Craig Attempts To Game The System; Gets Caught Again

Let it be said here and now, Senator Larry Craig should never even consider a life of professional crime (of course, professional crime beyond the constrains of the GOP).  He would be TERRIBLE at it.

Let it be said right here and now, I do not and have not liked this story from the beginning, as a friend of mine could attest as a result of a converstion earlier this morning.  My problem is that through it all, I actually felt kinda sorry for the guy.

I’m over that now.

Last night it became clear that Craig was planning on trying to keep his Senate seat, despite calls for his resignation from his own party.  The creepy looking Senator who had only days earlier delivered a sad and tear filled announcement that he was not gay, and that he loved representing his constituency, had went from standing his ground, to resigning, and now standing his ground again.

And as it turns out, this was the plan from the beginning.  Showing complete and total ineptitude, Craig dialed the wrong number, and left a message on a complete stranger’s answering machine outlining his plans to use tricky language to leave the door open for him to pull his resignation at the eleventh hour:

That’s why Craig chose his words carefully during his resignation speech Saturday in Boise, according to a voice mail message he mistakenly left on a stranger’s phone. In the message obtained by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, Craig tells a man named “Billy” that his choice of language is deliberate because it leaves the door open for him to stay in office.

Craig made the call just minutes before his speech.

“We have reshaped my statement a little bit to say it is my intent to resign on Sept. 30,” Craig said. “I think it is important for you to make as bold a statement as you are comfortable with this afternoon, and I would hope you could make it in front of the cameras. I think it would help drive the story that I’m willing to fight, that I’ve got quality people out there fighting in my defense, and that this thing could take a new turn or a new shape; it has that potential.”

He said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., had encouraged him to fight.

The recording was offered for sale to the Idaho Statesman, which turned it down because the newspaper’s ethics policy precludes it from paying for information from sources. A Roll Call editor said that publication wouldn’t pay either, but it managed to obtain the recording without charge.

After everything, it was all just strategy.  Just an attempt to keep his job.

Earlier today, I had seriously considered putting up a post, saying that my only hope is for Craig to be honest with himself, and with his constituency, and if he could do that, if he could somehow take this event to make himself a better person, then I could turn the other cheek.

I was planning on calling for a moratorium on the man, if only just a personal one.

All bets are off.  You see, I take the debate of homosexual rights very seriously.  I’d like to see my brother get married some day, and have that marriage be reckognized throughout the union.  I want him to be able to enjoy the miracle of parenthood as I have for the last three years.  I want him to live in a world where he’s not afraid of physical reprisal and descrimination because of something that was not his choice.

But it is this kind of freedom for our fellow citizens that Craig has fought against, the entire time engaging in homosexual activity himself.  In fact, taking a close look at Craig’s record in general is disgusting.

-0% rating from NARAL

-25% rating from ACLU

-100% rating from the Christian Coalition

Further, his record on homosexual rights in general:

-Yes on two proposals to ban gay marriage

-No on preventing discrimination in the work place based on homosexuality

-No twice on covering homosexuality as a motive in hate crimes

Despite soliciting sex from men in public restrooms, Craig has fought his entire life as a senator for the subjugation of homosexuals at every turn, seeking the favor not of his constituency, not of the American people, specifically those who live quiet and productive lives as homosexuals, but instead the favor of Pat Robertson, and James Dobson.

And this record above is only on the stuff that is particularly pertinent to this conversation.  I could go on.

But his transgressions far exceed his voting record.  He has turned the very important, the very difficult debate in this country about the rights of the LGBT community into a goddamn circus.  There are AMERICAN families right now suffering because this dipshit turned the whole conversation into jokes about toe taps and “wide stances”.

I have no idea how far back this has put the movement, and a part of me truly hopes the optimists I know are right and that the LGBT community is far enough removed, but it’s hard to believe that when on national television, you have apes like Tucker Carlson so afraid his heterosexuality will be challenged that he bragged about bashing a gay guy’s head into a wall back in high school.

Whether he’s really gay, or as some would say just seeking the ecstacy of forbidden fruit no longer matters.  For so many Americans, this is a serious battle about rights and fairness, and he has turned it into a punchline in a Leno or Letterman monologue.

Whatever sympathy I held in my heart for you, sir, has been destroyed.  My only hope for you now is that you are properly vilified in the court of public opinion and may you be chased publically and humiliatingly from the political sphere forever.