Larry Craig question

[LuckyTheDog]

Is it totally paranoid to me to think that the administration knew all along that Craig was gay -- and set up the bathroom "sting" as a payback for the senator's decision to join the Democrats in seeking changes to the Patriot Act?

The more I think about it, the more I think that is what it looks like.

[yardwork]

1. I'm fairly paranoid but I think you got me beat.

I don't think that Craig's arrest was set up. I do think that throwing him under the bus was planned. So am I kinda-sorta paranoid?

[LuckyTheDog]

13. OK,well maybe not the arrest

Maybe that part was for real. But I think it was pretty convenient for somebody. And no matter how cynical and paranoid I get, I'm not sure I can out pace the reality of what the Loyal Bushies are capable of.

[RufusTFirefly]

2. Maybe not the actual sting but...

... how about the convenient leaking of the story, two months after it happened?

[LuckyTheDog]

11. That makes sense (nt)

[patrice]

3. I don't think that would be too hard to do.

I keep wondering about the experience level of the arresting officer. Seems like he jumped the gun a bit and I'm wondering why he would do that.

There seems to be no doubt that they are playing to their base by using Craig.

I expect Craig to re-habilitate himself by advertising (a la Bob Dole) Pharma's cure-all for biological gayness, the wonder drug Heteromine!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. They tricked him into trying to have sex with an undercover cop?

Did they use their orbital Try to Have Public Sex with an Undercover Cop ray?

[kenny blankenship]

5. Until I found out about the MIND CONTROL RAY they have

which explains how they could control his choice to use the men's room for sex that day and also which men's room he'd be going to, I'd have said you were nuts.

[sandnsea]

14. And transmit bathroom tapping code

and under the stall swiping signals. Don't forget that.

Why oh why are people defending this guy.

[AlCzervik]

6. so you're saying that the MN. police undercover detail work for Bush?

no i don't think Craig was set up at all.

[Kelly Rupert]

7. Yeah, that makes sense.

First, they contacted Northwest Airlines, and made sure that he'd be routed through MSP. Then, they put Senator-Deflector Rays on all the bathrooms but the one in the gift-shop area. Then, they sat an undercover cop down, and drenched him in pheromones they knew Craig couldn't resist. Then, they made sure nobody found out about it for a few months, just because. It's a perfect plan.

[DefenseLawyer]

8. They knew he was gay

but he wasn't set up. He just picked the wrong men's room to cruise. If they had wanted to "get" him, they wouldn't have chosen a way that labels another Republican as a deviant and a closet homosexual (although to wingnuts those are one in the same).

[TwilightGardener]

9. I think the release of the arrest and pleadings several months later

is suspect, but not the actual arrest. I do think that Craig for whatever reason really seems to think he got the shaft (no pun intended). Maybe he knows he had political enemies, and is trying to fight back?

[cannabis_flower]

10. I understand why he thinks he got the shaft and ...

I even am glad someone that was that much of a hypocrite is gone but...at the same time, I'm not really sure that what Craig was originally arrested for could have been supported by evidence. There is a law against solicitation of prostitution and there is a law against sex in public but none of this happened. There is no law against seeking out sex partners in public bathrooms as long as you don't actually have sex there or agree to pay for sex or do something lewd. And while that was the original charge, I think the reason they offered him a lesser charge is that lewd conduct was not supported by the evidence.

For one thing there is nothing really lewd about anything he did except possibly peering into someone else's stall. Now, I know that is bad, and usually if I can't tell if someone is in there I would look under the stall to see if there are shoes visible - and not through the crack to see if someone was in there. But the case could be made that he was only looking to see if someone was in there. The cop said that he peered in there for about two minutes, but unless it was all videotaped it would appear to be a case of his word against the cops. I really don't think tapping your foot, running your hand under the wall or even rubbing up against a person's leg can be considered lewd conduct. To really make the charge stick the cop would have had to show that Craig actually did something like masturbate, expose himself outside the stall or put more than his hand and foot in the other stall. Also, if the cop was sitting on the pot with his clothes on it does seem that this could be an indication to someone looking for sex that the other person was also looking. After all, if you aren't sitting on the toilet with your pants down or standing facing the toilet , what in the world are you there for? Perhaps it was disorderly conduct, but I bet he could have even fought that and won. Of course if he had tried to fight it the story would have been found out immediately, but perhaps he would have been able to spin it as entrapment or a misunderstanding and not be run out of office.

However, the fact that he was trolling for same sex partners in a public bathroom and had previously legislated against such conduct really smacks of hypocrisy. It is grounds for running him out of office, but not for charging him with a crime.

[LuckyTheDog]

12. You make a lot of sense

Including the part where you say Craig is a hypocrite. My intention here is not to defend Craig. But this is like that segment on the Olbermann show. There is such a thing as "worse, worser and worst."

And I think that whoever might have used this whole thing as a way to pay back Craig for his "political crimes" against the regime would be the Worst Person in the World in this scenario. Craig is in one of the other two categories.