Sen. Craig's Lewdness: Hidden In Plain Sight

Posted by TRex at 6:27 AM on August 29, 2007.

This post, written by TRex, originally appeared on FireDogLake

In spite of his heated denials today, Senator Craig has left quite a trail of slime over the years. Editor and Publisher has the scoop on the rumors, the repeated accusations, and the Idaho senator's persistent efforts to bury the truth.

In its story today about Craig's arrest, the Statesman revealed that it had uncovered evidence of other Craig liaisons or sexual advances, including allegations that he had sex with a man in a Union Station bathroom in Washington, D.C., but had not previously reported it. "Until Monday, the Statesman had declined to run a story about Craig's sex life, because the paper didn't have enough corroborating evidence and because of the senator's steadfast denial."

But the paper also revealed, "Over five months, the Statesman examined rumors about Craig dating to his college days and his 1982 pre-emptive denial that he had sex with underage congressional pages. The most serious finding by the Statesman was the report by a professional man with close ties to Republican officials. The 40-year-old man reported having oral sex with Craig at Washington's Union Station, probably in 2004. The Statesman also spoke with a man who said Craig made a sexual advance toward him at the University of Idaho in 1967 and a man who said Craig "cruised" him for sex in 1994 at the REI store in Boise. The Statesman also explored dozens of allegations that proved untrue, unclear, or unverifiable."

Glenn Greenwald:

Nonetheless, it is hard to overstate the intense fury that this pre-election report triggered from the Right -- not at Senator Craig for engaging in this behavior, but at Rogers for reporting it. A virtually unanimous chorus on the Right furiously insisted that nothing could be more irrelevant than whether the married family values Senator had sex with men in bathrooms (acts that are simultaneously criminal and adulterous). The same political movement that impeached Bill Clinton and which has made a living exploiting issues of private morality for political gain insisted that Rogers had reached a new and despicable low in politics even by reporting this.

And at least at the time, Barnett was right. Among right-wing pundits -- weeks before the election -- there was nothing but support for Craig and outrage over the reporting of this story. The most hysterical outrage of all was from Glenn Reynolds, who went so far as repeatedly to predict -- literally-- that the country would be so repulsed by Rogers' reporting that it might actually swing the election in favor of the Republicans.

(...)

As usual, Bush-supporting bloggers like Ann Althouse and Patterico dutifully echoed Reynolds' line: "I truly believe this sort of tactic is going to create a backlash." Identically, Michelle Malkin's Hot Air actually convinced itself, as Reynolds did, that the Craig report was so despicable that it might save the GOP from defeat:

Three kids, nine grandkids. Supposedly spending his leisure time in the men's room at Union Station. . . . It's been said before but it bears repeating: the left always finds a way to shoot itself in the foot. Patterico expects a backlash. So do I. In fact, I haven't felt this motivated to vote in weeks. . . . .

If a U.S. Senator was going to have a tryst -- especially a gay tryst -- would he really do it in the men's room of one of the busiest places in D.C.?

Tagged as: homophobia, republican hypocrisy, craig, gay republicans

TRex is a regular blogger for FireDogLake.