Gay sex scandal Senator invited to the White House
Beleaguered Republican politician Larry Craig was an official guest at the White House yesterday.
The Senator from Idaho, who denies he is gay despite a conviction for cruising for sex in an airport toilet, was invited to watch President Bush sign a new energy bill into law.
Several other members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, were also at the White House for the ceremony.
Earlier this month Senator Craig denied that he had sex with several men over the last two decades.
He has been under pressure to resign since it emerged he pleaded guilty to cruising in a public toilet.
He was arrested on June 11th by an undercover police officer in a Minneapolis airport toilet who said the lawmaker had engaged in conduct “often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct.”
Minutes after his arrest for lewd conduct, Craig, 62, denied soliciting for sex, saying “I’m not gay. I don’t do these kinds of things,” according to an audio tape released by police.
He denied that he had used foot and hand gestures to signal interest in a sexual encounter.
Despite a pledge to resign, he later announced he would challenge his guilty plea and claimed that he admitted to the charge in a panic to avoid triggering a story about his sexuality in his hometown newspaper.
Now that paper has published detailed accounts from several men of sexual encounters with Senator Craig.
One of the men, Mike Jones, is a male prostitute who brought the career of homophobic preacher Ted Haggard to an end by revealing they had a sexual relationship. He made his claims about the Senator in October.
“David Phillips is a 42-year-old information technology consultant in Washington, DC who says Craig picked him up at a gay club in 1986 and that they subsequently had sex,” reported The Idaho Statesman.
“Greg Ruth was a 24-year-old college Republican in 1981 when he says he was hit on by Craig at a Republican meeting in Coeur d’Alene.
“Tom Russell, now 48, is a former Nampa resident who lives in Utah. Russell said his encounter with Craig occurred at Bogus Basin in the early 1980s.
“A fifth gay man, who is from Boise but who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, offered a recent and telling account.
“He was in a men’s restroom at Denver International Airport in September 2006 when the man in the next stall moved his hand slowly, palm up, under the divider.
“Alarmed, the man said he waited outside the restroom and then identified the man in the adjoining stall as Craig, whom he had met in Idaho.”
The Idaho Statesman said that four of the men were willing to go on record about their encounters and that the paper has carried out “reviews of travel and property records and background checks on all five men.”
In a statement Senator Craig said:
“Like its previous coverage, these latest allegations are completely false and have no basis in reality.
“I won’t let this paper’s attempt to malign my name stop me from continuing my work to serve the people of Idaho.”
Craig has been denying his is gay since 1982, when he issued a denial that he was involved in a scandal over gay sex between Congressmen and underage pages, despite the fact that he had not been publicly implicated. He married a year later.
In October, appearing on TV alongside his wife, the 62-year-old Republican politician was asked by NBC correspondent Matt Lauer:
“Are you technically not a homosexual? Is it possible you’re bisexual?”
The Senator replied: “It’s no to both.”
Mrs Craig was also questioned by Mr Lauer about her husband’s sexuality.
She admitted she did some “soul searching” after she found out about the bathroom incident, but said:
“I honestly believe my husband has always been faithful to me in every way.”
She also dealt with persistent press rumours about her husband having secret homosexual life, describing an incident when journalists coming to her home asking for comment after a man had claimed to have had sex with the Senator in Washington’s Union Station.
“I knew immediately it was not the truth, because the description he gave of Larry in some areas that only I might know about were wrong on three counts.”
Asked about his hostile voting record on gay rights, he said: “I don’t approve of the lifestyle.”
He first announced he intended to resign by September 30th, then said he was reconsidering.
He later said he would wait until after his appeal against his guilty plea was heard.
Senator Craig then announced that despite the court decision against him he will remain in the Senate until the end of his term – another 18 months.
He was a member of the House of Representatives before winning his first Senate term in 1990.
