We all know that FOXNews is famous for switching R’s to D’s when Republicans get into trouble or they don’t like what they hear from one, but they changed up their tactics in the case of Senator Lavvy Craig’s potty scandal. Instead of assigning him to the bad, naughty, nasty Democratic party, in the below article from their website FOX chose to completely leave out his political affiliation altogether. That’s right, nowhere in the article will you see the word REPUBLICAN attached to Senator Larry Craig’s name. The article also quotes numerous Republicans stating their disdain for the Senator’s actions — attempting to give the impression they weren’t talking about a fellow Republican. Brilliant!
Denying that he did anything wrong and stating emphatically that “I am not gay,” Sen. Larry Craig asked the people of Idaho on Tuesday to forgive him for being arrested two months ago in a police sting in a men’s room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Craig, who was taken into custody on June 11 by a plainclothes officer investigating reports of lewd conduct in the restroom, said he pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge in an effort to suppress a story — pursued by his home-state newspaper — that he has secretly engaged in gay trysts.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, Republican leaders announced they will launch an ethics review of the senator.
UPDATE: As Media Matters points out, on August 27th, between 5:00pm and 11:00pm, FOXNews devoted just 3:47 seconds to the Larry Craig scandal as opposed to 8:26 from MSNBC and 20:38 from CNN. Read more…
I’ve posted the rest of the FOX article below instead of asking our fine readers to link to their site. :)
“This is a serious matter. Due to the reported and disputed circumstances, and the legal resolution of this serious case, we will recommend that Senator Craig’s incident be reported to the Senate Ethics Committee for its review. In the meantime, leadership is examining other aspects of the case to determine if additional action is required,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement on behalf of the party’s Senate leadership.
Click here to read the police report for Sen. Larry Craig.
Craig was arrested on June 11 by a plainclothes officer. The police report from Sgt. Dave Karsnia, who made the arrest after an encounter in which he was seated in a stall next to a stall occupied by Craig, described Craig tapping his foot and blocking the stall door with his roller luggage. Karsnia said he recognized the actions “as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct.”
Craig pleaded guilty in a Hennepin County, Minn. court earlier this month. He claims he is innocent of anything untoward, but he should have consulted a lawyer rather than trying to brush the June incident under the rug. He paid a $575 fine and was given a stay on a 10-day prison sentence barring no further violations during one year of unsupervised probation.
Craig said Tuesday that he is now reviewing his actions with an attorney to see if he can reverse the damages.
“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 counsel to review this matter and to advise me on how to proceed,” he said.
The senator has been debating whether to prolong his 27-year career as an elected official by running for a another term in office, and was expected to make an announcement next month. He said he will stick to that plan.
“Next month, I will announce, as planned, as many of you have already been told, whether or not I will seek re-election. As an elected official, I fully realize that my life is open for public criticism and scrutiny, and I take full responsibility for a lapse in judgment I made in attempting to handle this matter myself,” he said.
“I am not gay. I love my wife, my family. I care about friends and staff and Idaho. I love serving this great state. Over the years, I have accomplished a lot for Idaho, and I hope Idahoans will allow me to continue to do that,” he said.
Both friends and opponents are closely watching the latest events unfold. Idaho state Sen. R. Steven Bair told FOX News that if the allegation of Craig trying to initiate a gay sex tryst in the bathroom is true then the three-term senator is “about done politically.”
Another Republican state senator, Charles Coiner, said Craig “has done a lot of good for Idaho.” He said the rumors about sexual indiscretions have gone on for years but he never thought any of the claims had much significance, and it was part of the hardball tactics used against those in public service.
A spokeswoman for fellow Idaho Republican Sen. Mike Crapo, told FOX News that Crapo called Craig on Monday shortly after the story broke. She said her boss “considers Senator Craig a good friend as well as colleague.”
“Senator Crapo supports any decisions Senator Craig makes regarding his political future and will not make any judgments regarding any part of the incident or any rumors regarding it,” the spokeswoman said.
Earlier in the day, liberal government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Senate ethics committee seeking an investigation into whether Craig violated Senate rules by engaging in disorderly conduct.
“The Senate Ethics Manual provides that certain conduct may be improper even though it does not violate specific Senate rules or regulations. Such conduct has been characterized as ‘improper conduct which may reflect upon the Senate,’” CREW said in a press release. “This rule is intended to protect the integrity and reputation of the Senate as a whole.”
The Senate Democratic Campaign Committee also hoped to capitalize on the disorderly conduct misdemeanor now on Craig’s record. Spokeswoman Hannah August said the guilty plea “has given Americans another reason not to vote Republican.”
But while Democrats look to exploit the incident for political gain, Republicans too are saying they are displeased with the turn of events. On Monday, Craig quit Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, where he was a co-chairman. Romney said Tuesday he didn’t know whether Craig should resign from the Senate but he was very disappointed to read about the guilty plea.
“Once again, we’ve found people in Washington have not lived up to the level of respect and dignity that we would expect for somebody that gets elected to a position of high influence. Very disappointing,” Romney told CNBC. “He’s no longer associated with my campaign, as you can imagine.”
A former Craig staffer called the senator’s behavior stupid and selfish.
“I am disappointed by how he dealt with the situation,” the staffer, who worked for Craig for a number of years, told FOX News.
Patrick Sammon, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay Republican group, said by “his own admission,” Craig violated the law, and voters should expect more from their representatives.
“Senator Larry Craig’s ability to continue serving the people of Idaho is in serious doubt,” Sammon said. “He has violated the public trust, not just with his inappropriate and illegal behavior, but in the subsequent explanation of his actions. Innocent people don’t plead guilty. The time to contest these allegations would’ve been before his guilty plea.”
Craig, 62, has a conservative record in the Senate — he has voted against gay marriage, opposed extending special protections to gay and lesbian crime victims and supported barring homosexuals from serving in the Boy Scouts. But Idaho Statesman reporter Dan Popkey said Craig has never been cruel in his opposition to gay rights.
Allegations that Craig is a closet homosexual have dogged him since his college days in the 1960s, according to the 3,700-word article in Tuesday’s edition.
During Craig’s first term in Congress back in the early 1980s, when House and Senate members stood accused of abusing congressional pages, Craig took the unusual step of issuing a pre-emptive denial of involvement.
The paper said it had received allegations in May from a man who said he and Craig engaged in sex at a men’s bathroom in Washington, D.C.’s Union Station. Another man claimed Craig eyed him up during a half-hour cat and mouse chase in a Boise, Idaho, store in 1994.
At the time, Craig called the charges scurrilous.
“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!” he told the newspaper.
Filed Under: FOX News graphics, Fox News, Scandals, Uncategorized
7 Trackbacks To “FOXNews Isn’t Sure What Party Senator Larry Craig Belongs To“
Dirtbags.
[fixed]
Yeah, what’s new?! The republican(t)s don’t accept any responsibility for their own actions, whether personal or political. Nor do they understand the concept of accountability… how they got where they are.
Meanwhile, SENATOR CRAIG PRONOUNCES HIMSELF ‘DICK AND LARRY’
that might work for the remaining 26% out there in the nation as a whole but the people of idaho know.
they are the ones who count.
They further concealed his affiliation by not stating he was a Senator from Idaho.
He is not gay! He just gets excited by the smell of urinals!
As mentioned in a previous thread, we need to create a national pervert database to inform citizens when a reich-winger moves into your neighborhood.
What is it with conservatives being closet gays, drug addicts, and or child molesters? Being gay is fine. Being a drug addict isn’t the worst thing a politician could be and I wont even talk about child molestation. It seems to me though that the guys who are caught doing this shi* are the loudest voices against those sorts of “uncivilized behaviors”. So not only are they gay drug addicted pedophiles they are also hypocrites… pathetic.
I also noticed last night that Fox was running the story under the title “Senator Sex Sting” rather than “Senator Caught in Sex Scandal” as the other networks did. Clearly the implication was that an elaborate sting had to be set up (entrapment) rather than that he was trying to get freaky in a public place. For a D it would certainly have been a “scandal.”
“I am not gay. I love my wife.”
Due to the fact that, apparently, the American media audience is too stupid to understand the concept of “bisexual,” I actually would believe that both of these statements are true. The Senator (R-ID) may not be gay; he may be bi.
(Hey, there’s a new possible slogan: “Get R-ID of Senator Craig.” :-) )
And lots of people who have affairs still love their partners. Hell, he and his wife might have an open marriage, in which case it’s not an affair in the first place. (Again, however, for some reason that passes comprehension, the American public is more willing to accept “he cheated on his wife” than “his wife trusts him enough to let him play with others, knowing that he’ll always come back to her. But that’s another soapbox, for another day.)
I appreciate you posting the article. There’s no point in artificially pumping up Fox’s traffic at their sewer-hole of a site.
Man, this whole biz of switching D’s for R’s…so patently chickenshit. What a bunch of pathetic weasels.
larry ‘wide stance’ craig is toast
and, despite faux news’ failings, the people of idaho know who he is and what his party affiliation is. although, we are talking faux news, and faux news viewers–of which there is hardly a more ignorant bunch.
i predict in the next couple of days he will announce that he is not seeking reelection… then, a couple days after that he’ll resign.
ok, maybe that is more wishful thinking than a prediction, but we’ll see.
Of course they’re repubs. They want to drown the government in a tub, as well as each of us individually.
But would like a blow job first. Or the chance to give you one before you die.
(Do these guys ever get around to the anal sex? Too busy?)
Here in Ann Arbor, we’re helping remind people what party he is with. They’re popping up like mushrooms all around town: Little red, white, and blue stickers on interior men’s room stall walls that read: “Be Careful: The guy in the next stall might be a Republican.”
Note: All you need is a sheet of office labels and an inkjet printer. This should go viral.
My bad. The article does say the “people of Idaho”. Guess they figure putting an (R) after his name would be redundant.
Weaseldog @ 7:
Ooooo, mothflakes….I think I am getting all flushed…!
Er, so to speak….
dcwp @ 10:
A STING!?!?!!!!!111!! Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
“I was enticed into making all the ‘I want it-I’m GAGGING for it!’ signs with my Wide Stanceâ„¢ micturition style.
My local Fox station ran the name George Michael under the Senator’s photo.
FoxNews is the biggest douche bag and we know it except for a friend of mine who watches it exclusively. I tell him to his face that he is the stupidest person I know. And this is a teacher with his masters. It pisses him off but he can’t refute it. He is an idiot. And when I run into people casually and they mention FoxNews and they tell me they like it. I tell them they are stupid.
Screw Him!!
Oh! He’d probably think that’s a great idea!
And by the latest polling only 55% of his constituents want Craig to leave. Who’d have thunk it? Idaho having such a large number of people who approve anonymous, same-sex, bathroom shenanigans.
Larry Craig is not gay.
But his penis is.
“Tell us, Senator Craig. What is your stance on homosexuality?”
Michael @ 20:
It took me years, but I finally weened my dad off FoxNoise. Every now and again I go over for a visit and it is on, background noise, I guess, and I have to go through the exercise of trying to get him to change the channel again, giving him several reasons why. I feel terrible trying to get someone to change the channel in their own home, but….it’s FOX! What would I do if my dad were spooning bleach into his mouth? Yes, he has the right, in his own home, to eat bleach, but as a good son isn’t it my obligation to advise against such a thing??
Why do republicans and even news anchors insist on referring to the Senator’s “private life”? I don’t recall hearing anyone speak of the Senator’s private life. What we’re talking about is his sex life. He has sex in public places.
If he has sex with his wife too, then I think that’s great so long as she’s cool with it. But apparently it takes place in private. Thus, there’s nothing to discuss. We’re talking about the Senator’s public sex life.
Hey, does Big Bill advertise his political affiliation?
That would explain a lot. No one brags as much about his own prowess in all things, at such a late age, as a closeted thuglican.
He’s only gay in bathrooms.
myiq2xu @ 23:
AHAHAHahahahahaha!!!
Well you know how that goes… “if your left eye offends thee…”
berberry @ 26:
His public sex life is in private places.
And again Faux News displays its fair and balanced coverage, huh? How delusional does a viewer have to be to watch that crap and expect to learn any thoughtful facts?
Wait, he’s only gay when he sees a penis.
Everything the Republicans do, we blame on them. NOT FAIR!!
/snark/
Ok, he is only gay when he sees a man’s shoe.
The senator from Idaho was simply offering to check the guys baggage.
Faux news is not to be taken serious…they are the “Enquirer” of Television News.
Nothing here folks…move along.
Well, unfortunately, we’ll have no choice but to reinstate the draft if we hit Iran. The war will take a horrifying turn from worse, to much worse.
It is no comfort to me that many of our war lovers who are too yellow to fight, will be sent into battle, as many people who oppose all three wars on moral grounds, will be conscripted also. Even those too old to go, will be sacrificing young relatives to the Pet Goat God’s Hubris.
And they will blame Bill Clinton.
Sorry, wrong thread….
Typical of fox
Sorry, wrong thread…
No worries - you speak the truth. The truth should always be welcomed, wherever it may be.
Larry Craig is a member of the GOP - Gang of Pederasts
Gort @ 34:
Maybe he could only see one shoe and mistakenly thought the man in the next stall had one foot.
I didn’t realize that responsibility and ethics were such “liberal causes”.
* facepalm *
maybe craig’s wife gets it on with other women. if this was true howard stern’s rod would ripping through his pants.
“I’m not gay. It was jet lag.”
Fair and balanced, as always.
The entire situation is so emblematic of the current repuk