He may have intended to, but AFAIK, you can't prosecute someone for thinking about something.... Well, you can actually - for instance, it's illegal to solicit a prostitute - you don't actually have to get to the having sex with her stage to be charged for that. Likewise, you can be charged with conspiracy to commit any number of crimes, even if you never actually get around to committing them. It's a fishy area of law, one that looks justifiable in some sense (if you catch a bunch of guys with written plans for robbing a store, a stash of (otherwise perfectly legal) guns, and a bunch of ski masks, it seems logical that you should be able to put them in jail for a while), but in another sense looks pretty open for abuse.

Actually, Craig didn't plead guilty to a sex crime per se.  He pled guilty to disorderly conduct (which is I guess a catchall for those found trolling for gay sex in the airport men's room).  One would imagine that Craig pled guilty, without consulting a lawyer, because he reasoned that nobody would probably find out about the guilty plea, in the first place, and wouldn't be able to connect the dots back to the story underlying the charge, in the second place.

It really didn't take the Romney camp long to distance themselves from their one-time family values cheerleader though.  Mitt made it clear that Craig "certainly isn't on my campaign any longer."  Maybe Craig and Ted Haggard can join forces for the "New American Family Values Campaign" where both can see which one can yell "but I'm not gay" loudest.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Would it have been different if he was trying to pickup a woman?

Then he'd have to have been in the ladies room and I'm certain an undercover female officer would have charged him with something for that. I guess the looking over the stall where an undercover office is crapping is pretty much a big no-no. The tapping the foot, I think he could have gotten away with.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

The funniest parts about this:

1. Senator Larry "Hand Jive In The Men's Room Stall" Craig didn't mean for this to leak out.  He was calling potential allies to give them a head's up (no pun intended) about this rudder change and he left a long voice message on someone's answering machine -- someone he called by mistake.

2. Craig claimed the thing that made him rethink his position was Senator Arlen Specter "came out in my defense."  Well, that seems to be wishful thinking because what Specter did say was that Craig "should have fought the charge, if he is innocent."  Apparently Senator Craig is unaware of just how big a word "if" really is.

3. Much of this is predicated upon Craig's lawyer being able to get the guilty plea rescinded.  If he does, he'll stay and fight the charge.  If he doesn't, he'll probably just go away at the end of the month like he "intends" to do.

4. Those who would love to see Craig's seat filled by a Democrat might just want to root for his guilty plea to get overturned.  If the Republican governor fills the seat with a Republican who can walk and chew gum at the same time, they have a better chance of being reelected next year than the walking, talking punchline known as Senator Larry Craig.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

If I were a state senator, not gay and in absolutely no way soliciting gay sex in a public washroom, I'd have been hopping fucking mad at being charged and would have screamed from the rooftops about my innocence.  I would have enlisted at least one lawyer, and unequivocally stressed that an overzealous officer had completely misread and/or fabricated my actions in the toilet stall.  I would have forestalled any rumours about my allegedly gay or bisexual bent with a furious and ruthless denunciation.

But not Craig.  He pleads guilty and hopes nobody notices this painfully embarrassing incident.

My guess?  He likes gay sex, hates himself for these compulsions, and so leads a public life which panders to the homo-haters.  He's also a lying sack of shit...but then that's virtually synonymous with "Senator," so at least he's got lots of company on that front.  

I love how he said, "I did not have sex with that man...or any other man".

Comedy gold.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

On the audio tape at the end: "Embarrassing... embarrassing... no wonder why you're going down the tubes."

Seriously, WTF was Craig thinking he could get out of that interrogation without them pressing charges? He should have STFU and went to court and cried on the steps about how "unfair" it was an activist liberal cop in a hippy-airport was trying to frame him for something he would never do, etc.

Any idiot who has seen Law & Order knows that the cops really are not your friend as much as they claim at the start of the police interview and it is best just to get a lawyer, shut up, and fight another day. Hell, he ended up finding out for sure when they started mocking him at the end.

My fellow Idahoans, today is a day we all had hoped would never come.  But the unfortunate events of the past week have eventuated in the early retirement from politics of one of Idaho's favorite, albeit utterly disgraced, sons -- Larry Craig.  As he said in his press conference with his beard, er, lovely wife standing by his side, he had brought shame on all of us in Idaho, but especially on Republicans.  But you can't hold an entire political party responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the entire political system -- Democrats as well as Republicans? And if the entire political system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our society in general? I put it to you, my fellow citizens - isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you Democrats and Libertarians and haters of America can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pride and the hope that we can turn the corner from this sordid low in the annals of American political life that I hereby announce the appointment of a truly great American to succeed Larry Craig -- Mr. John Blutarski!

Illegitimi non carborundum.

The last one was named "Dirk*." The state has a tradition of electing hardcore governors.

*=Interestingly, when he was confirmed Secretary of the Interior, he was out of the state at various meetings in DC. At that point he faxed his letter of resignation home to the capital and did not even grace the Gem State with a farewell tour like Mr. Craig's. So who is the better Idahoan?