Down Low in Idaho
Well, well, well seems yet ANOTHER Republican Senator was caught on the down low. This time the perpetrator is Senator Larry Craig of Idaho (no corn-holing jokes, please!). According to the police and AP reports Larry went into a men's room in the Minneapolis Airport and proceeded to solicit sex from an undercover officer in the stall next to his. Ironic how it's always the Republican politicians that keep getting caught engaging in the same practices they claim to abhor and stand against. Hypocrisy, everyday hypocrisy!
How exactly did all of this go down? Well according to the AP and various others news reports out there it basically went like this: Larry was traveling back to Idaho from DC on business and went into the men's room in the airport. Upon entering he walked up to a closed stall and peered into it through the gap between the door and wall divider to see if there was a dude inside. I'm not really sure why, after all you can tell if someone is in a stall simply by looking down beneath the closed door and seeing if there are a pair of feet there. Who knows, maybe he was also trying to get an idea if the dude inside was attractive or not. I have never done this, and have no desire to, so I'm not sure what the significance of looking in first is.
After peering in he went into the stall next to the closed one and put his bag down in front of the opening beneath the door, presumably to hide the impending activity from the view of those outside the stall (because NOBODY was going to hear the heavy breathing, moans and slurping noises...). BTW this is considered to be one of the pre-signs that someone is about to engage in a sexual solicitation which I find a little ridiculous as bathroom stalls are generally narrow, and having been in the Minneapolis Airport and used the bathroom I can confirm that they are narrow there too. That said when most of us are traveling with big bags and have to use a bathroom stall we stick them in front of the door as there is simply no room anywhere else to put them unless you are in a handicap stall. So how that can be considered an pre-sign sign of solicitation is beyond me. We are however talking about a particular subculture, so who else but them understand the significance of the minutia of all these actions...
But I digress, so after doing this Larry stands or sits (not sure as the articles didn't specify) and starts to tap his foot a few times. In bathroom cruising language this is apparently the signal you give to make your interest in having sex with the person in the next stall known. I'm serious! I did research on this topic online after reading the AP report and that's what it said. The guy in the stall next to him who he's trying to solicit then taps his foot in response and they proceed to do this back and forth Morse code of foot tapping until Larry finally gets brazen and actually taps the other guy's foot. This is followed by Larry putting his left hand with the palm up under the partition that divides the two stalls and moving it toward the stall door, basically indicating that he wanted the guy to come to the door of his stall where he'd let him in and have sex. You can also pass a note under the partition to get the point across; the hand signal is just more subtle.
In response to his hand signal the man in the next stall proceeded to put his own hand under the divider... and showed Larry his badge! As mentioned above the man in the stall was an undercover officer who had been stationed in that bathroom because there had been reports that a lot of hooking up was happening in the stalls. According to the officer Larry wasn't the only one he'd busted during this prolonged sting operation, and that the exact signals and tactics Larry used were also used by the other perpetrators’ who were arrested. Yeah...
As you can imagine Larry was not happy about this and tried to get out of it by giving the officer his business card which indicated that he was a member of Congress. There are some crooked cops out there that will look the other way when a person of substance and political power is involved. Fortunately this was not one of them and he took Larry to the police station to book him. Once there the Senator admitted to the crime and later signed a guilty plea and paid the fine.
Of course this story then got out in the media and now Mr. Craig is claiming that he did not solicit the officer for sex, and merely pleaded guilty to the crime because he was under duress and wanted it to just go away. He honestly thought that he could hide it from his family and colleagues. That is one of the lamest arguments I have ever heard, especially when you consider his position in the government and how adept our media is about finding out and reporting on incidents like this. Everyone knows that in a situation like this you deny, deny, deny! It was the cop’s word against Larry's and while his reputation would still have been tarnished there would have been some element of doubt because he denied the claims and there was no one else present to back them up.
The real irony here though is this is not the first time Senator Larry Craig has been called out on allegations of Homosexual behavior. His sexuality in fact has been challenged and under scrutiny since the 80's. The only difference is that this is the first time that the claims could be substantiated. You would think with those kinds of rumors following him around Larry would have just flat out denied or at the very least found a more discrete, and less risky, way of getting the man love he so desperately needs. It amazes me that the man actually thought it was SAFE to solicit sex through a bathroom stall. You have no idea who is on the other side as he so clearly has shown us. personally i suspect deep down he wanted to be caught, but that's another topic entirely...
Of course Senator Craig is still denying (and lying to himself), claiming he is a "straight arrow" who loves his wife and kids; the patriarch of a perfect nuclear family of wholesome values that would NEVER be involved in this kind of subversive, unmoral behavior. There went THAT image, it was good while it lasted though. While the Mrs. is still standing by her man and claiming she believes him you know damn well deep down inside she knows the truth. Unfortunately Mrs. Craig can't come to terms with it which is very understandable considering she is in her sixties and very much a product of her generation and culture. She can try and suppress it but the grief she is feeling will come out in other ways; alcoholism, depression, pills, etc. I feel very sorry for her. No woman or man should have to go through this. I really do hold the majority of the responsibility on the party in violation. There is no excuse for stepping out like that and lying to the people you claim to love but are in fact hurting.
Yes Larry, I am speaking directly to you on this. "Cumming" in and out of the stall will never free you or your wife and family for that matter. I understand you're not ready and don't want to come out but it's too late, the whole world KNOWS now what you did and what you are. Let's face it, "straight" men don't solicit other "straight" men for sex in a bathroom. And I am not saying that because I am a gay man and trying to "recruit". Lord knows my people don't need more men like you in our ranks. The crux of the matter here is you have a lot of problems emotionally and mentally, the psych books are filled with case histories and studies about people like yourself who engage in anonymous, detached sex in public as a way of dealing with unresolved sexual and emotional issues. So come on now, WHO do you think you're fooling, don't you know everybody sees you?
