[Vision2020] Conservatives and Hypocrisy: The Lies of Larry Craig

[Gray Tree Crab aka Big Bertha]

 <http://www.spokesmanreview.com/>Sunday, December 2, 2007
Men allege having sex, encounters with Craig

Dan Popkey
<http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news/bylines.asp?bylinename=Dan%20Popkey>
Idaho Statesman
December 2, 2007

BOISE – David Phillips. Mike Jones. Greg Ruth. Tom Russell.

Four gay men, willing to put their names in print and whose allegations
can't be disproved, have come forward since news of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's
guilty plea. They say they had sex with Craig or that he made a sexual
advance or paid them unusual attention.

They are telling their stories now because they are offended by Craig's
denials, including his famous statement, "I am not gay. I never have been
gay, " spoken on live national TV on Aug. 28.


David Phillips is a 42-year-old information technology consultant in
Washington, D.C., who says Craig picked him up at a gay club in 1986 and
that they subsequently had sex.

Mike Jones is a former prostitute who told the world he had sex with the
Rev. Ted Haggard last year. The former Colorado Springs evangelist at first
denied it but eventually confessed. Jones says Craig paid him for sex in
late 2004 or early 2005.

Greg Ruth was a 24-year-old college Republican in 1981 when he says he was
hit on by Craig at a GOP meeting in Coeur d'Alene.

Tom Russell, 48, is a former Nampa resident who lives in Utah. Russell said
his encounter with Craig occurred at Idaho's Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation
Area in the early 1980s.

A fifth gay man, who is from Boise but who declined to be named for fear of
retaliation, said he was in a men's restroom at Denver International Airport
in September 2006 when the man in the next stall moved his hand slowly, palm
up, under the divider. Alarmed, the man said he waited outside the restroom
and then identified the man in the adjoining stall as Craig, whom he had met
in Idaho.

Craig, 62, says he was a victim of "profiling" when he was arrested June 11
at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on allegations of soliciting
sex from an undercover police officer in an adjoining stall in a men's
restroom. Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in August. He is
appealing his conviction, financed by his 2008 re-election fund. Because of
the scandal, Craig has said that after 33 years in state and national
office, he will not seek re-election next year. Craig also faces a Senate
Ethics Committee inquiry, which was requested by Senate GOP leadership.

In October 2006, Craig directly denied the claims of a blogger who reported
he'd spoken with three anonymous sources who said they had sex with Craig.

In May 2007, after hearing a tape of an accuser who said he and Craig had
sex in two men's restrooms at Washington, D.C.'s Union Station rail depot,
Craig said, "I am not gay."

Craig declined comment on this story. He stopped replying to questions from
the Statesman after the paper's Aug. 28 report that included the accounts of
three unnamed men, one who said he had sex with Craig and two who said he
solicited them for sex. But Craig's staff told other media the allegations
by Phillips and Jones were false.
David Phillips

David Phillips' account was first published Oct. 25 at Wonkette.com, a
liberal Web site. Shortly after The Spokesman-Review linked to the story on
Oct. 26, Craig spokesman Sid Smith replied on a blog that "there is not a
shred of truth to this." In a tape-recorded interview with the Statesman,
the 1985 graduate of Rice University said he met Craig on a weekday
afternoon between May and August 1986 at a gay strip club called La Cage Aux
Follies in Washington, D.C. Phillips said he mistakenly told Wonkette the
incident happened in 1987.

Phillips, then 21, said he and Craig talked and then hugged. According to
Phillips, Craig said he didn't feel comfortable at the club and suggested
they leave. Phillips had his car, but Craig hailed a cab, with Phillips
following him to Capitol Hill.

On the way to an upstairs bedroom, Phillips said Craig told him, "You've
never been here. You don't know me." Phillips said Craig removed his suit
coat but otherwise remained dressed.

He said Craig first performed oral sex on him, and that they then had anal
sex. Afterward, Phillips said, Craig pressed Phillips to leave. He said
Craig stuck $20 in his pocket and said, "I can buy and sell your ass a
thousand times over. You were never here." Phillips said he saw a note card
addressed to Suzanne Craig as he left the house. But he said he never
recognized Craig as his sex partner until the recent story broke and he
heard Craig's distinctive and formal voice on TV.

"I didn't hear that voice again until August," Phillips said. "Then that 'I
can buy and sell your ass a thousand times' came back to me. It just all
rolled back so vividly." Smith, the Craig spokesman, said in his blog
posting after the Wonkette report that Phillips should not be believed
because Craig did not live on Capitol Hill in 1987, but on his boat at the
Capitol Yacht Club.
Mike Jones

Mike Jones, 50, told the Statesman Craig paid him $200 for sex on a night
between November 2004 and March 2005. Jones said he recognized Craig only
after August.

After Craig said on Oct. 4 that he would complete his term in 2009 and
appeared on NBC on Oct. 16, Jones went on the record with the Statesman,
describing a sexual encounter with Craig.

Jones told the Statesman in a tape-recorded interview that a man phoned to
make an appointment, not giving his name. The man, whom Jones later
recognized as Craig, then arrived at a studio apartment in downtown Denver.
Craig asked whether Jones followed politics but then quickly changed the
subject. Jones said he deduced that his client response was a politician.

Craig removed his coat and dress shirt, leaving his T-shirt, slacks and
shoes on when he climbed onto Jones's massage table. Craig asked that Jones
be naked. Craig undid his own zipper and masturbated while performing oral
sex on Jones. When Craig finished, he paid Jones $200 and left.

Jones said he kept no records on his escort clients and that he advertised
his "massage" services exclusively in gay publications.

Craig was in Denver on Feb. 11, 2005, and in nearby Keystone, Colo., on Feb.
12. On Feb. 12, he attended a meeting at the Keystone Center, a policy think
tank. Craig's Senate travel records also show six other trips where Craig
may have had layovers in Denver between November 2004 and March 2005.

Dan Whiting, a Craig spokesman, told TV station KIVI, "Mike Jones is lying
in order to sell his book … plain and simple. Larry has never met Mike
Jones."

Jones has written a book about his experience with Haggard, who resigned in
November 2006 as president of the National Evangelical Association and was
forced out as pastor of New Life Church after Jones came forward with voice
mails.
Greg Ruth

Greg Ruth attended the Republican Western Roundup in Coeur d'Alene in
October 1981, where he said Craig made a sexual advance. At the time, Craig
was a 36-year-old bachelor and first-year congressman and Ruth was a
24-year-old college Republican from the University of Puget Sound.

Ruth, who is openly gay , told the Statesman in a tape-recorded interview
that Craig paid him unusual attention at the political gathering.

Ruth said he excused himself to use the restroom, but that Craig soon
entered and stood next to Ruth at the urinal, looking at Ruth's penis.

"He looked over and said, 'Hi,' " Ruth said. "But he didn't touch me or
anything like that. And then after we finished urinating, we washed hands.

"He gave me his phone number and he said, 'If you ever get to D.C., call me.
You can stay with me.' "

Ruth, now a professional photographer, said he never followed up and lost
the slip of paper with Craig's number. But Ruth said he has no doubt Craig
was making a sexual advance. "I'm gay, and I knew he was hitting on me,"
Ruth said. "There's no question about that."
Unnamed man

Another gay man, a 46-year-old professional from Boise, told the Statesman
that Craig reached his hand into his restroom stall in September 2006 during
a layover at the Denver airport. The man, who travels in political circles,
had met Craig before. He asked that he not be named.

The man said he was flying from Boise to Washington, D.C., on the same
flights as Craig and his wife.

During the layover in Denver, the man said, he was in a men's restroom stall
when a hand came under the divider and reached toward him. The hand was palm
up, as the officer in Minnesota also described, and slid toward him for two
or three seconds. The man said he noticed unpolished, dark, lace-up shoes
worn by the man in the next stall. He did not respond to the gesture.

The man said he then waited outside the men's restroom. Shortly after, a man
wearing the shoes he saw in the adjacent stall exited. He recognized the man
as Craig.

After boarding the second flight, the man told his partner about the
incident. The partner confirmed to the Statesman having heard the details of
Craig's advance that day.
Tom Russell

Tom Russell, 48, a Nampa native who lives in Utah, was among three men who
contacted the Statesman about what they described as unusually attentive
behavior on Craig's part. Russell spoke in a tape-recorded interview.

Russell worked as a food service manager at Bogus Basin ski resort and said
his encounter probably occurred in the 1983-84 ski season. Russell had heard
rumors Craig was gay.

Russell, who is openly gay, said he set out to engage Craig "and attempted
to show a personal interest … not in a suggestive way … but a personal
interest to see if he would respond."

"I recall that he was very delighted to talk to me – smiling, happy, very
delighted – and that he had suggested that we could get together sometime,"
he said. Russell said he became convinced Craig was gay because he used
subtle signals consistent with communication between gay men in public
places.

Nothing came of the meeting, Russell said. But he came forward now because
he is offended by Craig's denials.

"I'm disgusted because it's hypocritical, and he's lying. He's lying through
his teeth. Heterosexual men do not behave like that."





-- 
Gray Tree Crab aka "Big Bertha"
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20071202/64d47d44/attachment.html