CRAIG: I WILL NOT BLOW THIS JOB. Idaho Senator Withdraws Resignation.
<I don’t know whether Larry Craig, the senator with an apparent case of restless leg syndrome (as seen on TV commercials), is gay or hetero or bi or whatever. I do know, though, that he is incapable of learning. Having been arrested in a Minneapolis airport men’s room, having been compelled (or so he says) into a false confession, having been roundly ridiculed and ostracized by many of his colleagues — et tu, McCain? — he has neither the gumption nor the integrity nor the wit to question some of his former positions, which made him, without a doubt, a law-and-order conservative par excellence. Craig wasn’t exposed as gay. He was exposed as ineducable.
One of the things that has always fascinated me about Conservative, “family values” Republicans is their ability to keep their eyes on the prize…even if their actions run completely counter to the values they purport to hold. Who knows? Larry Craig may have suffered an ill-timed foot spasm in the men’s room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. As an isolated incident, it would be easy to brush this incident off as bad luck, bad timing, or bad judgement. When combined with the reality that Craig has been know for years to be…well, gay…it makes his uber-Conservative voting record to be something of an anomaly. To put it simply, the man’s a hypocrite, plain and simple. And yet Craig undoubtedly sees nothing unusual or out of the ordinary about his behavior and his complete lack of integrity- because for Craig, and those who think like him, it’s about political power. If Craig were to resign, “family values” Republicans would lose a faithful foot soldier in their continuous struggle to force their values upon all Americans.
That Larry Craig has become a national laughingstock seems to barely even register on him. Perhaps he sees himself doing the Lord’s work, making this country safe for good, God-fearing White Christians like himself. Or perhaps he sees himself as a bulwark against the godless hordes who would turn this country into some sort of Sodom & Gomorrah, where same-sex marriages (and sex in airport men’s rooms) are the law of the land.
Yeah, when Conservative Republicans begin moralizing about “family values” remember that Larry Craig is one of them. Sorta hits them right in the old credibility gap, doesn’t it??
