After the Idaho Stateman reported five separate new accounts of gay men claiming to have encounters with Larry Craig (in addition to three earlier reports), the Idaho senator has responded by sticking with his claim that he’s never been gay. A statement from Craig:

It is unfortunate that the Idaho Statesman has chosen to continue to lower itself to the standards of what can best be described as tabloid journalism. Like its previous coverage, these latest allegations are completely false and have no basis in reality.

In fact, the paper itself states that these baseless accusations contain no definitive evidence yet they still decided to print them anyway. However, despite the fact the Idaho Statesman has decided to pursue its own agenda and print these falsehoods without any facts to back them up, I won’t let this paper’s attempt to malign my name stop me from continuing my work to serve the people of Idaho.

In August, Craig said it was the Idaho paper’s fault that he pled guilty to disorderly conduct.

At a National Press Club event earlier this week, NBC White House correspondent David Gregory argued that, because is so much polarization in politics today, “people try to divine or assign our motives” for asking certain questions at the White House press briefings. When Helen Thomas asked Gregory what was responsible for the polarization, Gregory answered:

I think it’s because of the internet largely. The polarized atmosphere in the internet and blogs and whatnot have been a major contributor to that.

Watch it:

In February — at a similar event at the Press Club — Gregory pointed the finger at blogs for the reason that “politics and political coverage has become so polarized.” Glenn Greenwald wrote at the time:

The reality, of course, is that most media-criticizing bloggers do not want journalists to be “political advocates.” They want them to do what journalists are supposed to do — which is not…sit around with their good, trustworthy, nice-guy friends in the White House and simply “ask questions” and “get information,” but instead to scrutinize that information, treat it with doubt, investigate it before passing it along to determine whether it’s true.

And the reason bloggers want them to do that, the reason that bloggers demand more of journalists…is not because bloggers are enraged, confused, unreasonable partisans. It’s because bloggers are American citizens who are deeply concerned about what has happened to their country over the last six years.

Students at Pomona College were considering bringing former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to speak on campus, but have now rejected that idea. “It was a combination of not having the funding and the impression that students would not attend this event,” said Kelly Schwartz, the chairperson of the Speakers Committee of the Associated Students of Pomona College. According to Pomona’s Student Life newspaper, Gonzales “asked the school to pay him $35,000 in addition to first-class accommodations.”

The Idaho Statesman reports that “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 that he paid them unusual attention.” The Statesman has audio clips of the men’s accounts. A fifth unidentified man described a separate encounter at the Denver International Airport in September 2006. (HT: Atrios)

UPDATE: On Aug. 28, the Statesman reported the accounts of three other anonymous males who claimed to have encounters with Craig.

On Fox News Sunday this morning, Karl Rove reiterated his false claim that Democrats in Congress — not the Bush administration — forced a war vote prior to the 2002 midterm elections. Despite having being contradicted by former Chief of Staff Andrew Card and former Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, Rove continued to press his make-believe story about how the Iraq war vote occurred.

On the Charlie Rose Show a little over a week ago, Rove said that “the administration was opposed to voting on it in the fall of 2002.” This morning, he changed his tune, saying that it is not true that Bush “was the only person” pushing Congress to vote on the war resolution:

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Now you’ve tried to suggest, and revise history here, clearly things have not gone right in Iraq, and you have tried to revise history and suggest that the Congress got ahead of the President on the Iraq war resolution.

KARL ROVE: No, that’s not what I said. What I said was that the general conventional wisdom was that the President was the only person pushing the Congress to vote on the war resolution before the November election, and that’s simply not true.

Rove then cherry-picked old quotes from former Sen. Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) that he claims support his point. Watch it:

None of the quotes that Rove used suggested Daschle was desperately trying to force a war authorization vote. A look back at the events in early Sept. 2002 — just prior to the vote — clearly demonstrates Daschle was interested in delaying the vote:

– “In order to ensure that there isn’t any charge of politicization in such a sensitive international and national matter, I think it is critical that we take great care that timing and all other issues are taken into account,” [Daschle] said. [Roll Call, 9/5/02]

– Majority Leader Tom Daschle, S.D., told reporters Thursday that “we’ve got to be very careful about politicizing a war in Iraq or military efforts.” [Baltimore Sun, 9/10/2002]

– “[Daschle] reiterated his fear that having a vote too close to the Nov. 5 midterm elections could warp the debate. ‘I think that in an election, accusations and doubts are raised about senators’ motives and statements … that could jeopardize a thoughtful and deliberative debate,’ Daschle said.” [CQ, 9/12/02]

Daschle said on September 10, 2002, that he was following the President’s lead regarding congressional action on Iraq:

QUESTION: What will you do if the president insists on a vote on the Iraq resolution before the election?

DASCHLE: Well, I don’t think we have much choice but to respect the decision — the request of any president, including this one. But as I say, I think that’s a deliberative judgment that hopefully will be made in concert and not dictated to the Congress.

Bush was quite clear that he wanted the vote before the election, saying in a September 2002 press conference that “we’ve got to move before the elections.” His spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said, “The President does not think that wait until next year is an answer.”