Q-Seattle Events: Tacky Tourist Clubs

The DC Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported yesterday that Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct after he was arrested during a police sting for bathroom cruising in the Minneapolis airport.

That guilty plea was finally enough to get the senator's home-state newspaper, Boise's Idaho Stateman to run a story they'd been sitting on for months:

Sen. Larry Craig, who in May told the Idaho Statesman he had never engaged in homosexual acts, was arrested less than a month later by an undercover police officer who said Craig made a sexual advance toward him in an airport men's room.

The arrest at a Minnesota airport prompted Craig to plead guilty to disorderly conduct earlier this month. His June 11 encounter with the officer was similar to an incident in a men's room in a Washington, D.C., rail station described by a Washington-area man to the Idaho Statesman. In that case, the man said he and Craig had sexual contact. ...

The most serious finding by the Statesman was the report by a professional man with close ties to Republican officials. The 40-year-old man reported having oral sex with Craig at Washington's Union Station, probably in 2004. The Statesman also spoke with a man who said Craig made a sexual advance toward him at the University of Idaho in 1967 and a man who said Craig "cruised" him for sex in 1994 at the REI store in Boise. The Statesman also explored dozens of allegations that proved untrue, unclear or unverifiable.

The Stateman story by Dan Popkey is truly a must-read for insight into the ways of the closet. When Popkey recounted for Craig the claims of the gay man who said he'd been cruised by Craig at the Boise REI, the senator responded,

"Once again, I'm not gay, and I don't cruise, and I don't hit on men. I have no idea how he drew that conclusion. A smile? Here is one thing I do out in public: I make eye contact, I smile at people, they recognize me, they say, 'Oh, hi, Senator.' Or, 'Do I know you?'

"I've been in this business 27 years in the public eye here. I don't go around anywhere hitting on men, and by God, if I did, I wouldn't do it in Boise, Idaho! Jiminy!"

Hmm. Sure does know a lot about what he wouldn't do if he were gay, eh?

The Statesman story is late in coming, but more damning because it's more carefully sourced than previous accusations about Craig's occasional bathroom escapades. Although the paper didn't print anything about it at the time, the Stateman started looking into the senator's sexual escapades after blogger Mike Rogers posted a report on blogactive.com on October 17 about the senator. Rogers claimed in the post to have talked to three men who claimed to have had sex with Craig. All three men wanted to remain anonymous, Rogers said in the post.

The Stateman was able to contact and interview one of the three men -- the man who said he'd had sex with Craig at DC's Union Station.

During its investigation, the Statesman interviewed 300 people, visited the ranch where Craig grew up, and made two trips to Washington, D.C.

On May 12, two days before its interview with Craig, the Statesman finally interviewed Rogers' "best source," the man who says he is certain he had a brief sexual encounter with Craig at Union Station, which is two blocks from Craig's office. The man said the sex occurred in two restrooms on a weekday afternoon. He estimated the encounter lasted three or four minutes.

The man's motive was twofold. A lifelong Republican, he recently had re-registered as a Democrat because he's angry with what he sees as the GOP's gay-bashing. Second, he was tired of Rogers picking on congressional staffers and offered him the chance to "out" a senator.

The Washington-area man's story has remained consistent, beginning with his Aug. 9, 2004, e-mail to Mike Rogers: "I've hooked up with Craig ... why not out some actual members and not their staffers?"

But that story wasn't enough for the Statesman until the report of Craig's arrest and guilty plea.

Until Monday's report, Craig was facing a lone credible accuser. Rogers told the Statesman he had lost track of his other two sources, who he said described encounters with the senator, one in Idaho and one in Seattle. Rogers concedes he doesn't know those two sources' last names. "I was an amateur," he told the Statesman.

The Statesman followed dozens of leads about alleged sexual partners. Two prevalent rumors swirl around two men who are dead. The Statesman has found no written record of sexual intimacy between those men and Craig. Relatives of those men are dead, unaware of proof to substantiate the rumors, or unreachable.

Two other alleged partners unequivocally denied having been intimate with Craig. Other accounts are simply unfounded. Some were inconclusive.

There are, however, the two men who told the Statesman Craig made passes at them. Craig denied those accounts in his May 14 interview.

So, then... There still appears to be someone out there in Seattle who talked to Mike Rogers last fall about Larry Craig and know a whole lot more about this story. But then, there are also some who still doubted the stories:

Last fall, Craig's neighbors at a Washington marina expressed disbelief at Rogers' attempt to out him. Ed Johnson is an openly gay man, former local elected official and has been an acquaintance and neighbor of Craig's off and on for 15 years. He is president of the Gangplank Slipholders Association, a neighbor to the smaller Capital Yacht Club, where Craig lives.

A Democrat, Johnson works for the American Humanists Association, which he describes as "the godless, liberal, left-wing atheists."

"If I thought there was truth to the rumor, I'd be first in line to out him," said Johnson, who agrees hypocritical public officials should be exposed.

"But after 15 years in a close-knit community where everybody knows everybody's business, to be that clandestine and never have anything said ? it's just hard to imagine. I mean, if somebody has a fight and breaks up with their boyfriend or girlfriend, you know it the next day."

Labels: Idaho, politics