Charlie Crist is featured in the documentary Outrage. The film is making it's premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. The filmmaker Kirby Dick names (rumored) closeted gay politicians. And yes, Charlie Crist is featured. Other politicians named are David Dreier, Ken Mehlman, Larry Craig, Jim McCrery, Ed Schrock, Ed Koch and Fox News anchor Shepard Smith.
I bloggedextensively about the Mark Foley scandal. I was outraged on how the St. Petersburg Timesblew the story. It was no secret Foley was going after male teenagers. The media feels extremely uncomfortable covering gay politicians. There certainly are valid arguments for privacy. Ignoring Foley's potentially illegal behavior crosses the line.
Former Sen. Larry Craig lost another appeal attempt to turn over his conviction. Craig confessed to attempting to solicit sex from an undercover police officer.
Craig's attorney, Billy Martin, argued before the appeals court in September that there was insufficient evidence for any judge to find him guilty.
In its 10-page opinion, the appeals panel said that Craig failed to show that Hennepin County District Judge Charles Porter abused his discretion by denying his petition to withdraw his plea. Porter had said the plea was "accurate, voluntary and intelligent, and ... supported by the evidence."
PoliticsTV has compiled the top ten moments of the Larry Craig interview. My favorite moment is he has never cast negative judgement of another person's sex life. That doesn't pass the laugh test.
SEN. CRAIG: Well, I don't know where the Senate's going to be on that issue of an up or down vote on impeachment, but I will tell you that the Senate certainly can bring about a censure reslution and it's a slap on the wrist. It's a, "Bad boy, Bill Clinton. You're a naughty boy." The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, a naughty boy.
I'm going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.
I am so glad Craig is sticking around for the 2008 elections. He is a poster boy the the Republicans hypocrisy of moral values. The GOP demonizes gays and Hispanics for political gain. They played to the most hateful of the electorate to gain power. Nevermind that kingmakers such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson are unhinged, greedy and equally hypocritical.
The party of abstinence is having a tough time keeping it's pants up. David Vitter likes hookers. Mark Foley obsessively went after male teen pages. Bob Allen laughably claimed he offered to pay a man and give him blowjob because he was in fear for his life.
The Christian Right leadership would back any of these people if they at a legimate shot of being re-elected. James Dobson will certainly back the philandering Giuliani or Morman Romney over a Democrat. Republican victories matter more than actually helping the sick and poor. Falwell and Robertson gleefully told their audience that America deserved the 9-11 attacks.
Falwell: The ACLU has got to take a lot of blame for this. And I know I'll hear from them for this, but throwing God...successfully with the help of the federal court system...throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools, the abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked and when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad...I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America...I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen.
Robertson: I totally concur, and the problem is we've adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government, and so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do, and the top people, of course, is the court system."
Falwell: Pat, did you notice yesterday that the ACLU and all the Christ-haters, the People for the American Way, NOW, etc., were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress, as they went out on the steps and and called out to God in prayer and sang 'God bless America' and said, let the ACLU be hanged. In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time, calling on God."
How can these men be so hateful while the rest while the rest of the country is reeling? The Bush campaign went out of their way to cater to them. Falwell gave the opening prayer at the 2004 Republican National Convention and was allowed to attend the Washington National Cathedral memorial service. Even though President Bush didn't want to be seen near him.
The GOP is now in facing the prospect of losing the presidency and more seats in Congress. Jesus said, "But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand." The same holds true for houses built on shit.
Sen. Larry E. Craig got an ally Monday in his fight to withdraw his guilty plea in a restroom sex sting. The American Civil Liberties Union submitted a brief to a Minnesota court arguing the Idaho Republican’s arrest was likely unconstitutional.
Anthony Romero, the ACLU’s executive director, argued that police sting operations sometimes trap innocent people. He said police must show that sex was to occur in public, not just that someone was soliciting sex.
Social conservatives have contempt for gays, sex and the ALCU. This is a perfect storm. Jerry Falwell would be going mad if was still alive.
It's always funny to hear how Republicans talk tough on terrorism. Why then do they run away from reporters when asked about Larry Craig.
Not Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council or Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America or David Keene of The American Conservative Union or Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.
None was willing to tackle the subject of Craig's future; the lawmaker has pleaded guilty in connection with a men's room sex sting at the Minneapolis airport.
One man quickly left the podium rather than answer. The rest glanced at reporters, then gazed into space, then turned to each other and began shaking hands.
Sooner or later Republicans are going to have to face the music. Craig intends to fight his guilty plea. Attorneys Stanley M. Brand and Andrew D. Herman sent a letter to the Senate ethics committee. They argue that the committee lacks jurisdiction.
Assertion of jurisdiction over this matter by the Committee would be literally unprecedented and would create deleterious consequences for the Senate as a whole. To wit, we are unaware of a single case where either the full Senate or the Ethics Committee has taken cognizance of a complaint, or facts publicly disclosed in the media, to consider conduct - here a misdemeanor - which in no way implicated official action by the subject Senator.
The argument doesn't carry much weight. But these guys are paid to get Craig off the hook. Craig's guilty plea didn't give them much to work with.
I never understood why Craig pleaded guilty. Tapping his foot and making contact with another man's shoe is a rather legal argument that he was soliciting. Considering he is a United States Senator, I'm sure he could have convinced a judge that he was just playing accident footsy.
Craig only pleaded guilty because he actually was soliciting sex and didn't want it to be made public. He should have consulted a lawyer before he pleaded out.
The Difference Between Progressives and Conservatives...
...is we aren't apologists for when our side does something illegal and unethical. I have written negative posts about William Jefferson and Gary Siplin criminal behavior. Jay Tea of Wizbang takes a different approach. He attacks the Left for Larry Craig's arrest.
Prepare for Senator Craig to be referred to as a "prominent" or "leading" Republican extensively in the next few days, along with mention of Mark Foley and old whatshisname, the evangelist from the Mountain States, but nary a mention of Gerry Studds, Barney Frank, Jim McGreevy, or any other prominent Democrats caught up in gay scandals.
The really fun part would be to see Bill Moyers comment on this. After all, he was the one who was tasked with damage control when Walter Jenkins, a top aide to Lyndon Johnson, was caught doing something similar to what is alleged against Craig -- but Jenkins' men's room was in a YMCA.
"For the sake of the institution, his family, and his Idaho constituents, Larry Craig should step down from the United States Senate," says Spring Hill Republican Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite
It's amazing how members of the Florida GOP are vocal about a Republican from Idaho, but are silent about the Sunshine State's Bob Allen.
