Sen. Craig: I Was Wrong To Keep This Quiet

Idaho Republican Insists He Did No Wrong, And, Is Not Gay; Ethics Panel Asked To Investigate

(CBS/AP)  According to the prosecutor's complaint, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, airport police Sgt. Dave Karsnia, who was investigating allegations of sexual conduct in airport restrooms, went into a stall shortly after noon on June 11 and closed the door.

Minutes later, the officer saw Craig gazing into his stall through the crack between the stall door and the frame, fidgeted with his fingers and returned to gazing through the stall for about another two minutes.

After a man in the adjacent stall left, Craig entered it and put his roller bag against the front of the stall door, "which Sgt. Karsnia's experience has indicated is used to attempt to conceal sexual conduct by blocking the view from the front of the stall," said the complaint, which was dated June 25.

The complaint said Craig then tapped his right foot several times and moved it closer to Karsnia's stall and then moved it into the area of the officer's stall to where it touched Karsnia's foot. Karsnia recognized that "as a signal often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct," the complaint said.

Craig then passed his left hand under the stall divider into Karsnia's stall with his palms up and guided it along the divider toward the front of the stall three times, the complaint said.

The officer then showed his police identification under the divider and pointed toward the exit "at which time the defendant exclaimed `No!"' the complaint said.

The Aug. 8 police report says that Craig later handed the arresting officer a business card that identified him as a member of the Senate.

"What do you think about that?" Craig is alleged to have said, according to the report.

Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper first reported the arrest and guilty plea.

Craig joins other GOP senators facing ethical and legal troubles.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, is under scrutiny for his relationship with a contractor who helped oversee a renovation project that more than doubled the size of the senator's home.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., acknowledged that his phone number appeared in records of a Washington-area business that prosecutors have said was a front for prostitution.

Other GOP members under a cloud of FBI investigations are Arizona Congressmen Rick Renzi, California's John Doolittle, and Alaska's Don Young, reports Attkisson.

The Republican brand at the moment is very weak," Stu Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report told Attkisson. "What this does is add to the buzz about Republicans and what do Republicans believe and are Republicans hypocrites."

Craig, a rancher and a member of the National Rifle Association, lives in Eagle, Idaho, near the capital of Boise. He was a member of the House for 10 years before winning election to the Senate in 1990. He was re-elected in 1996 and 2002.

Last fall, Craig called allegations from a gay-rights activist that he's had homosexual relationships "completely ridiculous."

Mike Rogers, who bills himself as a gay activist blogger, published the allegations on his Web site, www.blogactive.com, in October 2006.

The Idaho Statesman, citing an anonymous source, reported Monday night that a man with close ties to Republican officials said he had a sexual encounter with Craig in the men's room of Washington's Union Station, a few blocks from the Capitol. Craig denied the incident in a May interview with the newspaper, and no arrests were made.

[oakishpines]

'' ... putting women in mens armys did not turn men into gardenets, it turned women into rapists of husbands and children ... putting children into armys does not turn women and men into gardenets, it turns children into parent rapists ... if men are to treat children with respect, then men are to start acting like children ... and are to start treating two year olds like two year olds ... ''

'' ... all the front pages would have been covered in photos of local children dancing get well feed world songs rallied around the sick beds drifting the farm trails, except a terrorist warned against it ... ''

[pakaal]

godsays wrote: "There is no proof that Senator Craig did anything wrong whatsoever."

You mean other than Senator Craig himself pleading guilty to the charges? Seriously, who in their right mind would plead guilty to this in hopes that (as Senator Craig put it) "it would go away"?

godsays wrote: It is amazing how the liberal Democrats are vilifying Senator Craig...."

Right, McCain, Coleman and Hoekstra and the White House have all denounced the Senator, and all good liberal democrats....

[samael2014]

"I think it is wrong to judge someone because they might have a liberal Democrat moment here or there.

There is no proof that Senator Craig did anything wrong whatsoever.

It is amazing how the liberal Democrats are vilifying Senator Craig for something most of them do everyday."

Posted by godsays at 01:28 PM : Aug 29, 2007

Let''s see, Senator Craig''s "liberal Democratic moment", something that liberal Democrats "do everyday", but of which there is no proof that Senator Craig did anything wrong whatsover?

Are these lying heathens so buried in their own filthy hypocritic waste, to think their thoroughly assine efforts to try and deceive through bizarre and ridiculous denial is actually showing any respect to God as their witness?

[godsays]

I think it is wrong to judge someone because they might have a liberal Democrat moment here or there.

There is no proof that Senator Craig did anything wrong whatsoever.

It is amazing how the liberal Democrats are vilifying Senator Craig for something most of them do everyday.

[mcvet]

like to think of myself as an Independent but lately have voted (D). I think everyone should stop a think for a moment - corruption and illegal behaviour IS party blind - Just because someone is an ***, don''''t rush out and prove you can be one too !!
Posted by IOWEIGN at 11:46 AM : Aug 29, 2007
+ report abuse

So YOU think its alright to call everyone who you do not agree with "liberal''s", throw mud at them because they don''t want to change the Constitution to be against *** and find out what this guy did? What in the world does the phrase "Family Values" mean to nazi''s anyway? You people are as phoney as a 2 dollar bill!! Sieg Heil Bush!!

[mudrose-2009]

Senator Craig: I was wrong to keep this quiet. What he should have said was "I was wrong".

[mcvet]

this doesn''''t make sense to me. what exactly did he do wrong?
Posted by finalmessiah at 12:00 PM : Aug 29, 2007

He was acting like some sort of prevert and he viloated our right to privacy, yours and mine, when we go to a public bathroom. You do not understand my rights to use the bathroom without toe tapping? ROLFLMAO This piece of Nazi Trash, have you EVER listened to him when he gets on his soap box? I still remember what he did and said about Clinton and I hope the Hypocrite roast in H-E-L-L. When the person casting the stone is as guilty as the one recieving the stoning, justice isn''t done. Sieg Heil Bush!!

[craigfan1]

Get the latest homophobic hypocrite Senator news at http://LarryCraigVideo.com/

[glossypan]

rushlimpdrug... This was a sting. Yours is a moot question since I would not be acting in a manner conducive to being propositionrd. And I said I could forgive, that is very very different from condone. Thanks for the ooportunity to clarify.

[rushlimpdrug]

if he were my Senator, I could forgive thses transgressions . . .
Posted by glossypan

So you''re ok with your senator peering into your stall, seats himself in the stall next to you and makes sexual advances to you while you''re trying to take a krap in a public restroom in an airport?
Sick.

[glossypan]

CBS software censors the word s*e*x. Thanks for providing a great forum, but talk about denial. Wow.

[mudrose-2009]

Posted by mudrose at 10:59 AM : Aug 29, 2007

hehehe, weren''''t you the one trying to take us off this Larry topic. lmao....


Hehehehe, weren''t you all doing the same thing?

[wfbdem]

this doesn''''t make sense to me. what exactly did he do wrong?
Posted by finalmessiah at 12:00 PM : Aug 29, 2007

Umm, only got busted in a ***-sting in a Minnesota airport bathroom, attempting to solicit gay *** from an undercover cop. Other than that, nothing really.

[glossypan]

Peering into abathroom stall is a crime. Soliciting for *** should not be acrime but is. I have said it before but if he were my Senator, I could forgive thses transgressions but would not tolerate a person who would plead guilty to a crime and then claim they did not fully understand what was happening.

[finalmessiah]

this doesn''t make sense to me. what exactly did he do wrong?

[ioweign]

Muddy Muddy are you sure you want to go this route, I was ONLY bringing up the perverts??

Do you want me to show you all the corruption from the right wingers the list is way bigger than the dem side???????/
Posted by rharrin1 at 10:54 AM : Aug 29, 2007


I like to think of myself as an Independent but lately have voted (D). I think everyone should stop a think for a moment - corruption and illegal behaviour IS party blind - Just because someone is an ***, don''t rush out and prove you can be one too !!

[glossypan]

"... the report isn''t conclusive." Aw, c''mon now. There is not a male in this forum who plays stall footsies without some expectations. If anything of mine makes it''s way to the next stall. I apologize profusely and leave post haste. I guarantee that is SOP with all of us who use the toilet only as a toilet.

[name_verify]

This guy might be a hypocrite that conservatives need to replace, or maybe not. The police report is all circumstantial evidence. It reads like a sting operation botched by the cops. Shoe touching shoe isnt a crime in any state. If Craig had challenged it in court he would have won. Maybe he figured it didn''t make sense to pay $50,000 in lawyer fees to defeat a $500 fine. Or maybe he''s a compulisve per who needs to be tazered. But the police report isn''t conclusive. Read it yourself.

[ldesilvio]

I am fed up with all these priveleged individuals carrying out their sad lives at our expense. We deserve 100 Senators who are clean, decent, honest people of high accomplishment. How did we ever let our country get this far down? Perhaps if those in the US who actually try to live out their high morals stood up against this erosion, we can claim our country back for our children and their children. We owe this country a huge apology for letting it down - all of us.

[missyx21]

The nation seems to be coming to it''''s senses finally.
Posted by roger_inkart at 11:18 AM : Aug 29, 2007


I''m hoping, but Bush and his Cronnies will and can still steal votes like before. America is coming to their senses but is it too late. With everything that''s been happening I just feel it''s a little to late, the right will just keep stealing votes to be in office