Celebrity Court

Following the release of his post-arrest interview tapes on Thursday, Senator Larry Craig resigned from office on Saturday. Craig pled guilty to one count of disorderly conduct following his arrest in a men’s bathroom after police say that he attempted to solicit sex from an undercover officer. The GOP, his own party, had called for his resignation.

In his press conference on Saturday, Craig stated that he did not want to be a distraction. He added:

Few people have had the privilege and the pleasure to represent Idaho for as many years as I have. I have enjoyed every moment. The people of Idaho deserve a senator who can devote 100 percent of his time and effort to the critical issues of our state and of our nation.

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Here is an entertaining video that inter splices Craig’s denial of being gay in his earlier press conference with the Avenue Q song “If You Were Gay.”

Senator Larry Craig, Larry Craig, Avenue Q, solicitation

On Thursday, officials released the audio tape of the post-arrest interview with Senator Larry Craig of Idaho from June 11th. Craig was arrested for lewd conduct in the bathroom of the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. The police said that Craig tapped the foot of the undercover officer who was in the next stall and reached under the stall.

In the interview, Craig denies being gay and said that the police had entrapped him. He added that he doesn’t do “those things” and doesn’t “seek activity in bathrooms.”

Craig said that he believes his foot did bump the person in the stall next to him, but it is because he is a “wide guy” and has to spread his legs out. He also added that he did reach his hand down, but that he was reaching down to pick up a piece of paper. The officer said that he saw Craig’s fingers “come underneath the stalls” and touch the bottom of the stall divider.

At the end of the interview, the officer made an odd statement, saying “Embarrassing, embarrassing. No wonder why we’re going down the tubes.” I interpret that to mean that the reason why our country is “going down the tubes” is because the elected officials lie. If I were Craig’s attorney, I think I would use that statement to show evidence that the officer knew who the senator was and tried to entrap him for political motivations. However, the problem for Craig is that he already pled guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct, in exchange for a fine, without a lawyer present.

The fall-out from his arrest has already led him to being removed from Mitt Romney’s campaign and people are calling for his resignation. The most compelling part of the whole case is that if it is true that he was hoping to engage in homosexual relations with someone in a bathroom stall, it appears that he has some self-loathing issues to work out. His senatorial voting record shows that he repeatedly voted against provisions that would aide the gay and lesbian population in the United States, including adding them as a protected class in hate crimes law and voting against gay marriage.

You can listen to the tape here.

Larry Craig, Senator Craig, lewd conduct, Mitt Romney, Senate