Captain Ed’s questions, [1] this morning seem reasonable:
Right at the beginning of the post, I’m going to state that I find Larry Craig’s conduct [2] in the Minneapolis-St Paul Airport reprehensible. I find his conduct during his arrest even more so, obviously trying to intimidate the arresting officer by giving him the Senate business card. Looking for sexual partners in public restrooms reflects very badly on Craig, and makes his political posturing on “family values” a joke.
All that said, I think we have to ask ourselves about the nature of the crime itself. After reading the complaint [2], it hardly makes for a good case for police intervention, let alone convictions on disorderly conduct:
“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,” the report states.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.
“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.”
Let’s stipulate that all of these actions are a well-known prelude to sexual encounters, even encounters conducted in public restrooms. Even so, nothing Craig did should constitute a crime, with the possible extreme interpretation of battery by touching his foot to the undercover officer. A series of signals that consist of foot-tapping and hand-swiping harms no one but the reputation of the man using them.
Quite correct, and agreed on all points… and Ed gets into further discussion on this. RTWT.
Make no mistake, here; I’m with Ed when he calls the situation reprehensible. Still, that leaves us with a couple of questions about how to proceed.
Craig pled guilty to the Disorderly conduct charge, incidental to attacking the cop…(Though even there, it seems an extreme reading of the statute..) But does that add up to him being forced out of the Senate, by means of law?
Addendum: (David L) On one toe, Ed Morrissey is a great blogger and writer. I don’t believe Ed is a lawyer. On the other toe, the Volokh Conspiracy is a legal webside, which leans liberal. There, Dale Carpenter asks. “What was Craig’s crime? [3]” It seems questionable under Minnesota law, that even sex in a closed public restroom stall would qualify as a crime. No sexual act has even been alleged
One, I have this gnawing feeling that there major pieces of the story missing.
Two, as crimes go in Washington, this isn’t much. There are senators with dead bodies laying around. Don’t expect me to get too excited over a “wide stance” and unsolicited toe tapping.
Let all those who committed no misdemeanor feel free to cast the first stone.
?