08/30/2007
Rep. Barney Frank Comments on Larry Craig's Arrest
For all our Larry Craig coverage, click here.
Openly gay Rep. Barney Frank gave an interview to the Associated Press about Senator Larry Craig's guilty plea and his recent lewd conduct arrest in a Minneapolis airport restroom. Frank does not feel that Craig should resign.
Said Frank: "What he did, it's hypocritical, but it's not an abuse of his office in the sense that he was taking money for corrupt votes. I think people should resign when they have clearly done the job in a way that is dishonest. It's one thing to say that someone can't be trusted to vote without being corrupt, it's another to say that he can't be trusted to go to the bathroom by himself....This is the hypocrisy -- it's to deny legal equality to gay people, but then to engage in gay behavior."
Frank also called Craig's denial that he is guilty "implausible". Said Frank: He called Craig's denial "implausible," given the facts of the case. "The normal reaction if you are falsely accused is indignation, not submission, particularly if you are a senator."
Frank said it was unlikely Craig would have success in future elections: "Even gay men who have not been involved in this kind of public sex situation generally get forced out of Republican politics because of opposition within the Republican Party. This is unfortunate, but the fact that he's gay is going to be a problem in the Republican primary."
Yesterday, several of Craig's Republican colleagues put pressure on him to resign.
Sphere: Related ContentPosted 9:08 AM EST by Andy in Barney Frank, Idaho, Larry Craig, News | Permalink
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Here's my "L.A. Times" op-ed:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein30aug30,0,1533982.story?coll=la-opinion-center
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | Aug 30, 2007 9:20:20 AM
In one respect, Frank might be correct. Craig plead guilty to a misdemeanor, paid his fine and that should be it. And as for hypocrisy, if we demanded the resignation of every hypocrite in Washington, D.C. the city would be empty.
Craig should resign, I think, because now he has become completely powerless and the subject of scorn. He can no longer effectively represent the people of Idaho, the sole reason he was elected, I should think. When you can no longer do the job that you were hired for, you should quit. Otherwise your employer has every right to fire you. The best thing Craig can now do for his constituents in Idaho is go home and either retire or get a job as a men's room attendant.
Posted by: Ian | Aug 30, 2007 9:39:07 AM
david,
i tried that link on yahoo and google, but no go. what's w/that?
Posted by: nic | Aug 30, 2007 9:50:24 AM
Nic, the link opened for me. I'm going to read it now.
Posted by: Patrick | Aug 30, 2007 10:22:22 AM
Excellent article, David.
Posted by: Patrick | Aug 30, 2007 10:30:06 AM
I think Barney Frank is being a clever concern troll. The longer Larry Craig holds on to his job, the longer everyone will be talking about Republican hypocrisy and the size of the crowded Republican closet, and the story will alienate more and more of the Republican religious-right base. Good move, Barney!
Posted by: John T | Aug 30, 2007 10:45:35 AM
If I was Craig I would say that I wouldn't resign until David Vitter - who also commited an illegal act - also resigns. The only reason the GOP turned on Craig is because Idaho has a Repug governor who will appoint a Repug senator, while Louisiana would appoint a Dem to succeed SuperDiaperMan. More hypocrisy about values!!!!!
Posted by: Dominic P. Lucarelli | Aug 30, 2007 10:59:55 AM
He should not resign because of the arrest. He should resign because of the GUILTY plea, which he is now LYING about. There are two possible scenarios -
1) He did the deed, pleaded guilty, and is now lying about his guilt.
2) He did not do the deed (very unlikely!), but pleaded guilty anyway to make it "go away". Which would again mean he is a liar, on top of being an idiot since he is a LAWMAKER and should understand that a guilty plea means you are admitting guilt.
Either way, he is clearly a corrupt liar and cannot be trusted by anyone. I love ya Barney Frank, but Craig should resign.
Posted by: Gregg | Aug 30, 2007 11:28:47 AM
No surprise to hear Barney Frank advocating turing a blind eye to lecivous behaviour given his personal history.
again, he misses the point. Hypoctitical behaviour would be to have a partner and at the same time vote against gay rights issues. Having his disgusting activities be portrayed as 'gay behaviour' paints a horrible picutre of gays...who for the vast, vast, vast majority dont even think about doing something like this.
Posted by: Nikk | Aug 30, 2007 11:39:12 AM
I wish he hadn't called it "gay behavior." It may be a behavior that certain small minority of gay people do, but when you put it like that it sounds like we all do it.
Posted by: MT | Aug 30, 2007 12:47:37 PM
I think we're too hung up on semantics here... after all the fabulous Mr. Barney could hardly have referred to Mr. Craig as a "cocksucker" which would be more accurate. Perhaps we should drop the label "gay" and refer to ourselves as cocksuckers. We are all cocksuckers I think, aren't we? In any event, I think we can all agree that Mr. Craig sucks, big time.
Posted by: the queen | Aug 30, 2007 2:15:37 PM
I am totally outraged by Frank’s remarks. The general public is now led to believe by a member of Congress that such behavior is common to gay men. As we all know, nothing could be further from the truth. I am quite sure that not even 1/1,000th of one percent of gay men engage in such disgusting acts. Think about it. There would be waiting lines at virtually every public restroom if this were true. We all are aware of our vast numbers. Using the 10% formula, there are 30 million of us just in this country. This entire saga has taken on a life of its own like none other in recent memory. And the boomerang effect is painting a dark picture of misconception about how gay men conduct themselves. I have personally received two telephone calls from straight people asking me how many people I know who do this, and one asked me if I have ever engaged in such activity! My straight next door neighbors now think that gay men are child molestors and have sex in public restrooms. Dear God what next? Jay Leno is having a field day with this along with every pundit in the country. I am calling Barney Frank’s office now demanding that he clarify his remarks. A demand letter will follow. Also, Frank takes the position that Larry Craig has done nothing that should warrant his resignation. Craig’s despicable behavior and lying to try and save face clearly demonstrates that this man has no character whatsoever. I wouldn’t want him managing a lemonade stand much less occupying a Senate seat. Given the tone of Barney Frank’s remarks, I think he should resign as well. Obviously he has no common sense. On this issue, he should have kept his mouth shut.
Posted by: Johnny Lane | Aug 30, 2007 2:39:28 PM
the propriety of how or where one goes about finding a dick to suck can be open to discussion, but i think we can pretty safely say that 'a guy sucking a dick' can be classified as "gay behavior"
Posted by: el polacko | Aug 30, 2007 6:07:53 PM
Great article David--I read it in the paper today.
I like what Barney has to say. I'm so tired of everyone getting "outraged". Many men--some who identify as gay, some who don't, have sex in rest rooms. It's widely known in all the rest stops and public parks across the country. There's also a lot of entrapment--in West Hollywood for years they sent their hot cops into the restrooms to entice men to come on to them (instead of solving real crimes).
I don't know why we are acting so prissy about this. It's not something I do now but when I was young and living in a rural setting it was pretty much the only game in town. I'm just glad I never got arrested or beat up.
Posted by: db | Aug 30, 2007 8:36:00 PM
You queens sound a lot like the religious right with your throwing around of adjectives like “disgusting” and “unnatural”.
The underlying issue here which no one is really getting at is--what does it mean to be gay? A lot of posters on here would love to present themselves to the general public as EXACTLY like straight men except for the homosexual sex part. By this I mean the endless crap about family and Little League and being just as good a Christian as the straights are, if you read the Bible the “right way”. Bullshit.
There are other reasons that gay men are odd, and it doesn’t have to do with society’s oppression. I always knew I was weird, and not just because I wanted to kiss boys in high school. There is something in gay men that just sets us apart--our sense of humor and style, for instance. The funny thing is, you guys who go on and on about how “disgusting” restroom sex is (echoing the heteros) are probably LESS like straight men, who, if you think about it, don’t have restroom sex not because they think it’s filthy (although some do, I am sure) but because the genders are separated there. Do all gay men have sex in the bathroom? No, of course not. Would a lot of straight men have sex in the bathroom if they could? Absolutely. The same goes for parks. I like that I have the option.
Posted by: jmg | Aug 30, 2007 9:05:11 PM
While filled with schadenfreude re Craig, I think that there should be questions about why police forces throughout the US and Canada are wasting precious resources (especially given the EVER PRESENT TERRORIST DANGER) monitoring what is essentially consensual sex -- exactly how much do these omnipresent tearoom patrols cost? I'm sure it is much easier to judicially beat up on "fags" in bathrooms than actually track down crack dealers, murderers, embezzlers, etc. It would seem to me that we're still facing insitutionalized control and debasement of gay men, married or otherwise.
Posted by: saskmaster | Aug 31, 2007 12:10:08 AM
while i've been overjoyed at another repug getting his just deserts, i do object to the police doing this shit. they pay cops like this guy to sit on the crapper until some guy does a tap dance or soft shoe or the hokey-pokey in the next stall? wtf? this is so absurd.
Posted by: nic | Aug 31, 2007 1:27:05 AM
For johnny lane: um, sucking dick is a human behavior because human sexuality is fluid. True, most gay men suck dick. But, my own experience has shown that under certain circumstances, some straight guys will suck dick also. Especially if they are horny, in a strange land, don't trust the local girls and have just enough drink to lower their inhibitions. If they trust you enough, for the time you are together, they will continue to suck dick. However, once they get back to their home turf, the dick-sucking ends. That's the way of the world.
Posted by: mike | Sep 2, 2007 6:12:36 PM
I think we can safely assume that if a "straight" guy is sucking dick then he ain't straight, not by a looooong shot. but it's a great fantasy!
Posted by: Dezi | Sep 3, 2007 5:56:21 PM
Mike, get real. Just about everyone "sucks dick" but not in public restrooms. A few guys posting here actually think that sex in public facilities is acceptable behavior. Anyone who engages in this activity in a public restroom is a sex addict who "feeds" on the thrill of putting themselves at risk. And there are a host of STD's that you can easily contract. In most states you will be tagged with the label of sex offender if arrested. If you are hooked on anonymous sex, get a therapist before it is too late.
Posted by: Johnny Lane | Sep 4, 2007 12:16:51 PM