Apparently at the prodding of Arlen Spector, Larry Craig is reconsidering his resignation from the Senate. The effect that this has had on Republicans has yet to be fully determined.
One thing for sure, Mitch McConnell, leader of the Senate Republicans, can’t be happy about this. It contradicts his original demand that Craig resign and undermines McConnell’s control of the party. Then there are Craig’s colleagues like McCain and Coleman (and Mitt Romney who ditched him from his campaign) and the other Republicans who did not leap to the defense of a possible homosexual rest-room cruiser in their ranks. This “reconsideration” effects them and the upcoming election as well.
It got me to thinking about the way Spector upended an attempt to get him out of his committee leaderships after the 2004 elections (when they couldn’t get him voted out of his Pennsylvania seat, either). Spector had to agree to all kinds of behavioral concessions to keep his position on the Senate Judiciary Committee and, as he was coming out of an extreme battle against cancer at the time, he wasn’t any too happy about it. It was McConnell and friends who pressured him then. This could be Arlen’s Revenge now.
Politicians are often too closed minded to see that actions they carry out could hurt themselves in the long run. Personally, I like to believe this is a calculated ruse by Spector that will help dump any number of conservatives in 2008.
That’s an interesting theory for the motivation.
Another possibility is that Craig is thrown back into the machine with everyone’s blessing. It will muddy the waters as the Iraq/surge report is presented.
Thereafter, he’ll be unceremoniously thrown back under the bus.
I’m rooting for your theory.
I actually think it is much simpler. Specter is probably friends with a guy that he has worked with for the last 18 years. And, being a friend, he stuck up for him when everyone else was beating the crap out of him. People make mistakes. Craig couldn’t come to terms with his sexuality. Doesn’t mean he deserves to be abandoned by his friends.
That could certainly be the case BooMan, but who would wish this for a friend? Craig will be vilified by left and right, and what is his legal standing for reversing his guilty plea? There is none, and it will get ugly.
Or Spector is a normal human that knows, for the good of his party, that the GOP has to start being a little more Log Cabin and a little less closeted.
While his own constituents may vote him out of office when given the chance or organize to demand his dismissal, he wasn’t exactly caught in flagrante delicto or anything and as far as I know his intend to perform some gymnastic sex act in that bathroom has not been established (other than his guilty plea!).
I also wasn’t aware that intent to get nookie in a restroom was illegal until acted upon. Couldn’t he have intended to use a hotel room? Is it really illegal to pick another person up in certain rooms of certain buildings? Sure he’s a hypocrite, but the chamber would be empty if that were grounds for forcing resignation.
Spector may just be giving his party the option to back off a little bit on the gay thing and get to what was really wrong with his actions: Adultery. Problem there is they gotta say bye-bye to Vitter if they go down that road. Again perhaps that would be best for the party.
You may be right about Specter’s motivations, but you’re wrong about Craig’s crime. His crime was peering into a stall at a man on the toilet for over two minutes. You want that punished, right? His crime was sticking his foot into someone else’s space and playing footsie. And if the police officer wanted to get up and go knock on his stall door, his crime would have been trying to commit a sex act in a public restroom.
This is somehow missed by a lot of people that think it is legitimate for closeted men to pick up other men in restrooms and perform sex acts with them.
Hey, go ahead and ask a guy for a hummer while he’s washing his hands. Don’t go peering into stalls and rubbing feet.
Why was any of this a high crime? Because we want his senate seat?
Whether or not he stays is a purely political calculation, as there are plenty of examples of similar or worse behaviors of people who not only stayed in power, but were re-elected. Barney Frank actually did the act (with a hooker even), so it’s not gayness. Vitter isn’t going anywhere, so it’s not Adultery. It’s just bad timing and the sensitivity the GOP has to hypocrisy at the moment.
I personally think that Craig was indeed being railroaded, but also believe that by almost any political calculus he should also step down. The railroading, over time, will do less to revive the GOP image than giving him the freedom to resign on his own, or let his constituents do that via the ballot. Showing a bit of reliance on the rule of law over political expediency is probably Spector’s take.
Dems should just steer clear.