Larry Craig Should Resign

Sep 5, 01:38 PM

For those of you catching up on the whole Larry Craig scandal, let me give you the fast track background. Larry Craig is a United States senator from Idaho. He’s a Republican who’s been in the U.S. Senate for a long time, representing a state that has been a Republican stronghold for decades.

Back in June, the senator was arrested in a Minneapolis airport bathroom after a police officer, conducting a sexual solicitation sting, cited the senator for soliciting sex after confirming he used several well-known gestures and signals to elicit a gay sexual encounter. The Senator denied the charges during an interrogation immediately conducted following the arrest in unconvincing manner.

The senator pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, apparently in an effort to quickly dispose of the matter and keep it quiet rather than plead innocent and drag the scandal out into the open in a potentially explosive public trial. He says he regrets pleading guilty and is now seeking legal counsel to reverse his plea.

The whole thing exploded when an Idaho newspaper published a story about Craig’s alleged secret homosexuality following his guilty plea being publicized. The senator went into defense mode and denied the charges (despite his guilty plea) in a statement during a press conference.

The outrage was palpable as politicians from both parties called for his resignation. He did initially offer to resign by September 30 following a barrage of pressure from people in Washington and the media squeeze. Now, he’s announced that he will fight his own self-inflicted conviction and that he may decide to hold on to his senate seat.

Whether the senator is innocent or guilty in fact or according to the law as it related to the more unseemly aspects of the charges, Larry Craig is a major liability to his party and to the conservative base that holds up traditional family values because of the very incompetent and slipshod way he has handled the whole incident. He isn’t acting like an innocent victim who’s been railroaded by complicit and corrupt police officers. Actually, quite the opposite. In order to believe Craig is telling the truth about his innocence, one must take huge intellectual leaps on several issues to make this idea considerable: vindictive law officers; an unusually wide stance to pick paper up from a bathroom stall floor causing the senator to rub shoes with the undercover cop which is only coincidentally a commonly used sign that someone is asking for sex in this well-known venue for such activities; the ability to see wedding rings through solid objects; panicking and pleading guilty to something he didn’t do. It’s all too much to swallow and very few in Washington are buying it, save for a few allies who typically stand up for their colleagues for brazenly obvious political reasons.

As with most scandals in Washington, the thing which is worse than the alleged crime or salacious activity is the way in which the alleged incident is handled or covered up. Circling the wagons or flip-flopping on positions often turns out to be an indictment against those defending their political careers. People like Larry Craig who find themselves embroiled in these circumstances should either come clean right away and apologize and show humility. Or in the case of innocence, make their case by heading off the media speculative frenzy and set the record straight and not try to hide behind easy solutions in hopes that it will all go away.

Idaho senator Larry Craig handled this situation in awful fashion and puts his arrogance on full display with every press conference and call to the media. If he does not resign, he will carry his party down with him and will be responsible, at least in part, for an overall impression that the Republicans have totally lost control. I would never vote Republican in any case, but I’d prefer to see the party suffer lack of support because of the weakness of their ideas, not because they just can’t hold it together.

Senator Craig, with all due respect, it is over. For the sake of your party, your constituents and especially your family, you need to take the high road, demonstrate integrity and resign now.