He’s Gone
Posted on September 1st, 2007 in Uncategorized | 19 Comments »
Speaking for about five minutes and taking no questions, Larry Craig resigned around 3:30 today. Craig refused to say exactly why he was resigning.
Idaho congressman Bill Sali asked the press to lay off Craig for a while.
âSenator Craig, Suzanne, their children and grandchildren need, and I suggest are due, a measure of grace, dignity and Idaho-style decency that has been missing in their life recently,” he said.
Mmmm-hmmmâblame the press. Never mind that the disgrace, indignity, and indecency the Craig family has endured come from the fact that the head of the household was cruising for sex in an airport men’s room.
So much for Republicans and personal responsibility……
19 Responses
9/2/2024 2:08 am
Why the outrage here Rich? Do you not believe that men have the right to be with other men? If so, then this is a tragedy…someone unable to be true to himself because of his (wrongheaded perhaps) beliefs. I feel for his family, but common decency says leave him alone to sort through the wreckage of his life.
9/2/2024 8:24 am
Yes. It does.
9/2/2024 8:40 am
Well, yes and no. After all, the man has taken public and active anti-gay positions, and so there is some public import to what’s going on with him now.
Don’t get me wrong, I have sympathy for his family; this must be a devastating time.
But I don’t believe that you get to cast votes that hurt millions of people, that cut to the quick of their own personal lives, and then say, I’m going through a tough time, leave me alone.
After all, Larry Craig supported a federal ban on gay marriageâthe federal government overreaching the states and impinging on people’s freedoms. Should this now all be forgotten just because we feel sorry for him?
Moreover, I think it’s an important discussion: Why is Larry Craig forced to resign and not David Vitter?
9/2/2024 9:46 am
I’m with Richard on this one. The guy is a hypocrite, which fits right in to the Republican party-which opposes socialism except when it favors the wealthy (bailouts, etc.) small government (but let’s spy on our citizens and restrict their private sex lives) and so forth. They’re all Larry Craigs.
9/2/2024 1:08 pm
I expect Larry Craig has to resign because his crime involves sex with other men in public which is illegal…David Vitter had sex with women in private for money. Both constitute adultery but to the American public and to American politicians, what Craig did is worse…not only in the eyes of man and the law…but in the eyes of God. I’m just guessing here…I can’t speak for God.
lmpaulsen
9/2/2024 1:38 pm
Richard, just a minor quibble, his annoucement was made at 12:30pm est, not 3:30.
9/2/2024 1:40 pm
This quote is his reason for quitting - “I have little control over what people choose to believe but clearly my name is important to me. And my family is so very important also. Having said that, to pursue my legal options as I continue to serve Idaho would be an unwanted and unfair distraction of my job and for my Senate colleagues.”
9/3/2024 1:52 am
At some point, Rich, you’ll realize that not everyone who opposes gay marriage is anti-gay. You over-simplify, and far too often with political issues. How many of the Democrat candidates support gay marriage? I feel like it’s less than half…Hillary? And, yes, silence or non-answers mean they oppose it. Speaking of hypocrites.
9/3/2024 7:07 am
If you could explain to me how being against giving gay people a right that heterosexual people have is not anti-gay, I’m more than willing to listen.
But in any case, Larry Craig’s voting record was anti-gay on a number of points, including opposing job protection for gay people, so the argument is broader than just the marriage issue.
9/3/2024 8:47 am
Have you thought that Craig just might have been voting the wishes of his conservative constituents - at great personal pain to himself? In other words, doing his job?
Closeted homosexuals are very often forced into protesting too much. And seeking anonymous sex.
9/3/2024 8:55 am
Sure, I have. But in theory, the conservative, anti-big government Idaho voters (“you’ll get my gun when you pry it from my cold dead fingers,” etc.) would be opposed to the federal government legislating social policy from Washington. Because conservatives are consistent that way, right?
More likely, I think, is your second point; Larry Craig, a man determined to rebut rumors of his homosexuality, could not afford to vote against a ban on gay marriage.
9/3/2024 9:10 am
By the way, 1:52, I’m suspicious of anyone who uses “Democrat” as an adjective. But why do you say that any Dem who doesn’t openly support gay marriage automatically opposes it? Isn’t it just as likely if not more that Barack, Hillary et al realize that the issue is a political loser on which the Republicans would be sure to Swift-Boat them? They’re not going to win any votes they wouldn’t already get by coming out in favor of gay marriage, and they’d be destroyed by negative ads if they did. So you can’t really blame them for hedging on the issue. It’s not pretty, but it’s realistic. Especially because, in the overall scheme of what voters are most concerned aboutâwar, the economy, health care, the environmentâgay marriage is pretty far down the list.
9/3/2024 11:42 am
Hedging on an issue that’s far down on “the list” could be seen as an incredibly bad sign…
Like many others, I prefer to use “democrat” as an adjective in that context (as much to wind folks up as anything). “Democratic Party” always seems a bit disingenuous to me. Like integrated propaganda.
-1:52am
9/3/2024 1:23 pm
You miss my point, 1:52. The adjectival form of “Democrat” is “Democratic.” Ever since the reign of Lee Atwater back in the mid- to late 1980s, Republicans have used the rather sneering shorter form, “Democrat,” as in, “the Democrat Party,” best spoken by a white guy with a southern (or perhaps Idahoan) accent….. It’s a cheap ploy not worthy of a political party with a grand tradition.
9/3/2024 2:33 pm
And hence, you are wound up. Didn’t mean to say adjective, I was using it as a proper noun (it was capitalized), and it’s perfectly fine to say a “Democrat position” rather than a “Democratic position” (and in any accent I like) even if your particular preference is otherwise. I’ll use “democratic,” lowercase, when I actually want to describe something that is, in fact, democratic.
9/3/2024 2:44 pm
You can use it thusly all you like, but it’ll still be incorrect. One could similarly argue that when the Republican Party espouses a position that is truly lower-case r “republican,” then we should refer to that party as the republican Party. But we don’t, do we?
In any case, in an era of Terri Schiavo, proposed constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage and flag-burning, Supreme Court packing, government spying, massive federal spending, national education policy, etc., it’s been quite some time since the Republican Party actually advocated a republican position.
So this may not be an issue that will come up anytime soon.
9/3/2024 5:20 pm
It’s nothing personal, Rich. I still love ya.
-SEg (aka 1:52am)
9/4/2024 1:05 am
Rich,
How exactly are the Republicans “packing” the Supreme Court?
9/5/2024 4:30 pm
Ideologically.