So here is what disgraced Senator Larry Craig did. He placed his bag down in front of the airport bathroom door. He went tap, tap, tap with his foot. He reached over with his left hand and touched the leg of the fellow in the next stall. After that he did...well, nothing. The officer confronted him and accused him of soliciting, and Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid the fine.
Here, to get a little perspective, is what Congressman Barney Frank did several years ago. He answered a personal ad in the Washington Blade in which a male prostitute, Stephen Gobie, drew public attention to his "hot bottom" and "large endowment." Frank began to pay Gobie for sex and even invited Gobie to move in with him. When the arrangement soured, Gobie revealed to the press that he had been running a full-service prostitution ring out of Frank's Capitol Hill apartment.
Why then is Craig on the ropes while Frank continues as a Congressman in good standing? Certainly the difference isn't homosexuality, which seems to be a common factor in both cases. Nor can the explanation be found in the gravity of the offense involved. Craig's is much less serious, since the worst he did was proposition another adult to have sex, not exactly the first time in history that this has happened. Frank, by contrast, was employing a male hooker for paid favors and providing operating facilities for a D.C. prostitution ring.
I suppose the difference is that Craig has been a champion of moral values--which makes him vulnerable to the charge of hypocrisy--while Frank is a libertine which means he gets to do as he pleases. (Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy are also given free passes for similar reasons.) Another difference, as far as the mainstream media is concerned, is that Craig is a Republican. If you're looking for two-faced people who abuse their power, Craig may not be the greatest offender here.
Reader Comments ( Page 11 of 12)
151. Easy answer: Barney Frank is a Democrat/liberal. There is a severe double standard. Republicans resign, democrats get re-elected.
Glenn A. Townsend at 5:22PM on Sep 3rd 2007
152. Interesting point. Its the republicans that are dragging Craig down with hate talk. I guess that they are so used to it. Then they do thier usual trick which is to attack someone else regardless if there is anything in common with the two situations. Then they fill themselves with pride instead of shame. How can they be so mean and stupid? How can they not feel shame?
Steve Seivers at 5:29PM on Sep 3rd 2007
153. Actually what Barney was doing with his pay for play sex toy was illegal. As far as I know prostitution in DC is illegal - well at least that which involves selling sex - not congressman selling out to lobbyists and PACs. Politicians - Democrat, Republican, whatever are generally the scum of the earth. The Republicans take it up a notch tho because they pretend to be the godly center of family moral values. However anyone who has been remotely involved with politics know that Republicans are just as big coke snorting, prostitution using (male, female, k9), congressional aid (once again male, female, k9) sexing amoral bottom dwellers as the Democrats. Craig is a prime example of this, playing the typical Gays are a affront against god Republican BS while being squarely in the closet or in this case the public bathroom stall. He has to go because he doesn’t fit the republican image. Barney on the other hand is an out of the closet Democratic fruitcake from Massachusetts.
The system needs to change and it will, one way or the other -No more government for Big Business by Big Business.
David427 at 5:34PM on Sep 3rd 2007
154.
It's easy. Republicans hate gays, lesbians, transsexuals, bisexuals, pre-martial sex, adulterous sex, hate, hate hate.... And they think all that stuff is morally wrong.. a sin, sin, sin.
Democrats could care less what people do if it is between consenting adults and is legal.
Barney Franks never ran a prostitution ring, his roommate did, and it was never proved Franks was involved.
Republicans should trying minding their own business, they would a lot happier.
Bad news,.. another Republican, state of Florida, caught doing a tap dance in the restroom... hate, hate, hate...sin, sin, sin!
Why was Craig forced to resign and not Vitter?
Foley was neither charged nor had admitted quilt when he was forced to resign, so his case compares to Vitter.
I quess not all Republican sins are equal.
Gay = resignation
Pedophile = resignation
Hiring hetero prostitutes = an insincere apology
Cheating with consenting adult hetero = impeachment
Sexual harassment employee at work = zero
Services of gay male prostitute running in and out of White House = not yet disclosed
Cheating on wife 3 times = run for President
cdnbirch at 6:27PM on Sep 3rd 2007
155. This is typical Dinesh. He ignores the fact that Frank is openly gay, while Craig insists that he is not gay and has never been gay. He ignores the fact that Frank has never been arrested for soliciting anonymous sex in a public restroom, and by now, just about everyone knows that Craig was arrested for doing just that -- soliciting anonymous sex in a public restroom.
Chuck Long at 8:43PM on Sep 3rd 2007
156. The real difference here is that Craig, was putting himself out as a moral beacon against immoral behavior. In the scheme of things ,lest we not forget that bringing such attention to one's self requires living up to the standards that you espouse. Someone who conducts himself in such a way deserves to be hoisted up by his own pittard when caught acting in an uncompromising fashion.
As for the Democrats who don't believe that Barney Frank did anything wrong, solicting sex and from a prostitute is illegal. As is allowing someone to run an illegal sex operation out of your owned property. Just because the people of MA have elected Frank repeatedly after such behavior, we should be careful to mistake that selection as an endorsement of his bahavior. Let us also remember that Bill Clinton was impeached for lying before a Federal Grand Jury, not for having sex with an intern. The political machine as career for most of these politicians has absolutely corrupted the system past the point of redemption. How we should long for early days of the gentlemen farmer who answered the call to serve and then went home and resumed his life.........
Daniel D. at 8:54PM on Sep 3rd 2007
157. The hyprocrisy certainly doesn't start and end with Barney Frank or Larry Craig. Some may remember Gerry Studds, from Connecticut who was 'censured' (oh, how harsh!) by the Democrats, who were in power at that time also, not for soliciting homosexual sex, but actually doing the real deal with an underage (that's a teenager) page. He was, as a Democrat, of course re-elected by his consitituents, back when homosexuals didn't come out of the closet, because it was wrong back then. Of course, homosexual conduct isn't wrong anymore, right? Studds never had any reason to resign, he was a Democrat and Democrats don't do wrong or at last can't admit it (William Jefferson, D-LA, with ~$90,000 in marked bills from a sting operation in his freezer--does that ring a bell?), notwithstanding a couple of 'alleged' ethics violations by former Speakers of the House Wright and Foley (remember the House Post Office scandal?--I didn't think so). When Studds finally admitted what he did, he was defiantly proud of his 'relationship' with the page and just because it was against the law, why would anyone expect that he would be charged or indicted or convicted--he was, let's be clear a Democrat. When Mark Foley, R-FL, was revealed to have sent e-mails that flowed with salacious content, he was forced to resign. I don't condone what he did--as a matter of fact I find it despicable--but there was no law broken, was there? There were no allegations of actual doing the deal, tight? I didn't think so. The duplicity, chutzpah and hypocrisy of the left continue to amaze me--why I don't know--you'd think I'd be able to get over it by now and come to expect it with the complicity of the leftist media trollops. Clinton's lying under oath, that's perjury, for you folks from Rio Linda--cost him his law license--whoopee! Scooter Libby's taking the bullet for lying under oath, perjury--cost him a conviction and $250,000 fine by a prosecutor who brought the case through indictment to conviction when he knew all along that Scooter Libby didn't out Valerie Plame in the first place. The only real crime surrounding the Valerie Plame fiasco was the lies she and her unscrupulous leftist sycophant husband, former 'Ambassador' Joe Wilson told and got away with--she did recommend/send him, and there were attempts to procure yellowcake from Niger. Let's not forget the infamous Sandy Burglar (Berger) who got a $10,000 fine for theft of (at least) secret documents from the National Archives to preclude the 9/11 Commission from determing the level of complicity of the Clinton administration officials' gross incompetence in the Osama bin Laden fiasco, because he 'forgot' that he stuffed them down his socks and pants on the way out of the secure area. By the way, why did he have clearance to classified documents in the first place? He was no longer the National Security Advisor--well he never was that--he was another political hack protecting Bill Clinton. We never found out what was so darned important that Bill Clinton would make him take the bullet for such a strange set of circumstances--almost makes you wonder all over again about Vince Foster, futures trading, Whitewater, billing records appearing mysteriously immediately after the statute of limitations expired, Global Crossing, etc., doesn't it?
Al at 9:12PM on Sep 3rd 2007
158. You cannot be serious. Can you really not understand why Larry Craig resigned while Barney Frank is still in office? The reason Larry Craig had to resign isn't because what he did was so horrible. Hell, I doubt if it was even illegal (if he had fought the charges, I suspect he would have won). He would certainly not have resigned if all of his fellow Republicans hadn't pressured him to resign.
Why did his colleagues pressure him to resign? Because he was an abject embarrassment! How could one possibly get any more hypocritical? He made a career out of gay-bashing. There can be no better poetic justice than voting against giving gays job protection, then losing your job for being in the closet!
I don't think anyone cares about the "disorderly conduct" per se. The real issue is not the moment of poor judgment in the rest room. The issue is living an entire life as a two-faced liar--to his constituents, his family, and the nation. He's like a Jewish guard at a Nazi concentration camp; he's made a career of demonizing his own.
His entire life has been such an embarrassment of hypocrisy that I don't understand how he can look at himself in the mirror and not throw up. Certainly his fellow Republicans probably want to throw up when they see his face. That's why they pushed him to resign. What could be more embarrassing?
IT'S NOT THE CRIME. IT'S THE HYPOCRISY!
P.S. The reason Barney Frank is still in office is that he was re-elected. It's called Democracy. Imagine that.
Belgo at 11:15PM on Sep 3rd 2007
159. By the way, in another example of poetic justice, do you remember that then Rep. Larry Craig was the only member of the committee to urge censure, rather than reprimand for Barney Frank over the matter to which you referred?
Belgo at 11:16PM on Sep 3rd 2007
160. Read the police report. Craig stood in the stall for two minutes and peered through the door to see the officer. Two minutes in front of a stall staring inside a stall??? After that, Craig goes into the toilet (which had been empty) and promptly plays footsie with the officer and the reaches under the stall to grab ... whatever. Any one who says Craig wasn't out for sex either hasn't read the complete police report or is in total denial. As for Barney Frank, yeah, he screwed up, but he didn't know that the guy had turned his apartment into a brothel. It was a different age then, Dinesh buddy... in today's world, Frank would have had to resign. Frank's problem happened before the Republicans let an investigation of a land deal turn into a tawdry sex scandal with cigars and blow jobs...And by the way....remember Ronald Reagan, the live and let live guy who never bashed gay people??? Your hero??? Gay bashing didn't become popular among Republicans until they let those right wing nuts like Robertson and Falwell take over.
alan at 12:26AM on Sep 4th 2007
161. 104. It is safe to assume, Democrat's also have hero's. Their hero qualifications are completely opposit of the adverage Republican idea of hero. Ted Kennedy,(murderer, drunk, rapist)has been re-elected since the begining of time. It is no wonder, their party is stacked with criminals. The Democrat's keep their degenerates, with pride.
sharon at 2:25PM on Sep 2nd 2007
Just a question Sharon.....who exactly did Ted Kennedy murder or rape?
Ventrue at 5:27PM on Sep 4th 2007
162. Ventrue:
Completely off-topic, but I've been hoping to see you on one of these other blogs :) If you haven't already been there:
http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2007/08/03/pro-lifes-latest-gambit-paternal-consent/14#c6928990
I've got some new opinions and thoughts for you to debunk. It's been a while...
Blessed Be.
lin at 5:41PM on Sep 4th 2007
163. "We never found out what was so darned important that Bill Clinton would make him take the bullet for such a strange set of circumstances--almost makes you wonder all over again about Vince Foster, futures trading, Whitewater, billing records appearing mysteriously immediately after the statute of limitations expired, Global Crossing, etc., doesn't it?" -Al at 9:12PM on Sep 3rd 2007 Post #153
Only if you're a right wing whacko.
For your personal edification, let me inform you that Clinton's lie was not considered perjury by anyone who knows the definition of the term.
Secondly, Studds did not have to resign because unlike conservative Republicans, Democrats don't generally make a career out of pandering to anti-gay bigots. As you can see, the so-called party of family values has no problem allowing a whoremonger like David Vitter retain his seat.
In the third place, if Dubbie thought "Scooter" was railroaded, why didn't he pardon him completely rather than simply commute his sentence, hmmm?
Finally, why do you feel it necessary to excuse the wrongdoings of people who until very recently were in office by recounting allegations against people who are long since out of office?
Ventrue at 5:47PM on Sep 4th 2007
164. Because Barney Frank is a Liberal Democrat, and they get, and have always receved a free pass from the media. Even if you are busted running a gay male prostitute service out of your house, on Tax payers money.
LtCurry at 8:17PM on Sep 4th 2007
165. In Dinesh D'Souza's parallel universe, a closeted self-hating gay conservative who gives blow jobs in public lavatories even as he casts pernicious anti-gay votes 100% of the time is a "champion of moral values."
The Third Reich also tolerated those Jews who saddled with their own anti-semitism, worked with their oppressors against their own.
In the end, however, cooperation in party-line hatred has its limits.
dcjdjay at 2:50PM on Sep 6th 2007