Conclusion of a dirty week in politics - Larry Craig

The end of a long and tumultuous week in Idaho politics and across the nation came this morning when Senator Craig announced his resignation from the US Senate! In front of a moderate group of people at the old Boise Train Depot, Craig said he didn’t feel he could pursue his legal options and give the people of Idaho popper representation in the Senate. He thanked his supporters and family and announced he would resign effective September 30, 2007.

While this saga has ended, there are interesting lessons to be learned from the events and reactions to the events leading to this resignation. The first and most obvious is that, regardless of your many sins, the one thing that can undo one the quickest is sex. Especially homosexual sex or the appearance of such. Craig has long been a critic of homosexuality and gay rights, helping in the passage of a constitutional amendment in the State of Idaho prohibiting gay marriage.

This long standing criticism seems to have brought charges of hypocrisy from many sides with the gay critics feeling he did wrong by persecuting them and others feeling that he fell from grace by apparently attempting to solicit gay sex, making him one grade lower than the proverbial serpent’s belly. So a lesson to be learned here is that even though all of us are hypocritical at times and a politician must be a hypocrite if he is going to get elected, keep in mind that your constituents will hang you for that in a New York minute!

Another lesson to be learned is that, for Republicans at any rate, you can count your friends on your fingers unless you have a very large family! Craig’s fellow Republican senators were the first to jump on the band wagon and literally put the screws to Craig. Closely coupled with Mitt Romney’s rapier like swordsmanship in skewering him like a rare steak!

And finally, remember that there is no such thing as a secret if two people know it! The officer may well have kept his word and not called the press but someone sure did! And that left Craig in a very vulnerable situation with a guilty plea on the record. I’ve no doubt, supported by the previous attorney general of Idaho, that Craig would have won had he plead not guilty. But by agreeing to the lesser charge he removed the element of doubt for many and left the specter of the greater sin to be considered as true.

As a person who has consistently voted against Craig here in Idaho, I can take no pleasure from his downfall in this instance. At the very worst, had he walked up to the officer and said "how about some gay sex" and it was captured on tape, it would have been a personal problem and on his own time. Second, not being familiar with the ways of soliciting gay sex anywhere, at least some of the horrendous acts he committed are acts anyone might, such as placing his bag inside the stall and tapping his foot. I’d never heard of these things having any significance until last Monday! But you can bet, I’ll be very careful not to tap my foot in a restroom from now on!

But the most saddening thing to me was the way Craig was deserted by his own "friends" in the party, almost instantly, and without a second look back. Talk about hypocrisy, those "friends" exhibited a level of hypocrisy that put anything Craig did to shame! Publicly, on the national scene, the Democrats refrained pretty well from jumping on the ill timed bandwagon but the Republicans certainly made up for it.

For the sake of the Senator and his family, and for the State of Idaho, I’m glad it’s over. But for any opponent of Senator Craig who thinks they have gained I can assure them that is not likely! The most widely believed appointee by the Governor is Jim Risch, a conservative who is even more viscous and dedicated than Larry Craig and who wants to be Senator. This will allow him, should he be selected, to run in 2008 as an incumbent and virtually guarantee Idaho’s continued Republican strangle hold on Idaho’s Washington delegation in perpetuity.

It’s been a sorry week and not one to be proud of. I, for one, am glad it’s over and hopefully, we’ve learned another lesson in just how dirty the business of politics can be!