Craig just the latest politician to embarrass the GOP

[Kadie]

Craig just the latest politician to embarrass the GOP
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

(08-29) 04:00 PDT Washington --

Scott Reed, a Republican strategist, was at a dinner in Philadelphia Monday night when his cell phone and Internet pager began beeping like crazy. Only later did he learn why: His party was being rocked by a sex scandal involving a Republican U.S. senator - again.

snip...
On Tuesday, Craig held a press conference to defend himself, calling the guilty plea a mistake and declaring "I am not gay" - even as the Senate Republican leadership asked for an ethics committee review.

It was a bizarre spectacle, and only the latest in a string of alleged sexual foibles and alleged financial misdeeds that have landed Republicans in the political equivalent of purgatory: the realm of late-night comic TV.

Forget Mark Foley, who quit the House last year after exchanging sexually explicit e-mails with underage male pages, or Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist whose dealings with the old Republican Congress landed him in prison. They are old news, replaced by a fresh crop of scandal-plagued Republicans, men like Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, whose phone number turned up on the list of the "D.C. Madam," or Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska and Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona, both caught up in FBI corruption probes.

It's enough to make a self-respecting Republican want to tear his hair out in frustration.

"The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low can you go, because we are approaching a level of ridiculousness," Reed, sounding exasperated, said Tuesday. "You can't make this stuff up. And the impact this is having on the grass roots around the country is devastating. Republicans think the governing class in Washington are a bunch of buffoons who have total disregard for the principles of the party, the law of the land and the future of the country."

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/29/MNBQRR52V.DTL

[partylessinOhio]

1. Thank you for keeping us informed. It was just pitiful for another dutiful

Repug wife to have to stand with a sex deviant spouse hidden by dark glasses. I feel it is shameful to drag your wife out for a public appearance to make yourself look less guilty or whatever Craig was trying to do.

Bless her, Suzanne must have a broken heart. She looks like a fine woman.

Senator Larry Craig, R-Idaho, left, speaks to reporters,
with his wife Suzanne, Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 28, 2007,
in Boise, Idaho. Under fire from leaders of his own party,
Larry Craig, accused of lewd conduct in a men's room,
declared Tuesday, 'I am not gay' and said the only thing
he did wrong was plead guilty to a criminal charge.