Even if Craig isn’t gay, isn’t the closet, and didn’t try to find sex in that bathroom, we can still observe the brazen double standard in how conservatives (and other lawmakers) responded to the cases of Vitter and Craig. The admitted adultery and crime of the heterosexual were mildly scolded but generally tolerated (and, apparently, “applauded” behind closed doors) whereas the legally-admitted-but-publically-denied crime (and wholly unachieved adultery) of the allegedly gay Senator are cause for his resignation and swift exile to whatever Siberian hamlet Mark Foley now calls home. That is a significant and troubling double standard. And as Glenn lucidly points out, employing double standards and exhibiting hypocrisy are common traits among many Republicans and have been for some time, yet they continue to be the party that gets to frame these debates over sexual issues and morality in general. The point is not only that Craig seems to be a lying, pathetic hypocrite but that McCain, Giuliani, Hewitt, and others only employ their supposed moral standards (are you listening, Shooter?) when it suits them politically or personally. And in this case, it suits them because they can replace Craig with another Republican and because Craig’s alleged adultery was gay and not straight. And in the bigger picture, it suits Giuliani to pose as a marriage-defending, God-fearing warrior even though he is a repeat offender of the moral code that his coveted Christian voters hold so dear.

Republicans show they have standards by shouting about them on the campaign trail and Senate floor and trying to write new laws to force everyone else to live by them. But they clearly have a problem employing them in their own lives or holding each other to them in an equitable way. Democrats can be cynical hypocrites too, but they generally do not run on these “moral values” issues, they don’t try to force them down our throats (or into our reproductive systems), and they have not revealed themselves to be utterly devoid of those values at the same rate or with the same gusto as the GOP.

It is an unattributable statement, though someone could do some sort of study of makes and models of ticketed vehicles--maybe the local community college poli sci students could learn about statistics....

Now....IIRC, there was a SC decision stating that such stops were constitutional so long as they were truly "random" (anyone know a good actual RNG?). However, I unfortunately can't find anything in the Constitution guaranteeing equal rights due to class or monetary resources.

I have to sign off--preparing my vacation--make sure that the country doesn't go to hell in a handbasket like my last two Florida trips (previous thread, inc. Gore V. Bush and shock and awe weeks).

Larry Craig was sloppy and careless. His embarrassment will hopefully end his career. However, the only reason he should have been arrested in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is if he was trying to smuggle a pipe-bomb up his ass.

Glenn, it's a great piece.

No matter what your take on the relative sinfullness of Vitter and Craig, why can't we discuss this in terms of criminal behavior.

Solicitation for prostitution is a crime, and so is ignoring the "lewd displays" law and having or soliciting sex in a public place.

BTW if "covenent marriage" produces children with the psychopathy of Dave Huckabee (Kills and tortures dogs and other animals) maybe it's not a good thing.

The Idaho Family Values Association should have to forfeit any non-profit status that it now enjoys.

"The Party, in the wake of the Mark Foley incident in particular, can no longer straddle the fence on the issue of homosexual behavior. Even setting Senator Craig's situation aside, the Party should regard participation in the self-destructive homosexual lifestyle as incompatible with public service on behalf of the GOP."

Such statements identify them for what they are: a branch of the Republican Party masked as a non-partisan advocacy group.

Some hypocrisy is to be expected in human society, but the holier-than-thou family values demagogues deserve anything that the Larry Flints of the world can dig up and publish about them.

But because some undercover police officer hanging out in a men's bathroom was next door, the guy got arrested for "lewd conduct". I say the crime here was more in the officer's mind, then in anything Sen. Craig did.

Awww, poor Mr. Craig, he got caught up in our national homosexual panic, and convicted of tapping his foot, gaily.

Welcome to the world you helped make, Larry, and you're welcome to it. Or are all the laws which allow policieman to judge the sexual content of your back-beat (all for the children, natch.) a High-Broderian bi-partisan effort.

Fortunately for shooter, there's no prohibition against self-parody in the Judeo-Christian moral firmament, and no shortage of Republicans eager to serve as examples.

"have any of you boys and girls ever given any thought to the width of your "stance" while taking a dump?"

Other than when using a Japanese floor toilet or out in nature, no.

Everyone seems to be missing an obvious point regarding Craig's "wide stance" defense; unless he completely doffed his pants and underwear a stance wide enough to encroach into the adjoining stall n not possible.

Craig seems to be somewhat less corpulent than I and presumably wears pants of the same or narrower waist. Just for kicks I measured my "stance" while on the pot. Even with my pants and jockey shorts down to the floor, the widest "stance" I could get, out-to-out of my toes, was 26-inches without busting the seams on both.

The standard width of non-handicapped toilet stalls is 32-inches.

But maybe Craig normally sits sideways or askew on the toilet?

http://borowitzreport.com/archive_rpt.asp?rec=6763

Thursday, August 30, 2007
NBC Launches ‘To Catch a Senator’
Chris Hansen to Stake Out Airport Bathrooms

                  “Dateline,” the NBC newsmagazine which has scored big ratings for its “To Catch a Predator” investigations, announced today that it would introduce a new investigative series this fall, entitled “To Catch a Senator.”

- - The Borowitz Report