<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="800"><tbody><tr><td align="left"><a href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/"><img src="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/images/small-logo.gif" border="0" height="20" width="200">
</a></td><td align="right"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">Sunday, December 2, 2007</font></td></tr></tbody></table><br>
<h2>Men allege having sex, encounters with Craig </h2><p class="byline"><span class="name"><a href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news/bylines.asp?bylinename=Dan%20Popkey">Dan Popkey </a></span><br>Idaho Statesman<br>December 2, 2007
</p>
<p>BOISE – David Phillips. Mike Jones. Greg Ruth. Tom Russell.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p><table align="left"><tbody><tr><td><br></td></tr></tbody></table>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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." </p><p>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.</p><span class="subhead">David Phillips</span><br><p>David
Phillips' account was first published Oct. 25 at <a href="http://Wonkette.com">Wonkette.com</a>, 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.</p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>"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.</p><span class="subhead">Mike Jones</span><br><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Jones
said he kept no records on his escort clients and that he advertised
his "massage" services exclusively in gay publications.</p><p>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.</p><p> 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."</p><p>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. </p><span class="subhead">Greg Ruth</span><br><p>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.</p><p>Ruth,
who is openly gay , told the Statesman in a tape-recorded interview
that Craig paid him unusual attention at the political gathering.</p><p>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.</p><p>"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.</p><p>"He gave me his phone number and he said, 'If you ever get to D.C., call me. You can stay with me.' "</p><p>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."</p><span class="subhead">Unnamed man</span><br><p>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.</p><p>The man said he was flying from Boise to Washington, D.C., on the same flights as Craig and his wife. </p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><span class="subhead">Tom Russell</span><br><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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."</p><p>"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.</p><p>Nothing came of the meeting, Russell said. But he came forward now because he is offended by Craig's denials.</p><p>"I'm
disgusted because it's hypocritical, and he's lying. He's lying through
his teeth. Heterosexual men do not behave like that."</p><br><br><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Gray Tree Crab aka "Big Bertha"