Can Larry Craig be Found Guilty
in the Court of Public Opinion
if not in a Minnesota Court Room?
by James Nimmo
(OKLAHOMA CITY) On the facts as argued by the ACLU in a friend of the court filing, and outlined in this story from www.Bloomberg.com ( http://tinyurl.com/2b7hew ) , to me it looks as if the wily and cunning coyote, Larry Craig, will get off again, pardon the pun, by thumbing his nose at the decency he pretends to legislate from the floor of the United States Senate.
Just in case you've been living under a rock since late last summer, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho--now in his last session of Congress since he's promised to resign, but will change his mind if enough people beg him to stay--was charged with disruptive behavior in the Minneapolis airport when observed by an undercover policeman engaging in what the cop says was sexual solicitation.
There is a 1970 precedent in Minnesota that private solicitation of sexual activity in a private place can not be found illegal, as spying by police in a public restroom is an unreasonable search and therefore unconstitutional.
The Court has yet to rule on Craig's appeal of his plea of guilty to the charge. Craig has since stated that his guilty plea was entered into in haste and without legal advice as he wanted to keep the charge out of public notice.
Craig's peculiar pantomime with his hands and feet, though laughable, is not illegal and good thing for him that his coitus was interrupted by a too-eager cop wanting to score another statistic.
Though there was no exposure of body parts or verbal utterences it's clear to me that Craig was after an airport quickie, and whether or not his appeal is accepted or rejected his action in the restroom stall refutes his claim to not be gay.
Don't get me wrong: there's nothing wrong with being gay but there is something wrong with using your Senate vote to deprive honest men and women their equality under the law even as they work to contribute to a decent American society.
If you listened to the taped interview of the Idaho Senator and the cop you must have noticed that Craig certainly had his battle hardened defense at full bore, strengthened as if he had done a few practice runs before. Just how self-assured would YOU be in this situation if you were claiming innocence of the charges and the sign language described?
However, in the public court of reasonable opinion, I think Larry Craig would be found guilty with forethought and conspiracy of multiple counts to commit hypocrisy.
Unfortunately, this crime is not punished by any jail sentence or fine.
Craig's punishment will have to be the resignation of his office and a return to, can I say, private life as a civilian where he will no doubt write a book describing the pain he's endured from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and his hounding from office by who, the Puritans of public decency, the very constituency he claimed to represent?
