The latest embarrassment for Congress and the Republican party was revealed today when it was reported that Idaho Sen. Larry Craig had recently pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for tapping the foot of a police sergeant in an adjacent stall of a men's room at the airport in Minneapolis.
According to court papers that made the news, the sergeant recognized the foot tapping as a common solicitation for lewd behavior. Craig's office responded that the police interpretation was in error and the guilty plea was a mistake.
Now, talk show hosts and pundits across the board are calling for Craig's resignation, which we should hear about -- yea or nay -- in a day or two.
I'm not so sure about the resignation idea, myself. The fact is that he has shamed his wife, children, state and the institution of the Senate and caused further damage to his party. If he thinks that's worthy of resigning, then so be it. His decision, not ours.
My own opinion is that once someone has paid their debt to society, then he has a right to make his living. Same with NFL quarterback Michael Vick, who pleaded guilty today to animal cruelty charges. A lot of people don't think he should be allowed to play pro football anymore. I think Vick has a right to earn his livelihood the way he sees fit. On the flip side, of course, the NFL has a perfect right to not want to associate with his kind. But to ban him is going a little far. But that's just an aside.
As for Larry Craig, a Senator since 1991, we have a much stronger antidote: the ballot box. Craig is up for re-election next year and, should he dare run, he should be defeated. In the primary.
There's a heck of a lot in the Senate that needs to be cleaned up. The lesson of the 2006 election results has been that we've turned power over from the party of corruption to the party of dangerous stupidity. Some improvement. And it won't be much of a choice in 2008 if, in the primaries, we don't deem to get rid of the bad apples currently in office in the Senate. Remember what a bunch of fools these people appeared to be in recent debates or statements regarding Iraq, terrorism and illegal immigration.
In no particular order -- and without respect to when they're up for re-election -- the ones who really need to go are Republicans Pete Domenici of New Mexico, John McCain of Arizona, Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania, Ted Stevens of Alaska, George Voinovich of Ohio, and John Warner of Virginia; and Democrats Joe Biden of Delaware, Barbara Boxer of California, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Pat Leahy of Vermont, and Harry Reid of Nevada.
That's six Republicans and seven Democrats (in total, 13 percent of the chamber) who need to be sent packing just because they're idiots. That's completely away from where you and I might land on others simply based on ideology.
But we have to get them out, along with their House cohorts, in the primary season, or the choice we have in 2008 will be no choice at all.
---
Was that Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" that we could hear playing in the offices of Democrats today?
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, he of the hear no evil, see no evil and remember no evil congressional testimony, announced that he will resign effective next month -- those advance dates always given usually have as much to do with accrued vacation/sick day time as it does with smoothing the transition.
Why is it, after so many examples, that people in high government office believe they can get away with obfuscating issues when the opposition smells scandal?
All Gonzales had to do in response to the wiretaps story is continue to insist that he had a different interpretation than liberal congressmen and let them stew. And all he had to do with the firing of the U.S. attorneys was say that the president had a right to hire and fire whoever he wants in that job for any reason. Instead, he had nothing to do with it. Yeah, sure.
President Bush's legacy will be unfinished when he leaves the White House in 2009. If Iraq ends well, he could end up being highly thought of by history. But a sad tale is that of the four friends who he brought with him from Texas, only one -- adviser Karen Hughes -- left in good standing. Harriett Miers left after that silly appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, for which she was completely unqualified.
Karl Rove left, like Gonzales, as a continuing target of liberals. As noted in a previous post, he was a master at winning elections, but turned out to be a poor policy adviser.
You expect more from your close friends. It used to be said everyone who touched Bill Clinton ended up tainted. The same now goes for George Bush.
