Posted on 09/19/2007 5:18:35 PM PDT by goldstategop
Toilet-Stall Larry Craig (Mr. Wide Stance) resigned from the United States Senate on September 8, and cries of hypocrisy resounding from the left - and other ironies.
I still think Senator Craig should have pleaded temporary insanity, on a recurring basis. ("I'm a member of the Senate, for crying out loud! Look at the stuff we vote for!")
Instead, the former senior Senator from Idaho improbably maintained his innocence. He just happened to reach into a toilet stall occupied by an undercover officer. He pleaded guilty to a crime he didn't commit, because he panicked -- a month after the incident in the men's room at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport, where 41 others were arrested for similar offenses, between May and August of this year.
The left was delirious over Craig's downfall. Not only a Republican, but a social conservative (a steadfast vote in favor of marriage protection and against hate-crimes legislation) was caught in conduct unbecoming a values-voter leader.
"Oh the hypocrisy," lefties exalted on talk-shows coast-to-coast.
None brayed louder than Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "What's up with elected officials like Senator Craig? They stand for so-called 'family values' (when Forman speaks of family values, he finds it necessary to both put the phrase in quotes and qualify it with "so-called") and fight basic protections for gay people while furtively seeking other men for sex. Infuriating, pathetic hypocrites. What more can you say?"
Just this: At least ostensibly, Larry Craig has a moral code, which he violated. But even in his "infuriating, pathetic" way, Craig managed to affirm the adage, "Hypocrisy is the tribute vice plays to virtue." Deep down, he knew his actions were reprehensible, and so sought to hide them - thus paying tribute to the code he lacked the integrity to follow.
No one can accuse the left of sexual hypocrisy. To be a hypocrite, one must have an ethical code he can violate. When it comes to sex, the left has no standards. It's hard to imagine a consensual act of which the typical liberal would disapprove.
Thus, when Congressman Barney Frank paid hooker Steve Gobie for what used to be called unnatural acts, later moved him into his condo, put him on his personal payroll, fixed 33 of his parking tickets and intervened with his parole officer in Hot-Bottom's behalf, Frank could not reasonably be accused of hypocrisy - because none of this violated the Bay State Congressman's moral code.
If Frank knew that Gobie was running a prostitution ring out of his condo (the Congressman claims he was unaware of the enterprise), even that would not have been in violation of Frank's accepted norms of behavior. Frank - who voted to legalize prostitution as a member of the Massachusetts Legislature - was walking the walk.
But leftists do have an ethos - one that has little to do with Judeo-Christian values. It involves issues like poverty, race relations and global warming. The left violates it own standards so frequently and massively as to make Craig seem a model of consistency, by comparison.
* Al Gore worships at the altar of Mother Nature, from "The Earth In Balance" to "An Inconvenient Truth" and the rest of his glo-baloney warming crusade. Al is forever lecturing us on our outrageous energy consumption. Yet, according to utility company records, the electric bill for Gore's 20-room, 10,000-square-foot Nashville mansion was about $1,200 a month last year. In all of 2006, Gore used 191,000 kilowatt hours, more than 10 times that of his typical Nashville neighbor (15,600 kilowatt hours). Supposedly, this is cool, because Gore also invests in "renewable energy." The rest of us, who can't afford green investments, can sit in the dark shivering or sweating.
* At the 1996 Democratic National Convention, Gore told a tearful tale of a vow he made to his sister as she lay dying of lung cancer - that henceforth and forever more he would fight Big Tobacco with every fiber of his being. His sister died in 1984. Four years later, in a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, the Internet inventor was bragging to primary voters in North Carolina, "Throughout most of my life, I raised tobacco. I want you to know that with my own hands, I put in the plant beds and transferred it! I've hoed it! I've chopped it! I've shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn and stripped it and sold it!" - all the while thinking about his solemn pledge to his dying sister.
* Six years after her death, when he was running for re-election to the Senate, Gore accepted campaign contributions from the political action committees of Philip Morris, RJR/Nabisco and other nicotine merchants of death. When later reminded of this inconvenient truth, Gore replied, "It takes time to fully absorb the most important lessons in life." Why didn't foot-tappin' Larry Craig think of that? In 1999 (three years after his convention preening), as he was gearing up for his 2000 presidential campaign, Smokeless Al hired as his message guru Carter Eskew, the man had who directed Big Tobacco's successful $40-million campaign to scrub Clinton-Gore's tobacco-control legislation. Have we absorbed that lesson yet, Big Al?
* Last week, former Senator, and current presidential aspirant, John Edwards ordered us to give up our sinful, gas-guzzling SUVs. Guess what Edwards drives? (Hint: It's not a sub-compact.) And speaking of homes with huge carbon footprints, how about the Breck Girl's 28,000-square foot shanty in North Carolina?
* But that's just the beginning of Edwards' hypocrisy. A renowned anti-poverty crusader, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee gets $400-haircuts (which would probably feed a poor Tarheel family for a month). Edwards gave a speech at the University of California at Davis ("Poverty, the Great Moral Issue Facing America") for which he was paid $55,000 by the taxpayer-funded institution. Being a liberal means never having to say you're sorry for making obscene sums of money talking about the poor.
* It gets better. Edwards kicked off his current campaign in New Orleans, commiserating with Katrina victims. ("When the poor have cried, the Breck Girl hath wept.") According to the Wall Street Journal, 34 homes in the Big Easy face foreclosure by a subprime lender (notorious for predatory practices) that's a subsidiary of Fortress Investment Group, in which the former liability lawyer has $16 million invested. Perhaps Edwards could give his next $55,000-lecture on moral investing for presidential candidates.
* Michael Moore has made millions lambasting capitalism in films like "Roger and Me" and "Sicko." The Weight-Watchers before-shot claims he doesn't own a share of corporate stock - in his own name. On the other hand, his foundation had owned tens of thousands of shares in companies Moore has made a career of "exposing" - including Eli Lilly, Halliburton, Sunoco and Boeing.
* In his 2001 book "Stupid White Men... and other sorry excuses for the State of the Nation" Moore called conservatives racists for not supporting affirmative action and living in mixed communities. In 2005, out of 135 people working on his various projects, only 3 were black. For the last 9 years, the moral poser has lived in Central Lake, Michigan. The 2000 Census found that of the 2,600 residents of this upscale community - none were black.
* In 1994, Bill Clinton signed a law allowing plaintiffs in sexual harassment suits to adduce evidence of past sexual activity to demonstrate a pattern of behavior. He later tried to stop Paula Jones from using the same statute to prove her sexual harassment case against him.
* The lovely Hillary Rodham Clinton, vindicator of women's rights, ran White House smear campaigns against Paula Jones, Kathleen Wiley, Juanita Broderick and other victims who threatened her husband's career (and her power).
* Then there are the feminists, who wanted to lynch former Senator Bob Packwood over allegations of groping and smooching, but lined up solidly behind Bubba over allegations of sexual misconduct that made Packwood seem celibate. Suddenly, feminists discovered that "no" didn't always mean no, that affairs between a married man in his 50s and a female subordinate in her 20s might not necessarily constitute exploitation, and that allegations of sexual harassment and rape must be examined skeptically - at least till Clinton's term of office ended.
* Then there are the leftists who hold themselves out as defenders of the First Amendment, while promoting hate-crimes legislation, anti-speech campus speech codes, and other gag rules.
* And let's not forget the left's legendary championing of democracy - except when the people depart from liberal dogma. Last week, a county judge in Iowa (next, registrars of deeds will be weighing in) ruled the state's marriage law unconstitutional and ordered the issuance of licenses to same-sex couples. Leftists in the state legislature have spent years blocking a defense of marriage amendment. The six states surrounding Iowa all passed marriage amendments (limiting the union to a man and a woman) by referendum, with an average vote of 66%. Where are the ACLU and MoveOn.org (whose motto is "Democracy In Action") to protest an Iowa judge's flagrant violation of popular sovereignty? Why, they're cheering it on, of course, on the premise that really important issues should be decided by elites, not the ignorant, homophobic masses.
To bring the argument back to Craig, Jim Naugle, the 4-term Democratic mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, recently ran afoul of the tolerance-and-inclusiveness brigade by trying to do something about sex in public restrooms.
"The children and parents of our community" were being kept in the dark about "how serious the problem was of sexual activity that's taking place in bathrooms and public parks," Naugle told a press conference in a city that's become a gay vacation destination.
The mayor's comments were "contemptible," the Miami Herald editorialized. "The mayor must be treated as the bigot he is," Matt Foreman intoned, and should be "shunned everywhere he goes and not allowed at any gathering where decent people are."
"Decent people" is here defined as those who cruise parks, highway rest-stops and public toilets for anonymous sexual encounters.
In answer to his critics, Naugle noted that Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, now leads the nation in new AIDS cases. The county's health department estimates that 74% of HIV cases result from male homosexual activity - the sort that takes place in public rest rooms. The Broward County Health Department is contemptible and must be treated as the bigot it is.
The problem is nationwide and growing, as activity once confined to the fringes of society takes center stage and demands its rights.
A May 18, 2006 article in the independent student newspaper of Sam Houston State University informed readers that: "The Internet has opened the closet door for people who want to have sex in public places. Men in Huntsville and male students at Sam Houston State University are using the Internet and 'cruising' to find public places where people meet to participate in sexual activities."
Please note, the article does not report women and female students using the Internet for public hook-ups. Police reports disclose those arrested in public-sex sting operations are exclusively male. There are women who seek such encounters - they're called prostitutes. The men who go in for non-commercial adventures of this sort are called -- what's the word? - homosexuals.
The article reports a posting on the message board Squirt.org: "Fourth floor restroom (in the Newton Gresham Library at Sam Houston State University) tonight... I'll be doing things to myself...u can either watch me or join me...."
The gay rights movement is outraged that anyone would question promiscuous sex in public places, so important for the self-expression of members of the community.
Appearing on "The O'Reilly Factor" in 2004, a California attorney who specializes in representing those caught in bathroom stings, declared, "If you bend down and look over (a toilet stall and see sodomy in progress) you've violated their privacy." Just as marriage is being transformed into an anything-goes institution, public places are transformed into private places for gay sex.
The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund has produced a helpful guide. Its "Little Black Book" (subtitled, "This one will keep you out of trouble") advises, "If you cruise in parks, bathrooms or other spaces open to public view, trust your instincts, be aware of your surroundings - and know your rights." Not "don't do it," because it's disgusting, dangerous and disrespectful to those who use these facilities for their intended purposes, just "don't get caught."
Say, Matt, what's up with gay groups facilitating random sex in public places - where kids can encounter the depravity?
If Senator Craig had been out-of-the-closet - even if he was a proponent of same-sex marriage who liked to occasionally walk on the wild side -- Lambda Legal would have rushed to his defense and advised him on how to avoid future legal hassles, and Matt Forman would have taken him out for a drink.
Not that they're hypocrites or anything.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I think Craig should have pleaded not guilty, and refused to resign his congressional seat, letting the people of his district decide if the still wanted him. I do believe in democracy.
But what the heck, the lefties who organized the Craig sting as bathroom watchers are worse than Craig. They got their jollies from stalking a man with a vice, and are still getting their jollies. There is somnething more than slightly sick about this kind of political voyeurism, sicker than what Craig likely ever could be.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I just can’t recall a single congressman from the left even commenting on the Craig affair....someone help me out here and refresh my memory.
Larry Craig has NOT resigned from the Senate. He only said he "intended to resign."
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 — Senator Larry E. Craig returned to Congress on Tuesday for the first time since the disclosure of his arrest in a sex sting, voting and having lunch with fellow Republicans in an atmosphere described as chilly and awkward.
The ignorance of some MSM reporters is truly amazing.
WILL LARRY CRAIG DEFINITELY BE RESIGNING?
Consider him another good reason for term limits.
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