Toilet Twit

Yesterday, I wondered whether we'd find out that Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) had engaged in alleged misconduct in bathrooms before.

The New York Post (pulling quotes from the Idaho Statesman) does not disappoint in providing an answer today. We've got a guy who has come forward to say that he and Craig teamed up in a bathroom at Washington's Union Station.

In a lengthy article based on 300 interviews, the paper yesterday reported the claims of an unidentified man who said he had oral sex with Craig during a weekday afternoon at the bathroom of Washington's Union Station, a few blocks from the Capitol. "I've hooked up with Craig," the tattler wrote to a gay-activist blogger who recently outed the senator.

When the newspaper played a recording of the man's claims during an interview with Craig at which his wife, Suzanne, was present, she began to cry.

Craig said, "Sorry, hon," and denied the incident had occurred.

The senator told the paper, "I am not gay and I have never been in a rest room in Union Station having sex with anybody."

Craig can say he's not gay all he wants. He can try and blame the Idaho Statesmen for his troubles, but he's the one who got arrested in the first place and then chose not to lawyer up to deal with the issue. That's not going to stop others from crawling out of the woodwork to claim that they've engaged in sex with Craig.

However, that isn't what bothers me about this. My primary issue with Craig remains the fact that he tried to use his position as Senator to avoid an arrest. That's a big no-no in my book.

I think he's got serious issues with his wife and family over whether he's engaged in homosexual relations - and that isn't my business.

Trying to blame everyone else for his own indiscretions is a sign that he does not take responsibility for his own actions - either in pleading guilty to the charges or in getting arrested. If he believed that he was indeed innocent of the charges, he should have fought it tooth and nail. Instead, he's got a guilty plea and a host of questions swirling around him.

What I also find distasteful is that there are people gleefully seeking to out folks across the aisle to out as closeted homosexuals in the hopes of forcing them from their seats. How exactly is that compassionate and who gives them the right to out someone - regardless of their political affiliation? For a political group that claims to be for gay rights, that isn't exactly showing compassion or interest in advancing gay rights. It's nothing more than using someone's sexual preferences or choices to advance their own political agendas.

Note that I do not condone illegal acts here, or that I approve of bathroom trysts (of either homosexual or heterosexual varieties). There are some things that should be left in the privacy of one's home and that using public spaces (including restrooms) for such encounters is justfiably a public nuisance and criminalized.

UPDATE:
According to CNN, Sen. Larry Craig is stepping down from his committee assignments amid calls for his resignation from the Senate. Among those calling for his resignation are Sen. John McCain (R-AZ and presidential candidate) and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN). Add Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan to the mix calling for him to depart.

As Don Surber notes, Craig's infidelities aren't high crimes and misdemeanors, but he should be impeached if he doesn't step down because of his attempts to use his position to get out of his predicament. It was his abuse of power that rubbed me the wrong way, and it still does.

Craig's days are numbered for the Senate.

One also gets the sense that he's the last to know this.