Republican Senator pleads guilty to lewd conduct in a men's room

[Metric]

1) Employing cops to arrest people for this kind of [censored] is ridiculous.

2) I agree that Craig looks "guilty as hell," but before using the "H"-word, has he really been a major busybody moralist in the past?

[Legislurker]

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1) Employing cops to arrest people for this kind of [censored] is ridiculous.

2) I agree that Craig looks "guilty as hell," but before using the "H"-word, has he really been a major busybody moralist in the past?

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So I shouldn't be able to use the public restroom without some creep peering at me and propositioning me for sex? What if he was profiling kid's stalls? What if it was yours and he rubbed your leg? You can't walk in someone's home and rub them and signal for sex. You can't do it on the airplane. The police were acting on a complaint as well, which gives it much more merit in my eyes. If he had just been there tapping away waiting for Republicans to show, thats just a fishing expedition.

[Metric]

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So I shouldn't be able to use the public restroom without some creep peering at me and propositioning me for sex?

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It is your responsibility to deal with sex propositions (presumably a simple "don't [censored] touch me" would probably work against most sex-crazed senators). It is not my responsibility to pay for squads of officers whose job it is to keep people from propositioning you. How old are you, anyway?

The case of pedophilia is of course different -- we're not talking about consenting adults anymore. The act is by definition predatory.

[Felix_Nietzsche]

I hope his political career is dead. On the immigration vote he defied the wishes of his voters and voted for amnesty.....

As for the charges, the case was relatively weak and the Senator was dumb to plead. There was no verbal exchange where sex was requested. In my opinion the cop screwed-up by arresting him before any request for sex was made. He may be a pervert but the details of the arrest show there is plenty of plausible deniability....

Can you imagine being a police academy graduate and your assignment is to work undercover in a men's room to catch h*mosexuals? Besides spending 8 hours a day smelling urine and feces in a 20x30 room....you bosses are expecting you to make a "collar". So you have to sit on a NASTY toilet seat hours at a time. Perhaps this cop had too much time on his hands? I suspect this cop was the butt of jokes back at the station. "Hey rookie, you can set up a cot in the police station men's room if it will make you feel more at home. LOL!" "Hey rookie, I'm about to fart wanna smell it? LOL!" A bet this cop wanted to get out of this assignment as fast as possible..... Haven't these nitwits heard of hidden cameras?

I think this cop pulled the trigger too quickly and he MAY have falsely accused an innocent man..... But since I don't like Craig for his amnesty vote......[censored] him. I hope he goes down. Then the GOP can nominate a real conservative for his seat....

[Kaj]

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I think this cop pulled the trigger too quickly and he MAY have falsely accused an innocent man.....

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Innocent men with their entire public careers to lose probably don't plead guilty without any consultation from an attorney. What possible reason would he plead guilty if he was innocent? His guilty plea also came with $620 in fines and a 10-day suspended jail term. Who in their right mind (let alone a sitting US Senator) would accept a jail term on their record for something as innocuous as this if they were innocent and NOT looking for bathroom hanky panky? And let's say he was innocent -- then that suggests this Senator has horrendous judgment when it comes to important decisions, and he has incredibly strange behavior in public restrooms -- probably 2 good reasons to get him out of one of the highest offices in the land.

[Felix_Nietzsche]

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Innocent men with their entire public careers to lose probably don't plead guilty without any consultation from an attorney. What possible reason would he plead guilty if he was innocent?

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Innocent people do go to jail. Inncocent people do accept plea deals. "Mad Dog" prosecutors are as common as fleas on a pig....... Spending 12 months in jail is sometimes easier than spending $40K in legal bills. I personally know a guy that spent 18 months in federal min security prison because he took a $5/hr + commission telemarketing job. The people he worked for were crooks. The feds told him to turn state' witness or be prosecuted. He had no knowledge to give them and he listen to his court appointed attourney and pleaded guilty (he was a coward but lots of people are cowards). If Craig fighted the charges.....he would have spent months in the 24-hour news cycle. He knew this. He thought he could avoid this.... He was wrong.....

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And let's say he was innocent -- then that suggests this Senator has horrendous judgment when it comes to important decisions, and he has incredibly strange behavior in public restrooms

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You have not read the police report. The only strange piece of behavior was their feet touched. I've sat in bathroom stalls before. The ONLY way someone could touch my feet was if the other person's feet was purposefully moved all-the-way to the edge of the stall. My point being, unless this cop was a 7 foot tall basketball player, this cop moved his feet to the extreme edge of the stall. So if their feet touched, then the senator has plausible deniability that it was an accident. Also if the cop moved his feet to the extreme end of the stall.....he was obviously trying to entice an encounter. Craig never made a verbal overture for sex.....if he had, the cops would have had a strong case. Since he did not....the cops case was extremely flawed.

Like I said. I don't like Craig.. [censored] him...

[adios]

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I think this cop pulled the trigger too quickly and he MAY have falsely accused an innocent man.....

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Innocent men with their entire public careers to lose probably don't plead guilty without any consultation from an attorney. What possible reason would he plead guilty if he was innocent? His guilty plea also came with $620 in fines and a 10-day suspended jail term. Who in their right mind (let alone a sitting US Senator) would accept a jail term on their record for something as innocuous as this if they were innocent and NOT looking for bathroom hanky panky? And let's say he was innocent -- then that suggests this Senator has horrendous judgment when it comes to important decisions, and he has incredibly strange behavior in public restrooms -- probably 2 good reasons to get him out of one of the highest offices in the land.

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Never heard of Larry Craig until yesterday. I think the guys a hypocrit. Certainly this incident reflects badly on the Republicans and further hurts their chances in 2008. His mea culpa indicating that he pleaded guilty to expedidite the matter even though he's really innocent rings very hollow indeed. The Republicans are going to be/are abandoning him and he probably deserves to leave office. With all that said, it's not that hard to see why the system can easily elect people who talk the talk but don't walk the walk so to speak. When I criticized Edwards for his hypocrisy I was criticized for not focusing on the Edwards message. Now I see that when a Republican shows himself to be a blatent hypocrit, I don't read the protests that we're not focusing on his message. Ditto for Vitter. Obviously if a politician has a message that you agree with we should focus on his message but if it's a message you don't agree with we should throw the blatent hypocrit out. Not sure why gay sex between consenting adults is considered irresponsible either.

[bdk3clash]

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Haven't these nitwits heard of hidden cameras?

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Uh, maybe these "nitwits" suspect that putting a hidden camera in a public bathroom could be illegal?

[DVaut1]

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the cops case was extremely flawed.

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So flawed, in fact, Craig pled guilty almost a full two months after the incident. Again, this isn't even a 'heat-of-the-moment, Detective Stabler just pushed you up against the wall and coerced a false confession' guilty plea. It's a 'Craig had two months to think it over, obtain counsel if necessary, mount a defense or otherwise weigh his options, and still pled guilty' type of guilty plea.

[adios]

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.... Spending 12 months in jail is sometimes easier than spending $40K in legal bills. ....

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There's a lot of truth IMO to the fact that copping to a lesser charge is often influenced by the expense of mounting a defense. I have my doubts in the Craig case but maybe. Hadn't considered that.