<p>Okeydokey…how ‘bout the rumor that, because Craig asked for 30 days before his resignation takes place, the GOP may try using Americans’ notoriously short attention spans to save his seat. I’m actually surprised they haven’t used the drinking/drug rehab scenario yet. After all, there have been other ‘sinners’ who have been rehabilitated in a relatively short time frame – Gingrich and Ollie North and What’s-his-Name (the Watergate guy with the fierce mustache) come to mind. </p>
<p>Speaking of past sins and indiscretions…the WaPo reports that the Watergate Hotel, preparing for a major re-do, is selling off furniture, paintings, etc. this week. Getcher memoriabilia here!</p>
<p>For any of you interested the ops center from which the Watergate burglars conducted their raid was across the street (Virginia Ave) in what then was a Howard Johnson’s Hotel. They had a room the looked out on the Watergate complex. I believe the DNC offices were on the second floor. I was in them once just a couple of weeks before the burglary.</p>
<p>Anyway the HoJo’s is now a George Washington University dormitory. Go to GW and live in a piece of history. </p>
<p>The Watergate complex consists of a Hotel, office building, and condos. Monica Lewinski lived there too. I believe it was financed by the Vatican Bank. Go figure.</p>
<p>" second that, Lake Washington. Using selected Bible verses as weapons of argument is surely not what the good Lord intended."</p>
<p>Why does everyone always assume the Lord is good? I am more afraid of finding out he is a rotten mean vindictive sob than that he doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>I don’t really care whether Craig resigns or not, but he sure has been a good source of chuckles for me. It’s like Craig morphed into someone on SNL parodying him. </p>
<p>“A telephone call Craig received last week from Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., urging him to consider fighting for his seat is affecting Craig’s decision to reconsider his resignation, Smith said.”</p>
<p>“Craig has hired a high-powered crisis management team that includes Martin; communications adviser Judy Smith; Washington attorney Stan Brand, a former general counsel to the U.S. House; and Minneapolis attorney Tom Kelly.”</p>
<p>I’m guessing that the GOP has helped him bring this team together.</p>
<p>HELLO!! The time to hire a a high-powered crisis team is before you plead guilty and resign!</p>
<p>I think its insanity for Craig to consider returning, based on his despicable toe tapping and other sleazy actions. He’d be hounded and scorned by his party and his electorate…you have only to look at what happened to Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton to see what lies ahead. :D</p>
<p>It’s very clear I didn’t assume anything; that’s why I have “an out” as you called it. You made baseless assumptions and shouldn’t you thank me for correcting you, Mr. critical thinking (lol!)?</p>
<p>The good news is that it now appears that Sen. Craig is not going to let the party bosses bully him out of the US Senate. </p>
<p>He was after all elected by the people of Idaho to service their interests. He was not appointed to the seat by big shot political bosses from back east, and he should let the political bosses from the east kick him out of the Senate.</p>
<p>There’s a theory that Karl Rove engineered the sting because Craig opposed portions of the Patriot Act. (Thought it would give Hillary too much power.) Interesting huh?</p>
<p>Yeah, but Article 1, Section 5 of the US Constitution states:</p>
<p>“Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member.”</p>
<p>So in the end it doesn’t matter what the people of Idaho voted for. If two thirds of his fellow senators want him out, he’s gone.</p>
<p>just wanted to point out that up until last year I lived about 5 minutes from Eagle, Idaho. As far as I can recall there are no hotels there. At least no nice ones! </p>
<p>Well, actually there might be one, but I’m not sure it’s within Eagle’s boundaries ;)</p>
<p>Now here’s where it gets complex…and interesting.</p>
<p>Apparently, Craig, believing he dialed the number of his attorney, left a message on a machine that was not his target. Naturally, as soon as the recepient heard ‘This is Larry Craig’, it was turned over to the press. You can find it easily through google…it’s too long to quote. </p>
<p>Anyway, this message was left before his statement on Sat, and Craig states that after talking with Alan Specter of PA there’s a chance the party leadership might support him so they need to soften his statement. Please note that he did say he <em>intends</em> to resign…not that he is resigning. For whatever reason, he wants to stay in until 8/30…pension? Little gold lapel pin? Who knows? </p>
<p>Maybe he thinks he can wiggle out of his resignation stance and into a ‘gee, I’m sorry but I can still be effective’ stance. (Nope…not going for any mention of the word ‘wide’…sorry.) </p>
<p>He seems to be hoping that his guilty plea to an admittedly minor charge may not rise to the level of a Senate Ethics Committee matter. However, enough Republicans are withdrawing the hems of their garments from Craig’s vicinity to make any appearance by Craig for a vote extremely unlikely right now. Next week…who knows. New scandals might pop up…the media is playing the Hsu/Clinton angle for all they can. </p>
<p>Of course, by shuffling Craig out of the Senate bunny-fast, the Republicans hope to get him off the front pages faster than the Mark Foley kick-out (no double entendre intended, honest) which is better for them as Congress comes back into session. They want to keep the focus on those bad, naughty Democrats…witness Mitch McConnell’s presser yesterday in which he blamed everything except the recent moon eclipse on the Dem’s unrelenting partisanship. The press asked him if the recent troubles the Republicans are having might explain Congress’ recent low poll numbers. McConnell blamed…the Democrats. Surprise! Betcha didn’t see that one coming.</p>
<p>Maybe there us something else going on the Craig thinks will put the incident in a different light. Just speculation here but has anyone wondered what a sargent with 23 years on the force was doing stuck in a mes room toilet ■■■■■■■■ for perverts? I mean it is not the assignment I would take if I had underlings. Of course maybe he honked his captain off.</p>
<p>My wife insists she read that the cop was off duty. I haven’t seen that myself but if he was what was he doing at the airport? Now I don’t doubt Craig has a sexual problem and I am on record as being in favour of the police cracking down on the perverts ■■■■■■■■ public restrooms and parks but if I wanted to set Craig up it would have been easy enough to do. He goes through that airport all the time and probably has had luck in those particular stalls before.</p>
<p>I don’t have any sympathy for Craig but there could be something more going on here. The whole situation just seems a little strange. I wonder how many other bathroom citations have been issued at this airport and why it wouldn’t have been just as effective and more efficient use of manpower to have a cop pop is head in the nathroom every once in a while looking for four feet in a stall or guys lurking about?</p>
<p>As much as I dislike and disapprove of the sort of activity Craig was engaged in I am more interested in getting the “perps” to stop doing it than prosecuting or even embarrassing them. Admittedly the latter is probably a great deterent but it is also an embarrassment and hurtful to innocent family members.</p>
<p>higherlead (<----what is that, a grade of gasoline?)</p>
<p>I’m sure that catching perverts in a public restroom is one of the many onerous tasks that policemen have to perform. I, for one, would like to thank them for their service.<br>
This is just vile. Weren’t you ashamed while writing it?</p>
<p>Essentially, you are saying something really execrable about those valiant men of the badge, but actually you are saying more about yourself than anything else.</p>
<p>Questioning whether this police operation was set up to catch this one particular deviant is idle supposition, and stinks of the odor of partisan cheerleading. I don’t care who they catch, I am just glad they are doing it. Maybe it would cause ‘tearoom’ cruisers to think twice before lurking in public places.</p>
<p>Believe me, the worry of single mommies who have to send their sons into a men’s room is not lessened with the knowledge that this goes on. See my above comment: “No honey, sorry, you can’t go into the men’s room. There might be a Senator in there.” </p>
<p>So, thanks Sen. Craig for giving parents extra worry, and less of an impetus to use our elected leaders as role models. Another evolutionary step downward.</p>
<p>Thank you for your post pointing out that the constitution has a method and requirements for removing someone from Congress. I suggest the leadership of the Republican Party (political bosses) follow the constitutional requirements.</p>