Dec 02 2007
Sex with Larry
Larry Craig, the senator from Idaho with the infamous wide stance, once claimed that his hometown newspaper — The Idaho Statesman — was conducting a witch hunt against him. You know, he just may have a case. But, where there’s a witch there should probably also be a witch hunt, dontcha think?
More gay men describe sexual encounters with U.S. Sen. Craig
David Phillips. Mike Jones. Greg Ruth. Tom Russell.
Four gay men, willing to put their names in print and whose allegations can’t be disproved, have come forward since news of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s guilty plea. They say they had sex with Craig or that he made a sexual advance or that he paid them unusual attention.
They are telling their stories now because they are offended by Craig’s denials, including his famous statement, “I am not gay, I never have been gay.” Those words, spoken on live national TV on Aug. 28, are now memorialized on a just-released-for-Christmas Talking Senator Larry Craig Action Figure.
David Phillips is a 42-year-old information technology consultant in Washington, D.C., who says Craig picked him up at a gay club in 1986 and that they subsequently had sex.
Mike Jones is a former prostitute who told the world he had sex with the Rev. Ted Haggard last year. The former Colorado Springs evangelist at first denied it but eventually confessed. Jones says Craig paid him for sex in late 2004 or early 2005.
Greg Ruth was a 24-year-old college Republican in 1981 when he says he was hit on by Craig at a Republican meeting in Coeur d’Alene.
Tom Russell, now 48, is a former Nampa resident who lives in Utah. Russell said his encounter with Craig occurred at Bogus Basin in the early 1980s.
A fifth gay man, who is from Boise but who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, offered a recent and telling account: He was in a men’s restroom at Denver International Airport in September 2006 when the man in the next stall moved his hand slowly, palm up, under the divider. Alarmed, the man said he waited outside the restroom and then identified the man in the adjoining stall as Craig, whom he had met in Idaho.
The article is accompanied by some audio clips, but you should probably read the disclaimer before listening to them:
Some of the audio interview excerpts contain explicit descriptions of sex not appropriate for children and listeners who find such content offensive. The Statesman provides the excerpts so Idahoans can hear these accounts and decide for themselves about accusations against Sen. Craig.
I honestly do not believe most people would have made a big deal out of all this if Senator Craig had just been truthful in the first place. Sure, the right wing would have vilified him. To them, homosexual sex is unforgivable, while adulterous heterosexual sex (witness Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, David Vitter, etc.) is alright so long as it is committed by Republicans. It it’s done by a Democrat (i.e. Bill Clinton), then all bets are off.
But it’s too late for the truth now. The damage is done. Senator Craig should do the honorable thing and resign from his seat in the United States Senate. The people of Idaho, Republican though most of them are, deserve capable and honorable representation.
Update: the Senator from Idaho is still in denial…
“It is unfortunate that the Idaho Statesman has chosen to continue to lower itself to the standards of what can best be described as tabloid journalism,” Craig said in the statement.
“Despite the fact the Idaho Statesman has decided to pursue its own agenda and print these falsehoods without any facts to back them up, I won’t let this paper’s attempt to malign my name stop me from continuing my work to serve the people of Idaho.”
