Comment by Rustle

Just picture the GOP contender for his spot, trying to distance himself from Craig’s actions in the minds of voters, while the dem. candidate points to all the GOPerverts who’ve been revealed lately. Making the case that he/she isn’t also a closeted gay republican like Craig will be hard to do, given the vociferous manner in which Craig bashed the gay lifestyle as a senator. The dem candidate merely has to point out that Craig also made the same noises about gays as the repub who wants to replace him. And if the repub candidate tries to make the case that Craig’s past personal pecadillioes shouldn’t prejudice voters against HIM, the gay-hating GOP voters of his state will work against his election, for not taking the issue as seriously as they believe it to be.

Comment by Gregor Samsa — October 7, 2007 @ 11:36 am

True — and I find the double standard as loathesome as anyone. This is on a par with a politician railing against the evils of abortion but will pay for one for his mistress when she gets pregnant by him.

I was pointing out that if Craig’s fellow senators were aware of ILLEGAL activity on the part of Craig, and kept quiet about it, they should be held accountable as accessories to a crime.

It would also be nice if our elected officials blew the whistle on blatant hypocrisy, too. Unfortunately, there is no law that says they must do so, even if it’s the morally correct thing to do. Perhaps there should be an honor code among senators and representatives in their Code of Ethics — similar to what the U.S. military academies use. This would be an obligation to point out any behavior that runs contrary to the principles upon which a congressman is elected. Similar to cadets being obligated to rat out cheaters.

I think the “weird conduct” Novak had in mind is evident from what Novak said:
And it was not just a homosexual relationship. It was this weird conduct.

“This weird conduct” is Craig’s repeated cruising for anonymous gay sex in public places, as opposed to having a steady relationship with someone.

Novak isn’t trying to be vague or to hide anything.
He’s just saying it was known for some time in Senate circles that Craig engaged in exactly the type of behaviour he was busted for.

Craig for his part will not resign because he feels that this would be tantamount to admitting that he is gay (a bit of very obvious self-loathing on his part).

I feel that it would be much more gratifying to defeat him (or his succesor) in an election, considering the homophobic nature of the republican party this could wound them for decades.

This is not about legality or illegality, missmolly, but about hypocrisy.

This is the same party that has practically built their political platform on bashing gay people in one way or another.

But as they have shown time and again, they don’t really believe their own rhetoric about “moral values” and are more than happy to accept in one of their own the very same behavior they condemn in others.

It’s all about their double-standards.

What a crock. He was in a public restroom, one that could quite likely be used by 10 year old boys while their mothers wait outside. If he had done this in the privacy of someone’s home, which is what gay people out of the closet do in the course of a relationship, then that would have been an entirely different manner. The reason why the police have these kind of sting operations in airport bathrooms is to chase away predators and perverts. For all of you who think that the police shouldn’t be having these kind of sting operations, what would you want the airport to do? Perhaps they should have one bathroom with a sign on the door saying “Perverts only”. That way they could have their “out of the line of sight of the public” place to do their dirty.

But it is Craig and his good friends in the Senate like Mitch McConnell who have our government tied in knots so that we can not deal with the overlapping crises, which we can no longer ignore.

The time to act is now.

I’m sure his buddies up for re-election aren’t happy with his obstinancy right now because they will soon discover that they’ve been unseated already by the shenanigans of their buddies and really shouldn’t take the time, energy, and money to run a campaign. That’s why we’re seeing so many Repukes deciding to throw in the towel and exit politics right now….that and the fear of their wrongdoings being discovered and them being made a public spectacle of…just like Larry Craig.

Psst….Larry – you’re playing right into the hands of the democrats right now so keep up the good work! Besides, the longer you pout publicly, the greater number of your “encounterees” coming forward to tell their tales of sexual encounters with you. Craig is definitely a sad and hypocritical case of “he who doth protest too much”.

No doubt we need to begin looking into those who were so vocal during Clinton’s BJ hearings because it’s the very ones protesting the behavior who are indulging in it themselves – it’s the ‘mirror syndrome” at it’s finest. In fact, these fools have probably done worse…much worse.

By evidence, are you alluding to something “blue dress”-esque?

I believe that you and your kind would LOVE to see people not react to this type of illicit behavior so your party wouldn’t be seen as one who condones such disgusting “behavior”. That’s proven not to be the case however. In fact, although there may have been behaviors such as this occurring in the past, why is it that so many Republicans are being caught red handed lately? It’s the law of averages I think. The more aberrant behavior in a group of individuals/the more they will be caught. Suffice it to say that the GOP is chock full of sickos – sexual and otherwise – and the people are realizing just how insidiously hypocritical this group of individuals actually is.

It’s true that Mark Foley’s “sick behavior” was known and condoned by his colleagues for years before he was caught attempting to seduce young men in the congressional page program; it’s true that Dennis Hastert and John Boehner knew all about it and perhaps participated in some of their own.

What’s also true is that Larry Craig has a “file” already dating back to the 80’s of this “illicit behavior” and was not stopped by his peers back then before it had the time to escalate to this public display of reprehensible and illegal “behavior”.

Sorry to dispute your claim but one’s “behavior” is precisely what garners them the “label” of “criminal” and often finds them behind bars or on death row for their so-called “behavior”.

Your attempt, albeit futile, to trivialize the criminal behavior of one whom, above all others as a Congressman, should be displaying absolutely impeccable “behavior” – particularly in public – doesn’t hold an ounce of water.

And Sen. Craig was behaving that way out of the line of sight of the public. (Reminds me of the little lady who complained of her neighbor’s lewd behavior to the police. When the police came, they were unable to observe the behavior. The lady said, “But if you stand on your tip-toes on this stool, you can see it clearly!”)

What gives a lot of glee to some of us is that the senator’s behavior was condoned by the silence of some in his own party and that he screamed, ranted, and passed condeming judgement on those who (he claimed) behaved the same.

Most of us, though, didn’t need a thread like this, giving attention to Novak, and calling attention to NeoCon behavior. We’ve seen lots of it over the years!

If it was just a matter of Craig’s sex life, that’s nobody’s business. UNLESS any of the following was going on:

1) If Craig was having sex with or soliciting sex from minors (illegal)
2) If Craig was sexually assaulting others against their will or if they were not in a position to give their consent (illegal)
3) If Craig was having sex with prostitutes (illegal)
4) If Craig was having sex with people in his workplace that he was in a position of authority over (inappropriate at best, sexual harrassment at worst)
5) If Craig was engaging in lewd conduct in public places (illegal)

If Craig (or ANY senator or representative) was engaging in any of the behaviors listed above and his fellow senators knew about it and said nothing, then the senators who kept quiet should also be held accountable.

On the other hand, if Craig’s fellow senators knew he was gay, but did NOT know he was doing the nasty in public places, they were correct in treating it as none of their business.

We really need to know some specifics on what “weird behavior” means in the context, and if this behavior was illegal.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,299857,00.html

Per the story, this organism was given dye tag markers, to easily identify it, which only means that we will see it when we piss, as it will assuredly get out.

Here in Florida, it takes two hands to count all the lifeforms that were transplanted here from elsewhere, when scientists / enthusiasts thought it would be good for the environment: armidillos and lovebugs being the most irritating. Just as in Jurassic Park, someone will release these things as a solution to some imagined problem, and wreak havoc on us all.

Comment by Zooey — October 7, 2007
GN ZOO, I got your Email and replied. =)

I guess I better get to bed. Check your email, I sent you a hello. I’ll keep you posted on what I hear.

Goodnight, my friend. :)