Again…

CNN News Editor: "What's that? The market is up nearly 350 points?!"

"Quick! Run that Larry Craig story!"

“There’s been a lot of favorable talk about Larry in the cloak room," Craig told CNN."

So that's what they talk about in the Senate Cloakroom. I'd always wondered. Do they have stalls?

It just gives me the warm & fuzzies when the GOP rallies around a blatant - and convicted - hypocrite. Seems like old times, doesn't it?

I wonder if thay apology was in morris, I mean, toe code..

Why would someone pled guilty to a crime they didn't commit? Especially a Senator who is well aware (or should be) of the laws.

Here you have someone saying they didn't understand the legalaties of their actions. Reconcile that with their job being to make and pass laws?!

The two don't add up. This smells of someone with power trying to get off. Pardon the pun.

All you with blinkers: "Get over yourselves, darlings".

Unanswered questions remain: we know of one incident when the Senator was arrested for indecency in a public place, how many times has he had anonymous sex with men before he was caught and arrested? He is not fit to be a public servant.

A good lawyer _might_ have won dismissal of the case if it weren't final after a guilty plea. The "underlying crime" was illegal solicitation of sex in a public place after complaints of that very thing. Go away and be gay elsewhere.

Yes, he will be found "innocent". Then he can stay in the Senate and fight to stop gay marriage. After all, if gays were allowed to marry, then Craigs actions might be considered adultry. But since marriage is between a man and a woman, his bathroom fun would not be adultry. Shall we call it recreaction.

Craig should just go away, this man writes the laws of this nation, and now he says he fails to understand
them, this is not the kind of man I
would want to represent me in any way, gay or not… he does not belong in the senate…

The direction this story has taken is just amazing. The debate seems to be that Senator Craig is gay and wouldn't have been in that bathroom if gays weren't so forced to hide their sexual orientation. Also, we're supposed to feel sorry for him because the police allegedly entrapped him. How outrageous. How about the plain and simple fact that he was preparing to have sex in a public place? Last time I checked, such behavior was against the law and psychiatrists referred to such conduct as a sign of serious mental problems. I don't care if he's straight, gay or bisexual. Have we lost all of our commen sense in this country?

It will be great to see him get beaten in the 2008 election if he does manage to hang on thru this storm.

Nothing like taking the rest of the crew down with this sinking ship…….

If he apologizes to homosexuals, being that he is one and has been such a jerk to them, then he MAY regain some credibility.

Fat chance. It's Denial City for the Idaho redneck.

It's not the crime or lack thereof, Hatch, you liar, it's his and your hypocrisy, slamming homosexuals constantly, trying to enact unAmerican laws against them, dividing the nation with such religious extremist drivel, THEN we find out the guy's been a homosexual all along.

Get it? Because people like you, Hatch, and Specter, DON'T get it - the reason why the shrinking Republican party will all but disappear next year.

Yeah, please, welcome Larry back. Keep showing America what lying hypocrites you are.

So is Specter saying that regardless of one's actions if your an old bud then no problem. Forget the fact that they are their for the people, right?

No underlying crime? You mean like the crime you send people to jail for every single day like smoking pot Senator? To me a perv in a men's bathroom soliciting sex is far more disturbing than all the pot smoked by anyone on that day. Yet you see no underlying crime? Hypocrits!!

Statements like those just go to show they are their for themselves only.

Don't go get all happy eyed Dems your group is no better then the Repubs.

This is why we need term limits!

Hatch also said he thinks that "a good lawyer could win that case.”

But of course, good lawyers that knew how to manipulate our sorry justice system got OJ off too!

Nice to see the repubs circling the wagons. I never understood why they tossed Craig anyway since it was man on man sex. Not like he was with a woman like Clinton.

That's cute. The market is up 350 points today? Big deal. It'll be down 500 points tomorrow. It's good to see that some of the Repubs are showing courage and support for a friend, even a hypocritical one.

I guess the lesson here is that, as long as you're surrounded by your cronies and you stay out of the media for some time, you can get away with anything. The lunatic Republicans supporting him are actually saying to the public that it's OK to be be an elitist, hypocritical Senator and attempt to have gay sex in public restrooms, and get away with it all too.

Oh, and Arlen Specter should probably wash his hands with hot soapy water after touching Larry Craig.

if craig was a democrat, the republicans would still be all over it. but you remember how they all gather around and bless one of their own.it seems that no rebublican can do no wrong.no matter what he does. the whole gop is rotten to the core. this gut has been at the feed trough of the tax payers for 17 years. there should be term limits of at least two terms, like the predisent. also with the supreme court. they get to feed at the trough for life.

The entire Republican party are hypocrites. It Craig was a democrat, the repubs would persecute him. Now they welcome him back with a luncheon. Aren't they supposed to be agains gays? Repubs only want what makes them happy at that very moment.

*“There’s been a lot of favorable talk about Larry in the cloak room," Specter told CNN*

bwahahahaaha!!!!!Priceless!!

The whole, entire thing, everyone involved, is just about the most disgusting story ever.

Eric from Texas: the whole perception of the media as leftist is a false myth, but a brilliant one. All media in the world is owned by only five major corporations now.I doubt these mega-businesses share liberal philosophies. No, they're traditional conservatives, and instead of blatantly espousing their viewpoints in all of their outlets, they save that for a select few, then created the liberal media myth in order to balance out the rest of their publications and outlets. But are some papers and tv stations really that "liberal"? No, not at all, at least not anymore. And they're going nowhere in that direction anytime soon. If the general media is constantly criticized by mainstream America for being too left, the natural progression is for them to correct that by moving center and slightly right in the long run. So, at one point we are looking forward to conservative administrations, conservative big businesses, and conservative media reporting. Bright future folks!

Senator Craig is an absolute disgrace and so is any politician who supports him. His sexual preference is not the issue — his behavior and conduct are the issue. His public restroom antics are not befitting of any decent human being, notwithstanding a Congressman. If the public permits his continued stature as a Senator, we are sending a very poor message about what we expect from our elected representatives. In my opinion, Senator Craig is an embarrassment to this country and if we let him continue to serve as a Senator, the US public is an even bigger embarrassment.

It sounds like Senators Spector and Hatch spend a lot of time talking about Larry in the cloak room. They proclaim family values, but value power over values.

He's sorry he's gay? He's sorry he's a hypocrite? He's sorry he's stupid enough to plead guilty and drag his name even further through the mud?

Disgusting stuff. I can't believe that they are welcoming this guy back with open arms. I wonder what else goes on in the "cloak room" Arlen?

Apology not accepted. he lied hos way out of the page scandel. Not again.

Citizen Larry Craig go home and stay
there / too late!
MO'C

It would have been more appropriate for Specter to have said "there's been a lot of favorable talk about Larry in the closet."

He apologized to Republican Senators for "any embarrassment" but not Democratic Senators……….hmmm…is he implying that Democrats favor public bathroom sex and therefore see no embarrassment in this travesty? What a jerk….I feel sorry for his wife and kids. And the GOP plank in their platform is that they represent the "moral values" of this country?? Does any American still buy into this crap? If so, I can only say God punishes the stupid.

I'm confused. Republican solicits heterosexual sex and everything is cool. Republican solicits gay sex, they distance themselves. Truly pathetic.

I think Hatch meant to say "a good LIAR could win that case." Craig is sorry he embarrassed his political friends, not that he was caught and pleaded guilty to make the story go away. Wide stance? Only if he had his shorts and pants OFF or was riding the toilet side saddle. Last time my pants were around my ankles it was very difficult to spread my legs the width of a stall or anything else. I am sorry, but Craig is getting as laughable as Brittany Spears and the rest of the west coast liars' pack. Sad how the truth keeps getting lost…

Sad that this story has so many comments, and the one above about a timeline for withdrawal has none…the old bait and switch at work again-is Rove hiding in that cloakroom?

Mr. Craig, you have to stand up for yourself, stay in the senate, and run again in 2008. Let the people you represent decide.

The man is a disgrace, period. Like the police officer said, as Craig responded to his questions with his bizzaro explanations, "embarrassing, embarrasing."

I don't care what the guy is or isn't re: sexual orientation. Not my business. But he is an eleced public servant and his behavior throughout this sordid episode is another embarrassing, shameful example of the people sitting in our Congress.
Retire already and spare us additional hypocritical denials, embarrassment, and BS. THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY AINT THAT STUPID ANYMORE. (God willing).

Hmmm. How strange, the rightwing leemings go on for years debasing Kerry's service but run to the aid of Craig the Hypocrite. The trained monkeys beat their chest and proclaim all they have heard on Fox and hate radio to be gospel. No wonder your party is moving towards insignificance. Whiners make the best minority party.

Hmmmm, A good Lawyer got O.J. off too, did that mean he was innocent?

We Dems may not be perfect but we are alot more diverse & understanding than the Republicans who claim to be so self righteous, are so judgemental, they also think that whatever their view on something is that you must see things just as they do or you are unamerican or not a christian, I see them as hypocrites both Spector & Hatch…

As they say "Sorry don't feed the bulldog."

Resign.

Sen. Orrin Hatch: "I don’t think there was any underlying crime."

Dear Sen. Hatch, how and why did Sen. Craig plead guilty, then?

Who cares if actually committed a crime! The fact is that he tried to hide his conviction by guilty plea from the Senate Ethics Committee, and the American People, because he thought as a US Senator, he could get away with it. That's utterly dishonest, unethical, and the epitome of the crime of abuse of power. Whether or not he's gay, or was soliciting bathroom sex is immaterial. He's a slimeball for lying through omission about what happened. And for that, he should be booted and expelled from the Senate.

Doug, from Los Angeles CA wrote:

"the whole perception of the media as leftist is a false myth, but a brilliant one. All media in the world is owned by only five major corporations now."

Sweetheart, rest your little head, for you clearly are in over it.

I was a journalism major in college and worked for a couple of papers for a number of years. I know these people like the back of my hand, because I was one of them. There was not a Conservative among us and we all thought Bill Clinton was the Second Coming (no pun intended).

Did you see the recent poll of the 100 most influential journalists and their political donations? I swear the donations were literally 90-plus percent to Democrats, if not higher.

Yes, most press/media operations are owned my major corporations. However, the parent corporation has little if anything to do with the daily news content. That's decided by the news editors. I mean, the Seagrams Company (producer of "adult beverages") is a shareholder of Time-Warner, and also owns a majority of MCA Records, but the parent company Seagrams doesn't tell MCA which artists to recruit and promote, or even HOW to do it.

Folks, the process of simply choosing WHICH stories will run (and where or when) in a media outlet can be impacted by bias. "Let's see, front page stories.. we can drag out another silly Larry Craig story with some footsy in the john or run this recent story of yet another felon sending huge sums of dirty campaing cash to Hillary Clinton's campaign… Craig on Page 1, above the fold and bury the Clinton story on page 53, under the ad for self-adhesive toupees."

Honestly, ask a journalist the name of the last Conservative he/she voted for. You'll be stunned by the silence, if said journalist doesn't slug you for the "insult."

Dems are so angry….so very angry…did the DNC tell you to be this angry….or did you think of it all by yourself? (who am I kidding..of course it was the DNC….or MoveOn…you people don't think for yourselves)

'got a meetin' in the ladi..hades room, COME BACK REAL SOON…'