This whole scandal involving Sen. Larry Craig bothers me.
I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but the entire situation surrounding his arrest is shady. Tapping your foot is aparently a sexual advance. Count me among the many who never knew. Was this an issue of entrapment, or does this cop just sit around airport bathrooms for fun? Craig’s behavious is certainly suspicious, and perhaps he was making sexual advances, but if he’s not engaging in any legitimate sexual activity, then why is this considered a crime? Finally, what innocent man pleads guilty hoping that it’ll quell the situation? As we’ve seen, it didn’t work.
What bothers me even more is the role homosexuality is going to play in this scandal. It seems that Republicans are slow to correct injustice, but quick to call for resignation when one of their own is thought to be gay. Alberto Gonzales stayed in office longer than he had any right to. It turns out Democrats really wanted him out quickly, all they had to do was accuse him of some say sex scandal, and Republicans would have dropped him like he was on fire.
I’m sure some Democrats are going to revel in Craig’s misery, even if it’s caused by Republican homophobia. I don’t know what Craig’s deal is, but I’m sure both Republican and Democratic hypocrisy is going to be in full force while this continues. Oh, and plenty of gay jokes.
Dee @ August 29, 2007
The Bush Administration has officially turned into a take on the Ten Little Indians story. Gonzales’ resignation yesterday has only furthered our speculations as to what exactly is going on behind the closed doors of the White House. Gonzo was pretty hush-hush about his reasons for leaving. Was it desire to distance himself from Bush? An attempt to save his own skin? Or does he just want to spend more time with his family? All I know is that there’s a whiff of something toxic coming from the Oval Office, and it will probably need to be fumigated before the next inaugeration.
That Bush said that he was “reluctant” to let Gonzales go reveals more than a few of his biggest weaknesses. A stronger president would have dropped Gonzo like a bad habit once news of these judicial firings started. Bush attracted more negative attention to his administration than he needed. Gonzales was a lightning rod for negative publicity, and when you’re trying to convince people that the war you started was a good move, this is the kind of attention you want to avoid.
The way I see it, there are two possible reasons that W didn’t let Gonzales’ go earlier: A) Bush wanted to keep someone who would maintain his wiretapping activities; or B) he simply didn’t have the nerve to tell his ol’ buddy to hit the road. Either way, it doesn’t bode well for him. Some may call his devotion to Gonzales’ “loyalty”, I call it a grave mistake by a man who has proven countless times that he can’t play politics.
Without Rove around to remind him how to appeal to the NeoCon base, Bush is going to be lost. Democrats want him gone, and his own party doesn’t want anything to do with him. Even his old Texan base is saying sayonara. Only by initiating a troop withdrawl from Iraq will he be able to salvage his remaining year and a half in office.
Until then, I believe I’ll order the duck, served nice and lame.
Dee @ August 28, 2007