Free Republic

<p>Contrary to popular perception, Al Franken did not resign yesterday.</p> <p>"[T]oday I am announcing that in the coming weeks I will be resigning as member of the United States Senate. I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of...sexual assault sits in the Oval Office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party."</p>

BOISE, Idaho -- Former Republican U.S. Sen. Larry Craig aims to fend off a federal election lawsuit against him by arguing his infamous July 11, 2007, Minneapolis airport bathroom visit that ended in his sex-sting arrest was part of his official Senate business. Craig is hoping to avoid repaying $217,000 in campaign funds the Federal Election Commission claims he misused to defend himself. The FEC sued Craig in June in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleging he converted the campaign money to personal use by spending it on his legal defense after he was accused of soliciting sex in...

A Democratic congressional candidate has told police he was assaulted near downtown Spokane after making sexual advances to another man. David R. Fox, who moved to Spokane from Port Angeles recently to run against Republican U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, told police he wasn't injured in Sunday's altercation. But he is pressing charges against the man. Fox is one of four Democrats in the Aug. 17 primary. The attorney entered the race at the last minute and has no known campaign office or website. He could not be reached for comment.

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Last week, South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer said he would sacrifice his political ambitions if Governor Mark Sanford resigns. Sanford refused, and now Bauer finds himself on defense. The issue? His private life. Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer wants to talk about where he would take the state if Gov. Mark Sanford leaves office. And unless Sanford decides to step down soon, making Bauer his successor, the lieutenant governor will likely run for the number one job. But since his remarks on the subject last week, Bauer has become a target -- first, accusations on a...

Over the past week, I have repeatedly heard from Republicans troubled by the rumors that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, the National Republican Senatorial Committee's choice in the 2010 Senate primary, is gay. At age 52, Crist had never wed until he married Florida businesswoman Christine Rome two weeks before Christmas last year. Those who profess concern about "civility" would say -- or at least, should say -- that the rumors are thereby disproven. But . . . Let me share with you a message I received yesterday from someone I don't know, and who wishes to remain anonymous: I have...

Tabloid cinema sinks to a new low, with Kirby Dick's gay bashing documentary, Outrage. This gossip mongering doc, bolstered by that 'unidentified sources' school of sensationalistic journalism, salivates on screen in a crusade mounted to drag out of the closet suspect gay politicans, and ruin their lives and careers via multiplexes everywhere. Is the homophobic mass media the culprit here? Hardly. It's the self-righteous extremist elements of the gay community, in a rabid and tasteless, if you can't join them, beat them sexual orientation witch hunt. Fueled by a kind of catch more slandered self-hating gays with vinegar than honey...

“Outrage” is the talk of the Tribeca film festival. The documentary by filmmaker Kirby Dick claims that several politicians who vote “anti-gay” on political issues are actually gay themselves, and have had verifiable trysts with men. The documentary contains interviews with men who claim to have had sex with these “anti-gay” politicians. Of course, many liberal media outlets are trying to keep the identities of the politicians “outed” by Outrage a secret. Some claim that sexuality (even for politicians) is a personal issue that should not be made public without consent under any circumstances. That is sheer nonsense. In the...

Documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick's latest exposé, "Outrage," promises to be a PR nightmare for certain closeted gay politicians. He names names. He interviews their alleged sex partners. He portrays these officials -- overwhelmingly Republican, with anti-gay voting records -- as hypocrites of the worst sort. But there is a special place in his heart for one particular conservative lawmaker: Larry Craig, the former senator from Idaho, who was famously busted in 2007 on suspicion of lewd behavior in a Minneapolis airport men's room.... Craig, he argues, was a victim of societal homophobia. "And I feel empathy for him."... The closet,...

As Obama passes his first 100 days in office, I find myself sad that we liberals have less and less to complain about. Guantanamo Bay is closing, good health care policy is in the works, and I no longer have nightmares about McCain invading my living room on top of an elephant as if he were a Carthaginian emperor. Nonetheless, liberals in 2009 still have more things to complain about than Holden Caulfield would, holding a broken Miley Cyrus record. One such complaint is homosexuality in America. This week's "gay controversy" surrounded Miss California and her Twitter-quarrel with Perez Hilton....

The last time Patrick Moroney saw his Cessna Stationair 206, it was flying away from a rural airstrip in Mulege, Mexico - hijacked by gun-toting drug runners who left him and his stunned family abandoned beside a burning car. -- SNIP -- there was no way I am getting my family out of this plane with a propeller moving. -- SNIP -- They told me I was going to die -- SNIP -- Kim Moroney called then-U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's staffers. They promised to help but nothing happened. But less than two hours after her initial conversation with one of...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Idaho Sen. Larry Craig has lost his latest attempt to withdraw his guilty plea in a Minneapolis airport men's room sex sting.

A push by Idaho’s two senators to point out that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has become overly aggressive in enforcing gun laws could keep President Bush’s pick to head that agency from being confirmed under the current administration. Republican Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo placed separate holds on the nomination of federal prosecutor Michael Sullivan, who has been the acting ATF director for more than two years. In that time, U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan has been consumed by that latest entry on his resume: acting chief of the ATF. The Republican has been balancing both...

BOISE - Idaho's senators are preparing for tonight's vote on a $700 billion bailout plan for Wall Street. We learned this morning that one is for the new version of the bill, and one is still undecided. Senator Mike Crapo says he still hasn’t decided how to cast his vote. A spokesman said the senator is waiting until he sees the final version of the plan before making up his mind.

Thursday, September 11, 2008 Email to a Friend Republicans in Idaho appear to have safely weathered the Larry Craig scandal, with the GOP candidate for his seat in the Senate ahead nearly two-to-one over his Democratic opponent. Jim Risch, Idaho’s current lieutenant governor, leads Larry LaRocco, a former congressman, 58% to 30% in the first Rasmussen Reports survey of voters in the state. Risch served briefly as governor in 2006 after the elected chief executive was appointed to President Bush’s Cabinet. Interestingly, Risch just defeated LaRocco in 2006 to be reelected lieutenant governor and also beat him 20 years earlier...

(CNN) – Barack Obama likes to stress his willingness to work across party lines, but Republican Sen. Larry Craig probably isn't the Illinois senator's top choice when it comes to showcasing his bipartisan credentials. But campaign buttons mistakenly featuring those two politicians surfaced over the weekend under the Obama campaign's motto "Change You Can Believe In," according to CNN Idaho affiliate KPVI. The buttons, created by an Ohio-based company called Tigereye Design, was supposed to feature Obama alongside the Democratic Senate candidate in Idaho, Larry LaRocco. A retired editor for the Lewiston Tribune noticed the mistaken buttons and printed them...

Everybody had a good laugh last August when Roll Call broke the story about Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, getting arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for playing footsies in a toilet stall... ...But if Edwards had an affair and lied about it, shouldn't he suffer scrutiny akin to that of Craig? At least three-dozen daily newspapers in the United States published the Craig news the day after the Roll Call scoop, according to Nexis, but this morning not a single U.S. daily mentioned the Enquirer piece.

During MSNBC's live coverage of Tuesday's Democratic primaries, co-anchor Chris Matthews poked fun at Larry Craig's bathroom arrest during an interview with Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar as he referred to Republican plans to hold their presidential convention in St. Paul, and joked that Craig would be starting his book tour at the airport. Moments later during an interview with Clinton campaign advisor Lisa Caputo, he joked about the Minnesota bridge collapse as an embarrassment Republicans would have to face when they come to the state: "We're having a little bit of fun here tonight with the opportunity of Republican...

The good news: Republican senators went on record against the Feinstein/Craig illegal alien farmworker amendment today in a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid. The bad news: There were only 10 of them willing to put their names on the letter: [Image of letter included on site.]Sen. Inhofe wants you to sign the No Amnesty letter. You can do so here. The text: Dear Majority Leader Reid: We write to express disappointment that the Senate Appropriations Committee chose to include in the War Supplemental more than 100 pages of immigration language that would grant legal status to more than one...

(VIDEO) Pro-amnesty senators are once again trying to shove their amnesty agenda down the throats of the American people, duplicitously attaching their amnesty legislation to an Iraq war funding bill. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Larry Craig added an amendment that would grant five-year amnesty to illegal aliens who have either worked 150 days in agriculture or earned $7000 since January, 2004 - an estimated 3 million farm workers, PLUS their families!

The Idaho Statesman was named a 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of the Larry Craig scandal that began with his arrest and guilty plea in an airport restroom last August. This is the first time the Statesman has been a finalist in its 141-year history. The McClatchy Co. has won more than 50 of journalism's most prestigious prize. The Washington Post won the 2008 Breaking News Reporting award for its coverage of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. The New York Times was also named a Pulitzer finalist in this category. The Pulitzers have...