Larry Craig is NOT GAY!

So the story on this has shifted in the media from the facts to the sound bytes, and the one that is sticking is:

"I should not have kept this arrest to myself, and should have told my family and friends about it. I wasn't eager to share this failure, but I should have done so anyway because I'm not gay."

Story in brief, in case you missed the first two minutes of coverage and are at a loss on why this guy is so emphatically defending his sexual orientation, is that Craig was arrested on June 11 after an incident in a Minneapolis airport restroom.

Apparently Craig was rolled into a sting operation that was being conducted by the police to catch men using this particular bathroom to commit "lewd acts." Edward Morrissey gives a great synopsis of the arresting officer's statements on Captain's Quarters.

So, why is this such a big deal?

• First, everyone knows that if you tap your right foot in a men's room, you are looking for sexual favors... right? The story itself is vague enough to make the details irrelevant and still allow room for the media to paint this highly conservative Senator as a creep. After all, there is no need to bog down a great headline with the details of the story. Key words: sex scandal. They always make great press.
  

• Second, Craig's conduct upon arrest was pompous and obnoxious. Apparently, the Senator passed the arresting officer a business card to prove that he was in fact a Senator. Of course, no one wants to face the fact that this is standard procedure for our leaders in this country and that one of the perks of public office is the VIP treatment. Public officials receive special treatment every day. But Craig is being chastised for expecting to receive what Kat Williams would refer to as a "hook up."
  

• Finally, we should be looking at Craig's advisers on this one and questioning their judgment. After all, this botched political strategy most likely killed Craig's career. Craig did not go public after his arrest. Instead he went to court on the matter over the summer, plead guilty and prayed the whole thing would go away. Unfortunately for him, it didn't. It came out from under Craig's rug three months later with a neon sign attached to the front of it that flashes with the word "SCANDAL."

So why is the media focusing attention on the sex and Craig's sexual orientation? The American public might like sensationalism, but they are trained for it. We might enjoy stories about sex, but we are conditioned for that too. But story does have legs of its own, and they are being ignored.

If coverage of this story emphasized the fact that Craig was allegedly abusing his position to escape arrest, and that he shunned his duty as a civil servant by not being forthright about his arrest, Craig's constituents would have been equally harsh on the Senator and the image of political leadership in America would not have been tarnished with yet another sex scandal.

Instead, this has become a media assault on the purity of the Republican party which bears the public label of the "party of conservative moral values."