Larry Craig: Still in the Senate, still not gay
If you follow politics at all, you probably know now that Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) has decided to serve out his term, despite his pledge that he would resign by the end of September. Republicans, of course, are apoplectic about it. It's like a gift to the Democrats. It reflects badly on the whole Republican party, and equally important, it makes it harder for them to keep Idaho. If the Governor, Butch Otter, was able to appoint a replacement, that would give that person a 15 month head start on the 2008 election. But it's not to be. According to the Governor:
We've now got five Republicans [retiring or resigning], and I guess there's a few more that may make a statement, from what [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell's told me. So there's more changes to be made there. Plus the fact that there are twice as many Republicans that are up for re-election as there are Democrats. So there's going to be some significant change. Somebody with 15 months of seniority prior to January 1, 2009, that could be huge.
Not to shift gears, but I wonder who the other Republican Senators are that are considering retirement? This is a golden opportunity for the Democrats to pull together a significant majority in the Senate.
Back to Larry: Sleuth, a Washington Post blog by Mary Ann Akers, led me to the 1982 ABC News clip below. In a post entitled "Larry Craig: Still not gay," she notes that in 1982, Larry Craig denied that he was one of the Congressman accused of having sex with underage pages. And it wasn't just sex. According to one of the pages, at least one Congressman had a party where he made "cocaine, hashish, and marijuana freely available" to a group of pages:
Just allegations, yes, but why did Craig feel he had to come out and deny association, when he wasn't specifically named in the first place?
