[Vision2020] Craig still making headlines

[Mark Solomon]

From the lead story section of the NYTimes on-line edition.

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Idaho Senator Says He Did Nothing Wrong


By DAVID STOUT and CARL HULSE
Published: August 28, 2007

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 - Senator Larry Craig said 
today that he regretted his guilty plea in 
connection with an airport bathroom incident, and 
he accused an Idaho newspaper of hounding him 
mercilessly in recent months.

"I am not gay, I never have been gay," Mr. Craig, 
an Idaho Republican, declared at a brief 
appearance in Boise with his wife, Suzanne Craig, 
at his side.

Mr. Craig, 62, apologized for "the cloud placed 
over Idaho" by his arrest and guilty plea to a 
misdemeanor charge. But his deepest regret, he 
said, is that he pleaded guilty when he had done 
nothing wrong.

The senator said he had chosen to plead guilty 
without consulting a lawyer, and before telling 
his family, in the hope that the incident would 
just "go away" somehow.

"That was a mistake, and I deeply regret it," he said.

Now, he said, he has retained counsel to decide 
what to do next. Mr. Craig said he would announce 
soon whether he will seek a fourth term next year.

Meanwhile, the Senate Republican leadership 
sought to quarantine the possible political 
damage arising from Mr. Craig's troubles, calling 
the incident "a serious matter" and recommending 
that the Senate Ethics Committee review the 
affair.

"In the meantime, leadership is examining other 
aspects of the case to determine if additional 
action is required," said the statement issued by 
Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the 
minority leader; Trent Lott of Mississippi, the 
assistant leader; Jon Kyl of Arizona, the 
Republican conference leader; Kay Bailey 
Hutchison of Texas, the policy committee 
chairwoman, and John Ensign of Nevada, chairman 
of the party's Senate campaign committee.

Mr. Craig said today that he and his family had 
been "relentlessly and viciously harassed" for 
months by The Idaho Statesman, a daily newspaper 
based in Boise, which has been pursuing rumors 
about his personal life. He said the stress 
created by the newspaper's efforts "and the 
rumors it has fueled all around Idaho" had 
clouded his judgment.

Otherwise, he offered no detailed explanation 
today for the embarrassing events that began with 
his arrest in June by an undercover police 
officer in a men's bathroom at the 
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On 
Aug. 8, Mr. Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly 
conduct. A second charge against Mr. Craig, 
interference with privacy, was dismissed. He was 
given a 10-day jail sentence that was suspended; 
was fined more than $500; and was placed on 
unsupervised probation for one year.

According to a police report obtained by Roll 
Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper that disclosed 
the episode and the guilty plea on Monday, a 
plainclothes police officer who was investigating 
complaints of sexual activity in the airport 
bathroom arrested the senator on June 11 after 
what the officer described as sexual advances 
made by Mr. Craig from an adjoining stall.

After his arrest, the senator denied any sexual 
intent. He said in a statement issued Monday 
afternoon that the whole matter came down to a 
misunderstanding, and that the police were 
"misconstruing my actions." In 2006, Mr. Craig 
publicly rejected allegations by a gay rights 
advocate that he had engaged in a homosexual 
behavior, calling the claims "completely 
ridiculous."
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