1 Boring Old Man

In June, I overreacted and made a poor decision. While I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct at the Minneapolis airport or anywhere else, I chose to plead guilty to a lesser charge in the hope of making it go away. I did not seek any counsel, either from an attorney, staff, friends, or family. That was a mistake, and I deeply regret it. Because of that, I have now retained counsel and I am asking my counsel to review this matter and to advise me on how to proceed.

For a moment, I want to put my state of mind into context on June 11. For 8 months leading up to June, my family and I had been relentlessly and viciously harassed by the Idaho Statesman. If you’ve seen today’s paper, you know why. Let me be clear: I am not gay and never have been.

Still, without a shred of truth or evidence to the contrary, the Statesman has engaged in this witch hunt. In pleading guilty, I overreacted in Minneapolis, because of the stress of the Idaho Statesman’s investigation and the rumors it has fueled around Idaho. Again, that overreaction was a mistake, and I apologize for my misjudgment. Furthermore, I should not have kept this arrest to myself, and should have told my family and friends about it. I wasn’t eager to share this failure, but I should have done so anyway…

Senator Larry Craig

On August 28, 2007 the Idaho Statesman published a series of allegations about Craig’s sexual activities, and his responses to them, that it had withheld until his conviction came to light:

• A college student who was considering pledging at Craig’s fraternity at the University of Idaho in 1967 told a reporter for the Idaho Statesman that Craig led the student to his bedroom and "made what the man said he took to be an invitation to sex." Craig responded: "I don’t hit on any men."
• A gay man told a reporter for the Idaho Statesman that, in November 1994, Craig cruised him at the R.E.I. store in Boise, following him around the store for half an hour. Craig responded: "I’m not gay, and I don’t cruise, and I don’t hit on men. I have no idea how he drew that conclusion. A smile? Here is one thing I do out in public: I make eye contact, I smile at people, they recognize me, they say, ‘Oh, hi, Senator.’ Or, ‘Do I know you?’ I’ve been in this business 27 years in the public eye here. I don’t go around anywhere hitting on men, and by God, if I did, I wouldn’t do it in Boise, Idaho! Jiminy!"
• A professional 40-year-old man with close ties to Republican officials "reported having oral sex with Craig at Washington’s Union Station, probably in 2004." Craig responded: "I am not gay and I have never been in a restroom in Union Station having sex with anybody."

So, first we would have to believe that all of these incidents were false – things that did not happen. Next, being in his words "relentlessly and viciously harassed by the Idaho Statesman" about being Gay, we would have to believe that he was hanging around innocently in the Minneapolis Airport bathroom for a long time acting in the manner described in this arrest report. Seems like a person in the state of mind he describes would be in and out of the public men’s room like a rocket. And the notion that he’d plead guilty just to get the case closed is hard to buy.

His story is just too hard to sell. If he’s innocent of all of those accusations, he’s both extremely unlucky and something of a fool. Obviously, a much more plausible story is that he’s a Gay "cruiser" who hit the cruising sites out of Boise and Washington in order to avoid detection. And, I expect that with all of this publicity, there are any number of contacts that could potentially come forward. Unlike Ted Haggard, Larry Craig just doesn’t know when the jig is up.