smart enough to eat, shit, and breed. Finding a position on the lead-up to Iraq requires study and critical attention to what politicians and analysts are saying and to what their motives might be. Determining a position on a politician giving blowjobs in the airport restroom is a lot easier and requires just about zero thought.
The media had abandoned its role as watchdog from 9/11 until Katrina. Throughout the buildup for the Iraq war and throughout its first year, the media could do little else but shout RahRahUSA and proclaim the glories of the Reich. It took the incredibly incompetent response to Katrina to wake the media from its slumber. Infants had to die of thirst in a major US city before the media could figure out that Bush was not Lincoln, Superman, and Christ all rolled into one. Once it was no longer un-American to question what the Decider said, then of course the corruption, incompetence, and criminal conduct of this administration became fair game.
Even today, the media is falling short. The AG firings make Watergate look like Sunday School. This was nothing less than an attempt to subvert the entire democratic process. The abandoning of constitutional principals in dealing with terror suspects is virtually ignored. No news networks said boo about the Canadian citizen who was detained by the US and sent to Syria for Torture Deluxe. In the 2008 race, the media is pimping for the establishment corporate candidates. Hillary from day one has been The Inevitable Nominee and Edwards, the biggest threat to the US corporate stranglehold on the government, has been marginalized. After all this, the focus on a Senator cruising for gay sex is hardly surprising.
And if your governor is more likely to appoint the “wrong” party to replace you. LA’s governor is a Democrat, while Idaho’s is a Republican. Pressuring Craig to step down leaves the Repubs a “safe” seat.
