Oathbreaker

8 October 2007



Larry Craig Refuses to Quit Senate

Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) is refusing to resign his seat after weeks of public embarrassment. Last month, the media found out that he had pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct related to soliciting sex in a public bathroom at the airport in Minneapolis. A social reactionary, he claimed not to be a homosexual and vowed to resign if he couldn’t get the case thrown out by the end of September. Now, he has decided to stay in office despite a judge’s decision upholding his conviction. Hypocrisy isn’t really grounds enough for his resignation, and a misdemeanor conviction really isn’t either. But he has broken his word to the people of Idaho and America, and for that, he should be expelled from the Senate.

Whether the senator is gay, bisexual or straight is completely irrelevant. Whatever happens in his bedroom is a private matter regardless of his public posturing on matters of sexual behavior. The case at hand didn’t occur in a bedroom but rather a public toilet in an airport. Thus, his arrest was for soliciting sex in public rather than for a sexual act itself.

Had he had his wits about him, and clearly he didn’t, he might have pointed out to the authorities in Minnesota that, as a US Senator traveling to or from the US Congress, he was immune from arrest. The time to raise that constitutional provision, though, was when he was taken into custody. After copping a plea, it is irrelevant. Having done that, he tacitly waived that protection.

Up to the point where the judge upheld the conviction, the people of Idaho were represented by a man who is clearly confused and troubled by his own sexuality, and who is a hypocrite and quite possibly something of a fool. Had he a sense of shame, he would have resigned to end the pathetic drama.

Now, though, he has gone back on his word, which is a cardinal sin in politics. He made a promise to the people of the country, and he has decided not to honor that promise. If he won’t quit, then he needs to be fired. If the Idaho state constitution doesn’t permit his removal from office, then the US Senate needs to kick him out. The presence of an oathbreaker in the Senate brings the other 99 members into disrepute.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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