As a liberal, I find myself in the rather curious position of defending a Republican, but I've listened to the tape and know that Sen. Larry Craig, R-ID, didn't try to pick up an undercover police officer in a public restroom.
A guilty plea to disorderly conduct for the June 11 incident at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport involving the Idaho Republican and the undercover officer has led to calls for the three-term Senator's resignation. Even GOP senators are suggesting that Mr. Craig step down.
The calls for Mr. Craig's resignation vary and are indicative of the perfidy of the GOP. Whether Mr. Craig was entrapped or not seems immaterial to these critics. The fact that he plead guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge—not too dissimilar to a waiverable traffic offense in that paying the fine and pleading guilty will get you out of jail—doesn't matter.
The Republicans are willing to sacrifice this man to the pillory of history to win the 2008 presidential election, but one would expect no less from the party that sacrificed the Constitution—not to mention the limbs and lifeblood of thousands of Americans—for nearly five years to give the current occupant of the White House anything he wanted.
I know little of Mr. Craig's legislative history. I'm certain that he and I could agree on very little, but on this issue I support him. All of this nonsense about hand gestures and where a guy puts his bag while using the stall wouldn't amount to a hill of beans to a jury. Even if Mr. Craig was cruising for sex, nothing in the police report or the plea agreement—wherein Mr. Craig agreed to pay $575—rises to the level of scandal that the GOP has foisted on the world under the banner of the War on Terror.
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