I don't know if Sen. Larry Craig is a public men's room trolling pervert, yet it doesn't look good for him. At all.
When I first saw the headline and lede for this story, the initial thought was that the Senator got caught in a full Brokeback Mountain in that Minneapolis bathroom. Not so, of course. Listening to the tape with the obnoxious arresting officer does engender minor sympathy for Craig, with the near-juvenile back-and-forth between him and Craig about foot-tapping.
Still, Sen. Craig has to go. He's an abject embarrassment. Cameras will continue to follow him, he'll continue to be asked why he broke his word regarding resignation, and Sen. Chuck Schumer is going to remind voters of Republican hypocrisy on "family values" issues while he attempts to elect more Senate Democrats as chairman of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee.
Even worse for Republicans, is their national nominating convention will be held in Minneapolis. If Craig is still serving, and even has the nerve to attend the convention, that tourist attraction bathroom for the demented is going to be a national media story - a "family values" story.
Democrats are loving this Craig drama. The old political saying applies: Don't get in the way of your opponents while they're in the middle of destroying themselves.
There is some solace for Craig. Even if the arresting officer is 100 percent accurate about the facts, what Sen. Craig did pales in comparison to the past lurid behavior of a few colleagues. The senior Senator/Aquatic Wonder from Massachusetts brought us Chappaquiddick, and Sen. Robert C. Byrd was a walking-talking hate crime in his late 20's and early 30's as a Ku Klux Klan Kleagle.
Sen. Craig has to understand this political dynamic every time he looks across the Senate chamber and sees Teddy and Bob (among others). Perhaps that's a reason why he decided to finish his term.
