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Breaking: Craig Arrested For Lewd Conduct

So the Idaho Statesman's Dan Popkey either has a story that he hasn't reported yet or he spent four months investigating allegations of Idaho Senator Larry Craig's sexual orientation and found nothing.  Not so for Roll Call.  According to Daily Kos, Roll Call was able to secure a copy of the arrest report following this incident:

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon.

This should hasten news of Craig's retirement.  We'll have more later.

Update 17:11:  Craig tried to mitigate his guilty plea with this response to local NBC affiliate, KTVB:

"At the time of the incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions. I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct. I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

It should be noted that from the time of the arrest to the guilty plea was two months.  For a politician to not seek legal advice during that time on an incident of this magnitude suggests either incompetence or "scared rabbit" syndrome.  Either way this is not good for Craig.

Update 18:03:  Talking Points Memo is reporting that the Mitt Romney campaign has yanked the video of Craig endorsing Romney for president.  Craig was a co-chair of the Romney for President Idaho Leadership Team.

Update 20:57:  The Idaho Statesman has responses from the rest of the Idaho congressional delegation.  A preview:  we...know...nothing.

The Idaho Statesman also reports more of the undercover officer's observations:

According to the police reports, a man, later identified as Craig, kept watching the undercover police officer through a crack in the stall. Craig then entered the next-door stall and placed his luggage against the opening under the stall door.

The account goes on to detail methods of solicitation used by the Senator.

Anyone want to speculate on the resignation date?

Update 08.28.07 05:38:  As noted by Serephin at 43rd State Blues and Daily Kos, the Idaho Statesman's Dan Popkey has finally released his much anticipated story.

August 27, 2007 at 03:42 PM in Larry Craig |

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Comments

Sisyphus

Risch must be doing cartwheels.

Posted by: Sisyphus | August 27, 2007 at 04:23 PM

Mark

My,my,my,I can't wait to hear the spin meisters of the GOP explain this one. Will Larry quit? That would give Butch an opportunity to appoint someone,(Risch perhaps),to have an incumbency advantage for next years election. Of course he may just try and brazen it out and stick around. The GOP sheep don't really care as long as it wasn't an underage thing.

Posted by: Mark | August 27, 2007 at 04:41 PM

Jay

I think the party will ask him to resign and give the incumbency to the next worthless toad. Although they really don't need the help to keep the seat, unfortunately.

Posted by: Jay | August 27, 2007 at 04:59 PM

theresa

And he replies ....

Sen. Craig issued this statement today in response to inquiries from the media:

"At the time of the incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions. I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct. I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."


t

Posted by: theresa | August 27, 2007 at 05:04 PM

MountainGoat

t, I just saw that on KTVB. He had two months! from the time of arrest to the guilty plea. You can't tell me that he didn't have some sort of legal advice during that time...unless he's the most inept politician of all time!

Posted by: MountainGoat | August 27, 2007 at 05:06 PM

Mark

What is really sad is the rubes who put him in office will believe every word out of his mouth.

Posted by: Mark | August 27, 2007 at 05:08 PM

Blue in ID

If Craig resigns, how is his replacement selected?

Posted by: Blue in ID | August 27, 2007 at 05:10 PM

Tara Rowe

The governor can appoint anyone to his liking to fill Craig's seat until the coming election or a special election.

Posted by: Tara Rowe | August 27, 2007 at 05:12 PM

Sisyphus

Yeah Roll Call quoted him as defending his "wide stance" in public restrooms. This should be late night fodder for awhile.

Frankly resignation never crossed my mind. What's his motive for resigning? I think he plays the misinterpretation card for all its worth cause he have trouble sitting on the payroll of too many Boards if he's tainted with a sex crime and validates it by resigning in disgrace. But who knows? Sometimes the story becomes more than the event it covers.

Posted by: Sisyphus | August 27, 2007 at 05:18 PM

Tara Rowe

Resignation didn't cross my mind either, I was simply answering the question of what would happen.

Posted by: Tara Rowe | August 27, 2007 at 05:26 PM

Sisyphus

Sorry t, I was several responses behind when I posted. Damn that work gets in the way of my blogging.

Posted by: Sisyphus | August 27, 2007 at 05:28 PM

theresa

I know MG I burst out LAUGHING "that seriously is the best reply you have to media questions today??" being my thought.

I think his thoughts were much more along the lines that gee no one in Idaho will know what happens out of state.

Sadly that same thought process seems to apply to some of what happens in DC.

t

Posted by: theresa | August 27, 2007 at 05:38 PM

theresa

Sisyphus - giggles no worries!
t

Posted by: theresa | August 27, 2007 at 05:43 PM

MountainGoat

Yeah, I'd like to know why the police officer who was handed Craig's business card noting that he was a US Senator didn't think that any of that info was news worthy.

Posted by: MountainGoat | August 27, 2007 at 05:44 PM

Sisyphus

Here's the whole police report, one that has extra pages regarding the senator's contact with police and not on TSG. http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/08/28/craig.incident.report.pdf
The senator specifically requests contact info for his lawyer.

Also here as an excellent in depth discussion by Glenn Greenwald on the right wing's duplicity. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/08/28/craig/index.html

Posted by: Sisyphus | August 28, 2007 at 10:41 AM

The comments to this entry are closed.

MountainGoat
MountainGoat

Quotes For 2010

  • "The main thing is to keep everybody going down that road as we try to find the answers and solutions to all these problems. It'll be fun! We'll get it done." — Majority Leader Mike Moyle (R-Star) when asked in an Idaho Reports broadcast how the State House will handle making tough budget decisions this year, 1.29.10.

Quotes For 2009

  • "[Some politicians] wouldn't recognize the Constitution if it fell in their laps and called them Daddy." — Rep. Lenore Hardy Barrett (R-Challis) at a tea party tax protest.
  • "Just, you know, putting beans on the table." — former Congressman Bill Sali (R-ID-01) when asked by Nate Shelman (670 KBOI) what he's doing these days.
  • "I said yesterday we hope and pray things will get better before they get worse. It's obvious to me some of you need to do a better job of praying." — Sen. Dean Cameron (R-Rupert), Joint Finance-Appropriation Committee co-chair on the grim economic forecast facing the committee.
  • “We’ve been called a lot of things but we’ve never been called sneaks before.” — Rep. Maxine Bell (R-Jerome) in a budget dispute with the governor's staff over legislators' computer funding.
  • "I’m not wearing rose-tinted glasses. But I am a glass-half-full kind of guy." — Gov. C. L. "Butch" Otter attempting to remain optimistic while delivering tough economic news in his State of the State/Budget message.

Quotes For 2008

  • "I am not ashamed that we use a lot of energy in this country. It has made us the most prosperous Nation on the face of the planet. ... Using energy makes us prosperous." — Congressman Bill Sali (R-ID-01) during debate on an energy bill that, among other things, invested in alternative and renewable energy sources and repealed tax subsidies for large oil companies. (H.R.6899)
  • "If [Oversight Committee Chairman] Henry Waxman was interested in doing more than just showboat, we'd be there in a heartbeat. It's political grandstanding." — spokesman Wayne Hoffman explaining why Congressman Bill Sali (R-ID-01) was absent from congressional oversight hearings into the financial crisis where, among other things, it was learned that AIG executives indulged in a lavish retreat a week after the bailout.
  • "You know what, campaigns are fast and furious, I accept responsibility that we don't have the right citation there, but the facts I stand by - we are correct about that." — Congressman Bill Sali (R-ID-01) reacting to a campaign commercial fact-checking report.
  • "There are people out there without health care, and we need to address that, but it's not as big of a problem as some people would make it out to be" — Congressman Bill Sali (R-ID-01) in a Lewiston, ID debate
  • "People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power." — President Bill Clinton in a speech at the 2008 DNC
  • "To my supporters, to my champions, to my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits, from the bottom of my heart, thank you." — Senator Hillary Clinton in a speech at the 2008 DNC
  • "The America that we know, that the founding fathers envisioned, will cease to exist." — Congressman Bill Sali (R-ID-01) speaking at the state GOP convention about the possibility of a Democratically controlled White House and Congress.
  • "Sometimes the problems have to get larger before you can solve them. We can still drive around the potholes, so they must not be big enough." — House Speaker Lawerence Denney (R-Midvale), explaining that lawmakers still need to be convinced about the extent of road maintenance problems before they'll agree to tax or fee increases.
  • "Those people that believe in shooting animals through the fences . . . ought to turn the rifle the other way." — Former Governor Cecil Andrus, at sportsmen's rally, decked out in full camouflage, urging opposition to "shooter bull" operations on domestic elk farms.
  • "GARVEE is like swallowing a raw egg - it seems to be one of those things that's really hard to stop in the middle of." — Rep. Marv Hagedorn (R-Meridian), in comments on a package of transportation bills introduced by House GOP leaders at an emergency committee meeting.
  • "I'm a professional dairyman. I have milked and milked everything I can possibly milk." — State Police Maj. Ralph Powell, arguing that the state crime lab's bare-bones operation has reached its limit and now costs the state money as testing is sent to private labs.
  • "Idaho is ranked last in the nation in protecting the safety of children in day care centers." — Sen. Kate Kelly (D-Boise), in support of an unsuccessful move by Senate Democrats to force a daycare standards bill out of committee.
  • "This [anti-discrimination bill] is something we will propose every year until it passes." — Rep. Nicole LeFavour (D-Boise), responding to the latest BSU Public Policy survey in which 63 percent of Idahoans think it ought to be illegal to fire someone for being gay or seeming to be gay.
  • "I assumed it would be a bunch of radical college students, so to fit the part, I grew a goatee, got a revolutionary T-shirt and put on some ratty jeans." — Rep. Curtis Bowers (R-Caldwell) in an Idaho Press-Tribune opinion explaining how he disguised himself to uncover alleged communist plots.

Quotes For 2007

  • "Divorce is just terrible. It's one of Satan's best tools to kill America." — Rep. Dick Harwood (R-St. Maries) describing the work of the Idaho Legislature's Family Task Force.
  • "I am not gay; I never have been gay." Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) in a statement responding to news of his arrest and subsequent guilty plea to disorderly conduct after an incident in an airport men's room.
  • “Most of the hospitals in this country have Christian names. If you think Hindu prayer is great, where are the Hindu hospitals in this country? Go down the list. Where are the atheist hospitals in this country? They’re not equal.” — Rep. Bill Sali (R-ID-01) to the Idaho Press-Tribune editorial board in response to criticism of his views regarding Hindu prayer in the Senate.
  • "We are all Nintendo warriors today. Remember that game, that electronic game, a few years ago, push buttons zim, zam, boom and it was all over with? That is not the way you fight war, although we as a society have grown to believe that." — Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) during debate on an amendment to a bill providing for defense authorization.
  • "While we are Democrats and Republicans, in our hearts we are all Idahoans." — Sen. Clint Stennett (D-Ketchum), reaching out to Republicans while outlining the Democratic agenda for the 2007 legislative session.
  • "One of the hardest things we've had to do here is taking off our party hats." — Rep. Marv Hagedorn (R-Meridian) on a proposal to restrict Idaho's primary elections.
  • "This is outrageous. The people of Idaho are entitled to have their representatives base their votes on the merits of a bill, not on who backed the loser in a speaker's contest." — Former GOP Gov. Phil Batt responding to accusations of political retribution taken by House Speaker Denney (R-Midvale) on other members.
  • “There was one of those six projects that was removed altogether. Why? Because the senator and the representatives from that district were from the wrong political party. We need to take a step back" — Sen. Dean Cameron (R-Rupert) to the Senate when debating the GARVEE bill.
  • "I'm prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself." — Gov. Butch Otter, speaking to a hunters' rally at the Statehouse.
  • "To get a kick out of smoking industrial hemp, it would take a cigar the size of a telephone pole." — Rep. Tom Trail (R-Moscow), downplaying the relation between hemp and its cousin marijuana
  • "I guess I would just make a plea saying we need the money. You know we need the money on roads." — Rep. JoAn Wood (R-Rigby), on proposed bill to collect gas tax from sales on Indian reservations.
  • "No one wants to carry the canoe bill." — Rep. Eric Anderson (R-Priest River), agreeing with Gov. Otter that non-motorized boats should also pay registration fees, but noting any such proposal will be a tough sell.
  • "I don't think we should let the threat of a lawsuit force us to implement something that's not well thought out." — Abbie Mace, Fremont County Clerk, testifying against a "modified-closed primary" bill being pushed by GOP leaders.
  • "There's a lot of things that I pointed out in my State of the State (address) that haven't passed. Unfortunately, I can't think of one that has." — Gov. Butch Otter, addressing reporters on the legislative session so far.
  • "I say let's have a hearing and take our clothes off and go after it." — Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, trying to get lawmakers to print his bill.
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