Let’s stipulate some things. First, we can probably agree that Senator Craig has been a terrible Senator. Although his ideology is representative of general thinking in Idaho, he has supported indefensible actions during his time in the Senate. I make no defense of his public policy record.
Second, we can stipulate that he is a hypocrite. His voting record has been anti-gay. His statements have been anti-gay. In spite of his pathetic denials, he is gay.
I doubt that he will last for a couple of weeks, but I will not celebrate his departure. He went cruising in bathrooms in an airport. This is not my thing, but I just don’t think it worthy of criminality. He tapped his toe. He reached his hand under the stall. I think it is clear that he wanted sex. Wanting sex and having sex are two different things. I speak with some authority on this last part.
The GOP has a problem reconciling their purity platform with the likes of Vitter, Foley and now Craig. Foley, of course, is on a different track, but Vitter and Craig are simply garden variety hypocrites. The GOP wants Craig to go away so that they can return credibility to their Victorian sense of sexual morality.
I’m not sure I want that. I think the GOP needs to have an adult discussion about sexuality and check their Christian rhetoric at the door. Larry Craig, one of their own, is clearly repressed and frustrated. His denials are so sad.
Right now, Republicans seem to have a fix on what they consider normal and want to make life miserable for everyone who isn’t "normal".
Why shouldn’t gays be allowed to adopt? Is there anything about sexual orientation that lends itself to good parenting or bad parenting? Children are truly better off without parents than we gay parents? Huh?
Why shouldn’t gays serve openly in the military? We need a bunch of paranoid, frustrated guys with rifles?
When two adults love each other and want to commit to each other what, exactly, is government’s role in denying their formal commitment?
The GOP wants Craig out because his behavior does not conform to their screwed up sense of sexual morality. I want Craig out because he supports the war and Bush and all the rest of it. But I would rather have him in the Senate and force the Republicans to examine their hurtful, harmful policies that bring so much grief and pain to so many gays throughout the country.