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The Danger in Senator Craig’s Own Private Idaho

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), who pled guilty to disorderly conduct after being arrested during a sex sting at a Minneapolis-St. Paul airport men’s room, had his request to rescind his plea denied by a Minnesota judge today. Shortly after, Craig issued a statement indicating that he has no intention to resign. This after his widely covered resignation effective September 30, delivered on live TV over the Labor Day weekend.

The issue of his resignation, desired by many in his own party, is not the most important aspect of the Senator’s story. More important is the reaction to the misdemeanor revelation from his Republican colleagues. It is more likely that Republican opposition to Craig’s continued tenure is rooted in homophobia, not concern about a misdemeanor arrest and guilty plea.

More interesting still is his inability stick by his publicly stated decision(s). According to CNN, Craig said he would resign from the Senate if he could not get the guilty plea withdrawn by the end of September, then later said he would not make a decision until after the court’s decision on reversing his guilty plea. No matter their personal positions on homosexuality, are the people of Idaho not concerned that they are represented by a man who has not followed through on his decision, nor remained consistent in his public comments about what he has decided?

Sen. Craig is certainly living in his own private Idaho. A place where married men with suppressed homosexual desires can justify voting against the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. A place where a man who pleads guilty to cheating on his wife with stranger in a men’s bathroom can self-righteously vilify the sexual behavior of others, as he did during President Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky scandal. A place where you can promise whatever you want, then do the opposite. The senator should resign–not because he pled guilty to soliciting gay sex, but because he has publicly demonstrated a lack of honesty and commitment when it comes to what he says he has done and will do. Sen. Craig, isn’t it time you got out of that state you’re in?