Post mortem on the Craig resignation...

Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) announced his resignation from the Senate yesterday due to the fallout from his arrest in a Minneapolis airport restroom for approaching an undercover police officer in an attempt to initiate a sexual encounter. Craig's resignation came after intense pressure from his own party to step aside.

But months earlier Senator David Vitter (R-LA) had his name and phone number show up the records of Deborah Jean Palfrey, who ran a Washington DC escort service. But Vitter wasn't unceremoniously run out of the Senate like Craig was. Why?

Both cases involve powerful senators caught in sex scandals. Vitter's was a heterosexual indiscretion and Craig's was a homosexual one. That is the only difference in the two cases. A double standard was used in terms of how each case was dealt with by the GOP. Could it be that the GOP knows whichever candidate they chose to replace Craig will easily win election in Idaho while that same fact isn't ensured in more liberal Louisiana and Vitter? Of course I think this has everything to do with it. Along with the Wingnuts hatred and intolerance towards people who are gay and lesbian while ignoring a heterosexual adulterer when it suits their political agenda.

The level of hypocrisy displayed by the GOP is, as always, breathtaking in its audacity. Senator Craig should rightly be criticized for breaking the law but not for his sexual preference. But still reeling from the Mark Foley Page Scandal, a "gay" Larry Craig had to be politically lynched for all to see.

Hypocritical Republicans: Case History #11,278

Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) was arrested and plead guilty to charges that he approached a plains clothes police officer in the Minneapolis International Airport bathroom attempting to initiate a sexual tryst. Craig who plead guilty to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor now says that plea was "a mistake" and is denying he sought to have gay sex with a man in a public toilet.

Craig, long been suspected as being gay, has had numerous allegations leveled against him of being a closeted gay man. An investigation by the Idaho Statesman details the allegations. (link via Talking Points Memo) Craig has long been an opponent of gay rights and gay marriage and is undecided regarding seeking another term in the US Senate...

Another example of a GOP politician saying "do as I say and not as I do", and in Craig's case what he does in public toilets.