Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID): Another Busted Republican Tearoom Cruiser

Stridently anti-gay Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig was revealed today to have been arrested on June 11th for lewd public conduct in the men's restroom of Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. Craig pled guilty on August 8th.

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon. Craig’s arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.

From the police report filed by plainclothes officer Dave Karsina, via TPM Election Central:

Craig then entered the stall next to Karsnia’s and placed his roller bag against the front of the stall door.

“My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall,” Karsnia stated in his report. “From my seated position, I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig seated to the left of me.”

Craig was wearing dress pants with black dress shoes.

“I could see Craig look through the crack in the door from his position. Craig would look down at his hands, ‘fidget’ with his fingers, and then look through the crack into my stall again. Craig would repeat this cycle for about two minutes. At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area,” the report states.

Craig then proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times, and Karsnia noted in his report that “I could ... see Craig had a gold ring on his ring finger as his hand was on my side of the stall divider.”

Karsnia then held his police identification down by the floor so that Craig could see it.

“With my left hand near the floor, I pointed towards the exit. Craig responded, ‘No!’ I again pointed towards the exit. Craig exited the stall with his roller bags without flushing the toilet. ... Craig said he would not go. I told Craig that he was under arrest, he had to go, and that I didn’t want to make a scene. Craig then left the restroom.”

In a recorded interview after his arrest, Craig “either disagreed with me or ‘didn’t recall’ the events as they happened,” the report states.

Craig stated “that he has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine,” the report states. Craig also told the arresting officer that he reached down with his right hand to pick up a piece of paper that was on the floor.

“It should be noted that there was not a piece of paper on the bathroom floor, nor did Craig pick up a piece of paper,” the arresting officer said in the report.

JMG readers may recall that in October 2006, I blogged several times about the likelihood of Sen. Craig being a closeted pole-smoker, based on allegations reported by Mike Rogers of BlogACTIVE that Craig was known to cruise the restrooms of Washington DC's Union Station. Sen. Craig is married and has voted to define marriage in Idaho as between a man and a woman and voted in favor of the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment. Once again, Mike Rogers has been proven correct.

UPDATE: Republicans are burning rubber as they squeal backwards from Larry Craig. Below (via AMERICAblog) is a screencap of a YouTube video just yanked by Romney's campaign in which Craig had praised Gov Romney. I guess ol' Mitt doesn't wanna feel Craig's love anymore. Not in that way. Craig was serving as co-Senate liaison of Mitt Romney's campaign, but Romney's spokesman says, "Senator Craig has stepped down from his role with the campaign. He did not want to be a distraction and we accept his decision."