Craig: Romney 'threw me under the campaign bus'
Craig is not happy with how the Romney campaign treated him.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sen. Larry Craig, the Idaho Republican caught in a Minneapolis bathroom sex sting this summer, said presidential candidate Mitt Romney "threw me under the campaign bus" when news of his arrest came out.
"He not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again," Craig told NBC's Matt Lauer in an interview set to air later this week on the "Today" show.
Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, said Craig's behavior was "disgraceful" and called for Craig's resignation when news of the senator’s arrest came out at the end of August. (Ticker: Romney: Craig has to look at his conscience)
Craig was Romney's Senate liaison before resigning from the campaign.
Romney spokesman Kevin Madden defended the presidential candidate's response. "Governor Romney simply believes that a public office is a public trust," Madden said. "He believes when a public official enters a guilty plea, they have broken that public trust and should step aside for the sake of their constituents."
Related: Sen. Craig says he'll appeal
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No surprise there. Craig has blamed everyone else for his problems ever since he got nailed. Wonder whom he blames next, and for what.
All the Hillary fans must be delighted to see Craig keeping this thing in the forefront. He's a real asset to the Democratic party.
...and to think this Craig's supposed to be a "decision maker"?!! One moment he says he's guilty, the next moment innocent, next he did it voluntarily, next under coercion, next he's not running again, next he's running again, next he's been railroaded to plead guilty, next he's appealing his guilty plea.
Good grief! Just walk away and close the door, fer' Pete's sake! Lord knows, the rest of us want to forget you!
Larry how does it feel.You have thrown the civil rights of millions of Americans under the bus.But to show you were the other side is different iI donate to the ACLU and am glad they have taken up your case.No one not even a hypocrite like you should have his civil rights taken away.
Better under the campaign bus than under the boys-will-be-boys stall!
Rodney Dallas TX
Things happen at airports.
One time, I noticed a small boy peeping under every toilet booth and irritating the users.
Another time I happened to notice a man baging toilet booths in an airpoprt. Maybe someone reported.
But stuff does happen at airports and coincidently, it just happens that Sen. Craig ended up annoying Officer Craig.
So what's the big deal. Grow up RODDDNEEEY!
Currently: 5 comments on "Windshield Cowboy" Bush, 34 on Craig coming out of the stall. Shows you what the mostly-American public is concerned about in this political season.
Larry, I understand charmin is taking applications for a new spokesperson to replace the little bears. Will your wide stance hinder you from hiding behind the tree to take care of business?
Rodney Dallas TX
My earlier comment should have read as follows:
Things happen at airports.
One time, I noticed a small boy peeping under every toilet booth and irritating the users.
Another time I happened to notice a man banging toilet booths in an airpoprt. Maybe someone reported.
But stuff does happen at airports and coincidently, it just happens that Sen. Craig ended up annoying Officer Dave.
So what's the big deal. Grow up RODDDNEEEY!
I SEE THAT CHRIS, FROM MIDDLETOWN. CT. STILL HASEN'T SEEN A SHRINK YET.
Does receiving oral sex from a man make you gay? Does not having anal sex with a man make you not gay??
Oh the confusion within abominations…
No "mistakes" being made here.
Imagine this, there is another network besides CNN and the network just for ideology purposes kept on bringing up the same OLD story in a "multitude of needless variations" just to appease their supposed audience.
And in the joy of hammering one party over and over, they neglect stories that may negatively reflect the other party. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Blonde bimbo Ann Coulter, a writer and publicity hound is posted on the political ticker, but not corrupt DEMOCRATIC POLITICIANS from NJ.
That Mayor disappearing for two weeks had some juice to it, but got ignored anyway.
Believe me, I went to jounalism school and I understand the dynamics of the business, but you would be the first one to take that network to task in this forum for not reporting all the news and I would be right with you.
This is pretty much the only forum to easily praise the network (I have done so before) or take them to task, and I choose to do so, but not expecting them to change.
As for Romney's "disgrace", what the bleep was he supposed to do?
If he leaves him on his staff, that will dog him big time and the coverage of HIM keeping Craig on his staff would have been relentless.
Craig pled guilty and Romney did the correct thing, there was no "gray area" here, the guy pled guilty.
Sorry that common sense by Romney doesn't sound as cynical as him doing it to appease right-wing, christian, bible thumpers as some would spout, but that is what happened.
Though I agree wih some of your points David, I wholly disagree with Romney catching any heat for his rightful decision.
If the guy was just charged and there was a case pending, then I could see someone saying he "may" have done this for other purposes, but he pled guilty and keeping him would be political suicide.
The senator was setup like most sting operations they are "SETUP", if it is for drugs, gay sex, child porn, etc it is a setup to catch someone doing something illegal in this case the senator was looking for gay sex got caught pled guilty to a lesser charge...the strange thing about this situation is that the senator is from a true RED state just like the red state of SC where I live and the people don't seem to really care. WHY because he SPITS out the right wing message that they want to hear otherwise they would be marching the streets in protest...
Craig does have a point. This does say a lot about what the Romney Regime will be like. It was well known throughout Washington that Criag, the staunch anti-gay, had some sexual "issues." Yet Romney was a little TOO BUSY to background check or too stupid to care. All he saw was a fellow Gay-basher. And when Craig got caught, Romney did everything he could to dump him and move on.
As President, who else will Romney get us in bed with without thinking or caring?
I'm tired of hearing this jerk and seeing him on the news; the only part of it than makes me smile is that I know the longer he continues with his charade, the more damage he does to himself and to his party. I wonder why the people of Idaho are even willing to put up with him.
"He not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again," Craig told NBC's Matt Lauer.
When he came back to see if I was alright he bent down and gave me mouth to mouth.
Well that's what it looked like.
He had every reason to do so, I believe any other candidate would have done the same thing, whether they were running for president or not...
I think all you posters have it a bit wrong about Larry's intentions. Larry got caught red "footed" and admitted to his transgressions. Now the GOP want him out of the limelight BUT, they don't offer him anything in return to resign SO, Larry is going to stay in the news UNTIL some GOP person PAYS him to leave! GET IT!!!!
Margie Cline – Wilmington, DE
lying and corrupting the judicial process for personal gain
I don't think Craig has lied about resigning, he said: "...it is my INTENT to resign..."
Also, as for corrupting the judicial process, nope there is a law in Minnesota that allows people to rescind their guilty plea. So really if this corruption of the judicial process bothers you, you should take it up with the state of Minnesota. Like any other American, he is due his day in court.
Chris, Middletown, CT
I looked up the man you mentioned, Saul Alinsky, who is often credited with laying the foundation for the grassroots political organizing that dominated the 1960s. Hillary wrote a thesis about him in college, but she was never a student of his, as you alluded to in your post (at least, I’m assuming that you were alluding to her). Also, I couldn’t find out “what big government program he is working on,” as he has been dead for over 30 years. Please cite your source on this, I’m intrigued.
Tom – Dedham, Mass
I agree, Romney did the right thing to toss Craig, it would have been political suicide to keep on the staff. Any other intelligent politician, no matter what party, would have done the same thing. As for your assertion that “Republicans toss the dirt bags out,” I don’t think that has always been the case. For example, David Vitter is a dirt bag for soliciting prostitution on several occasions. The GOP won’t toss him out because they don’t want to lose a seat in the Senate. Dan Burton was forced to admit that he fathered an out-of-wedlock child, a fact he denied for years.