The Airport Police have released the audio tape of the Craig arrest aftermath, and Craig sounds panicked, arrogant, and contradicts himself. He sounds desperate, and the way he keeps saying “I don’t do those kinds of things” suggests he can not even internally grapple with who he is.
Most of all, though, I guess what shocked me is how he talked to the cop. I can not imagine a situation in which I would talk to a policeman like that. I would just not say anything at all rather than give them a reason to screw me further or, if I were black, beat and/or shoot me. I sure as hell would not be talking to any cop the way he did.
*** Update ***
And by the way- how many of you pick up pieces of paper off the floor in a bathroom stall in an airport bathroom? I know I don’t. I am too busy trying to make sure as little exposed flesh touches anything in the bathroom as possible.
Dreggas
These tapes do not help him in the least. He panicked and lost his cool and knew why he was picked up.
Ugh
how many of you pick up pieces of paper off the floor in a bathroom stall in an airport bathroom?
Man, I don’t even do that at work in a white collar workplace. As TPM said, this is just sad.
Keith
I don’t even sit down in public restrooms unless it’s at work, and even then rarely. My father flipped out on me one time when I was 10 or so for sitting down on a gas station toilet, and I’ve avoided them since. It was the old “you can catch diseases” line, but these days it’s more because of the general smell.
Drew
I disagree about who was out of line. That cop was the only one who raised his voice and he borderline threatened Craig that he would notify the media unless he confessed (“I don’t call the media, that’s not what I do”). The tape ends with the cop saying “embarrassing, embarrassing” which I think is entirely inappropriate.
This tape just demonstrates that you never, NEVER talk to the police after you’ve been arrested. Ask why you are being arrested and shut up. If Craig was going to say anything once that tape recorder was on, he should have asked why he was being arrested and said “that’s ridiculous, I was going to the bathroom.” The police are notorious for trying to get you to confess to a crime after they arrest you and will lie to your face to accomplish it. You will never convince a cop you are innocent so you shouldn’t even bother trying.
Dreggas
Reading through the whole thing the part that stands out is when he tries to say the cop solicited him and dropped the entrapment bomb. He knew why he was there and he was cruising.
bud
The arrogance of power. He’s had so many people kissing his ass for years, he expects it. It’s a common effect on politicians with long terms in office.
In his case, the word “hubris” seems appropriate.
SP
He talked to the cop like he was some chump but the cop was great. They get all walks of life caught in stings for that exact same crime. Now the cops can say they busted a US Senator along with the usual gaggle of doctors, lawyers, and respectable community/professional straight men that get caught as well.
Craig showed the arresting cops the same attitude by trying to intimidate them flashing his Senate business card. He was so scared he thought that would be like garlic to the vampire and they’d just let him go.
Rex
Y’all really think that he spoke inappropriately to a cop? I have heard the tapes looping on MSNBC for a while now and, while I think his explanations were really really weak and self-incriminating, he stuck to the line of not admitting anything. The cop is playing standard ‘bad cop’ and Craig pushes back a little bit…that’s all I hear in there.
Teak111
Hard to listen too.
You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attoney, if you can’t afford one, one will be provided to you. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand these rights?
Aparently not.
If dude kept his mouth shut, he’d be happily tapping his foot in the next John.
Halffasthero
I was surpised the Airport police released this tape. I am not sure it is considered public information by Minnesota law. Of course I reserve the right to be wrong.
Pb
Wow, Craig is lucky they didn’t throw the book at him, and apparently really lucky they don’t videotape these things. Isn’t lying to a police officer a crime as well…
Nikki
I don’t think so. Lying’s not a crime unless you do it in a court of law.
retr2327
Only read the transcript, didn’t listen, so I can’t comment on tone of voice, etc. But what struck me was the emphasis on the right hand/left hand, palm up/palm down issue: clearly, this was not some insignificant detail. Although the cop doesn’t explain, the emphasis attached to this question (by both of them) implies that this was a key part of some known signal: you might (just maybe) reach down with your hand for some reason, but if you reach across your body with your other hand, waving it palm up on the other side of the stall divider, it’s no accident, and there’s no good explanation.
Leader Desslok
What a sad man. He really is sick, you know.
Go figure.
JL
Nikki, tell Martha Stewart that it’s not a crime. She wasn’t under oath and served her time. Listening to Larry Craig was difficult. He sounded like the drunk who said he didn’t drink. Kinda sad.
Zifnab
Isn’t that exactly what the cop picked him up for? Man, you’d think a guy would learn.
Ted
Or to anyone investigating on behalf of the Justice Department. Lying to federal cops is actually a crime (see, Libby, Scooter).
canuckistani
Isn’t it common knowledge that if you are arrested, asking to speak to a lwyer or refusing to speak is an admission of guilt in the eyes of the cops?
ThymeZone
The guys is a schmuck, we already knew that.
So what?
Zifnab
Cops see a lot of guilty people, then. I know if I was ever picked up, the first move would be to shut my trap and demand a lawyer. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever trust a cop once he’s got you in his sights. Their job is to facilitate a conviction. Your lawyer’s job is to keep you out of jail.
John Cole
Why would you give two hoots in hell what they think? Not to mention, they already think that you are guilty.
They are the ones who arrested you, after all. Now they are just trying to prove you are guilty. Not sure why some people feel the need to help them.
Gilmore
Isn’t it common knowledge that if you are arrested, asking to speak to a lwyer or refusing to speak is an admission of guilt in the eyes of the cops?
That doesn’t matter. Once they’ve picked you up, who cares if THEY think you’re guilty or not? Anything you say from that point on will end up in a courtroom. Refuse to speak, ask to contact your lawyer, end of story.
garyb50
A real Arizona man like ThymeZone would eat the paper and laugh.
Capt. Jean-Luc Pikachu
I hope everyone here has seen how not to get your ass kicked by the police…
The Other Steve
Yeah, down in Arizona they aren’t afraid of so-called ‘germs’.
Fledermaus
written transcript here. That reads like a classic cop interrogation.
And he sounds like William Macy’s character in Fargo when Marge ambushes him at the dealership. “I’m cooperating here!”
Ben
Seems that LC implicated himself as a gay cruiser when the interview first started. Craig blurted out in anger to the officer “You solicited me!”
Now think for a second. Why would Craig think that? Because the cop lifted up his foot, after Larry brushed feet with him. In essence, because the cop returned his gay sex signal with another gay sex signal.
Unless Craig is an experienced cruiser in men’s rooms, he wouldn’t know he was solicited. He would think the guy next to him just lifted his foot up.
Also enjoyable on the tape is when Larry says “I’m a fairly wide guy. I tend to spread my legs when I lower my pants.”
Sounds like something you could slap that on a bumper sticker and run a campaign around it.
Dreggas
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
John Cole
See- I thought that made more sense than the “wide stance” bit wre have heard before. Without getting into too much gruesome detail, but I spread my legs really far apart too- to keep any part of my pants from touching the floor, to sort of hold them up. God forbid they hit the floor, because who knows what is there. Well, actually, I know, I just don’t want to think about it. At any rate, I new what he was talking about.
Steve
Typical Republican. Acts like he can create his own reality just by saying so, no sense of accountability whatsoever. Too bad the world doesn’t work that way.
Bombadil
According to this, Craig was arrested on June 11, and went back to the airport on June 22, eleven days later, to get information for his lawyer.
He went to court on August 8, almost 7 weeks after that, and pleaded guilty — but he says he never sought lawyer’s counsel.
JGabriel
John Cole @ Top: “Most of all, though, I guess what shocked me is how he talked to the cop.”
Really? That didn’t surprise me at all. Craig’s a Republican and he’s a Senator. Of course he was arrogant.
What surprised me was that he tried to deny using his left hand under the stall door, followed by the exclamation, “I don’t do those sorts of things.”
I’m forty-two years old, and I didn’t know using the left hand instead of the right (or maybe the intent is to display the ring finger) had any special connotation. Then again, I don’t know anything about tearoom etiquette.
Apparently, Craig does. That’s what the tape makes clear.
Gilmore
God forbid they hit the floor, because who knows what is there.
Are you guys really that germphobic that you wouldn’t even want your pants to touch the floor? What do you really think you’re protecting yourself from? My pants touch the floor, I touch the flush handle with my bare hands, I don’t use the paper ass gasket, I never use that hand-sanitizing goo (did you know 20 years ago that didn’t even EXIST? I guess that explains the Black Death!), hell I’ve even been known to eat a donut AFTER I DROPPED IT ON THE FLOOR. And I almost never get sick; definitely less often than my friends.
Have you heard of a fellow named Howard Hughes? He had some great tips you’d probably appreciate…stick your feet in kleenex boxes, save jars of your pee, don a hazmat suit before leaving the house…aren’t you ashamed of yourselves? You almost sound PROUD of your prissy germphobia.
JGabriel
Nikki @ 4:33pm: “Lying’s not a crime unless you do it in a court of law.”
I know lying to the FBI is against the law, because that was one of the charges against Libby. It seems likely that most, or all, states would similiarly make it a crime to lie to a police officer — especially since they have a right to remain silent, and are told so before questioning.
Drew
There is a really interesting article on Slate that explains everything you ever wanted to know about cruising. Apparently, showing your wedding band makes you more alluring which is why Craig freaked out. He totally implicated himself which is why you never talk to the coppers.
Duane
Nothing special about Larry, all Republicans are cocksuckers.
conumbdrum
Hear, hear. I heard George Carlin doing a bit where he blasts the asses off germophobes for being pussies. Claims he used to swim in the East River as a lad… which even back then took a strong stomach and nerves of steel. Result? He never even gets colds, for fuck’s sake.
I’ve never worried about germs, either. Hell, I once dropped a Boston Cream Pie on the kitchen floor… and after blackening the air with a mighty oath, cleaned the thing up, put it on a plate and ate it. It was yummy.
Germs are like barking dogs… they only attack if you show fear.
Rusty Shackleford
If Craig didn’t want his pants touching the floor then what is he doing picking up toilet paper from the floor of a public toilet?
John Cole
It isn’t the germs. It is the ick factor. You don’t mind if your trousers are dragged through 100 men’s urine. I get it.
I do.
Dreggas
I get that completely. There are some public restrooms I’d want a toxic waste suit before entering.
Mike S
I think it’s fairly obvious that it wasn’t a threat. Especially since the cop kept his word and didn’t call the press.
Umm, you eat things you drop on public bathroom floors?
Gilmore
Umm, you eat things you drop on public bathroom floors?
I knew I should have been clearer. I’ve never dropped a donut in a public bathroom; I meant regular floors. Although if that did happen, and it was a really good donut and I’d only had like one bite…I would have to give it some thought.
At any rate that has nothing to do with the proper topic of this thread: John Cole’s urine jar collection.
OpposableThumb
Like JGabriel I was curious about the left-hand/right-hand dustup. Until I started wondering whether the implication was that Craig’s right hand was otherwise engaged…
Dylan
Just in case you were wondering what not to do, here is the Slate article on bathroom signals referred to above:
http://www.slate.com/id/2173033/
(hope I can submit links!)
Wilfred
This whole left hand, crossover, reach-around thing had me scratching my head until I got to wonder if maybe Craig is a closet Muslim and the whole thing was a sting set-up to protect the assholes of authentic Homelanders from being infiltrated by leftist brown people. I don’t know.
Fruitbat Jones
Please, please no more pseudo-visuals of John Cole on the crapper. John’s single and a wide-stancer. This is not looking good. Next thing we’ll hear is how worn out his shoes are….on their sides.
jesse's girl
Urine? If you’re lucky. Dude, I don’t know what’s with your gender and their aiming issues, but I’ve seen public men’s rooms before, and holy Christ. The “wide stance” is possibly the best explanation I’ve ever heard as to why it seems to be so hard for so many to get their shit in the toilet.
jake
And if this is true, the last of Craig’s credibility just died a rather messy death.
Let’s assume he’s just lying about when he retained counsel: Getting information is the lawyer’s job. In fact, once you have a lawyer, the lawyer tells (or should tell) the client to sit back and let him drive. The lawyer sure as fuck wouldn’t have sent him back to the airport to complain to the cops or get information to file a complaint. I could snark about the real reason he went back but this is too pathetic. And Holy Mother of Johnny Cash:
Please folks. Don’t lie to the cops. Don’t lie to other cops about cops. Don’t lie about documented events. Don’t lie to the public if you’re trying to convince them of your sincerity.
This is why I’m beginning to wonder if he does have a lawyer, even now. Any lawyer, even a dead one, would have told him to StFu. Maybe he’s too damn stupid to listen.
I don’t know, maybe the guy is a severe closet case and part of his brain is trying to speak the truth but since it’s a Republican brain it can only do so by telling a series of increasingly implausible whoppers that convince people not to believe a word he says.
“I didn’t have a lawyer. I’m not gay. Well, I did have a lawyer and I ran a few errands for him because I’ve got nothing better to do. I’m not gay. I was handcuffed. I’M NOT GAY!”
I still think he’s a schmutz, but I hope he doesn’t harm himself.
r€nato
Isn’t Larry Craig pathetic? He is indeed the perfect example of a typical Republican pol:
-a closet case
-a shameless hypocrite
-thinks that if he insists on something strenuously enough, that trumps reality and makes it so
-doesn’t know when to stop lying and just shut the fuck up instead
Mr Furious
LOL! Now, THAT was funny…
Brachiator
While the “Bathroom Stall Tapes” are both alarming and amusing, and will make a hell of an MP3 download, I am beginning to suspect that this may ultimately be political theater and a breathtakingly successful misdirection, GOP style.
Now that the interview tape has been released, it is all the rage throughout the media and the Internet. This stuff will likely take up the entire news cycle throughout the Labor Day holiday. It’s an easy subject for people to grab onto.
Ultimately, though, Craig may likely resign and be replaced by another Republican, one who is more certifiably manly and all family values, but whose votes won’t be much different. And note that Vitter will stay in place despite his brothel frolics because his replacement would be named by a Democratic Party official.
Meanwhile, the Bush Administration has quietly enacted the pilot program to allow Mexican trucks to travel deep within the United States (as opposed to the old 20 – 25 mile commercial zone), ultimately displacing American truckers and decreasing border security. By the time anyone reacts to this more fully, it will be old news, a done deal, business as usual. This steal is sweeter than a recess appointment.
Details on this, and the program’s quiet listing in the federal register can be found here:
http://www.americanshipper.com/SNW_story.asp?news=67075
Meanwhile, somewhere down the line, Craig will be thrown a bone for taking one for the team. And Republican true believers will lull themselves to sleep at night, comfortably laboring under the delusion that the party of family values and hard working Americans cares about them, even though the GOP is sticking it to them at every opportunity, without even waiting for a toe tap.
Rome Again
Okay, call me crazy, but, if I’ve already wiped, I will take some paper from the roll and use it to pick up paper on the floor. I also wash my hands immediately after, so I’m not creating any disease situation, if anything, I’m hoping that I’m preventing one. I also happen to pick up candy wrappers and such off the floors of elevators and office carpeting. Call me someone who tries to keep things relatively clean.
myiq2xu
Everything is an admission of guilt in the eyes of the cops. I always advise people to keep their mouths shut. “You have the right to remain silent. Use it.”
Save your side of the story for the 12 people in the jury box.
I have had quite a few clients who wouldn’t have gone to jail/prison if they had just kept the mouths shut.
Consenting to a search is stupid too, especially if you know there is something there you don’t want the cops to find. But people do it every day. JUST SAY NO.
TenguPhule
I doubt it. With this administration, the trucks will soon kill a busload of kids which will cause mass hysteria followed by some halfwit reporter putting 2 and 2 together followed by massive outrage that will be quickly forgotten once the next Bush Scandal after that pops up.
Depressingly Predictable.
TenguPhule
The waste byproducts of Jebus only knows how many guys with poor aim or who just don’t give a shit where they shit.
Seriously, If you number two in a public restroom, you’re a braver one then I. I’d risk public indecency charges in the bushes first.
myiq2xu
No shit. That’s my policy.
Tractarian
Just to clarify:
Schmutz = what you find on the floor in a men’s bathroom.
Putz = what you don’t want to see under the stall divider.
Schmuck = Craig.
jake
Fixed.
The Other Steve
He’ll resign by next week. I would say to spend more time with his family, but I have a suspicion the divorce papers will come a week following the resignation.
He will then move into a commune with Mark Foley and Ted Haggard.
gex
So Craig is so disgusted by the floor as to use the wise stance to keep his pants off of it. But he’ll reach down and pick up whatever crap happens to be lying on the floor?
clamflats
Check this out…”Boys of Boise” book cover from 1966
maybe NSW
http://www.gayontherange.com/a-z/crap_shoot.php?start=16&data=list.photos&photo=xboysofboise.jpg
gex
re the left hand and wedding band, while there may be some significance to flashing the ring, the reason it is an important point is that the officer’s stall was on Craig’s right hand side. If his story is true, it would make more sense that his right hand would have been seen from the officer’s stall, not the left.
Punchy
And to the poor kid whose Frisbee ends up in that bush an hour later, you’d say….?
The Other Steve
Ok, new scandal.
Fuck lobbyists. Unbelivable. The Bush Administration listened to lobbyists from the Baby Formula industry to tone down an educational ad campaign encouraging mothers to breast feed.
Ridiculous.
grumpy realist
Mutterings from CNN that Craig may resign as early as today.
Between this and Mr. “please send me money to live off of via a twice-convicted sex offender” Haggard, I think I’m ODing on popcorn this week.
jenniebee
I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to be a girl. First of all, our public restrooms sound a hell of a lot neater than yours. Second, nobody’s having sex in them.
May I add that none of this would be going on if you guys put a little more value in foreplay? Reaching under bathroom stalls for quickie handjobs… what a sad way to go through life…
Zifnab
I don’t know if this is the sort of scandal that gets top billing. I mean, it does have boobies, but it lacks toe-tapping, man-on-man, hot action.
Punchy
We don’t take ~25 minutes to get all sexed-up, J. If we did, I’d lose ~3 hours a day.
JoeTx
So anybody else hear the rumor that the RNC/Rove threw Craig under the bus this week to cut down media coverage of Rove and Gonzo going by by? The ultimate, “Hey, look at pony” media redirection…..
Ask yourself, why this week? Its been 2 months since the incident, why did it break this week? Makes you wonder???
canuckistani
First, they’re neater, but you have to wait longer to use them. These facts may be related.
Second, see Rome Again in a previous thread. Some people get to live the wild life, and I envy them. Get funky in those bathrooms, people, before you grow old and dull like me.
Dreggas
Not valuing foreplay? Hell that’s the best part.
John Cole
Maybe they are cleaner in airports and restaurants, but I worked in a bar, and one of the foulest things I have ever seen is a women’s bathroom in a bar at the end of the night.
I am not even going to try to describe the things you all attempt to flush down the commode. And that doesn’t even get into the fact that drunk girls apparently do not sit on toilets- they hover above and pray and spray.
Dreggas
Bar restrooms are exceptions in all cases.
Keith
I used to work in a theater in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Without fail, the women’s bathroom was the messier of the two. By a wide margin. At the very least, I could count on a blizzard of paper all over the floor.
Not that the Men’s was all that clean. But it was trivial compared to the flying urine fest over in the Women’s. Stop with the hovering!
Tax Analyst
Gas station bathrooms in small towns…the locals don’t use them…the guys who work there don’t clean them since it’s only passing traveller’s using them…and they are more than likely not coming back any time soon. I had an experience where I HAD to use one on a trip back down to L.A. from Northern California. About 90 miles south of San Jose in…I think was called “San Ando” or something like that. The filthiest bathroom you could ever imagine. Shit on the toilet seat, shit on the floor, shit on the sink counter, shit on the walls, piss on the floor, the door to the toilet stall was gone and the outside door lock did not work, thus giving one the opportunity to be walked in on while trying to crap in the Filthiest Bathroom on Earth. Even though I had to go rather badly I first trekked out to my car and got a roll of paper towels and some window cleaner out of my trunk and scrubbed down the toilet seat before I sat on it. I also brought my own ass-wipe from the car (extra roll I keep in the trunk for emergencies…this certainly qualified) I washed my hands out in my car using that window cleaner and bottled drinking water. I really wanted to take a shower after I got through, but I still had about 300 miles to go before I got home…IIICCKKK!
No, I don’t like to let my pants drag on the floor in Public Restrooms. Picking up paper? Only with another piece of paper as someone mentioned up above. Donuts on floor of bathroom? Ah…No…
Fledermaus
Ah the standard criminal defense attorney lament. If I had a nickel for every person I’ve had to explain this to I wouldn’t have to work. To answer John’s question the main reason people do this is because the cops are very good as
lyingconvincing arrestees that things will go easier on them if they just answer a few questions or consent to a search. Stupid defendants agree because the cops are all buddy buddy and make them think they can talk their way out of itrachel
Oh, how I hate those prissy princesses that mess up the comodes for the rest of us. Newsflash, “ladies!” Western toilets are designed to be sat on, not shat on. If you want to hover, move to Japan or Korea.
demimondian
jenniebee — I don’t know if you’re serious or not — and I’m assuming you aren’t — but male and female arousal patterns are different. Males become aware of sexual arousal much faster then females do, although, girls, you get turned on just as fast as we do, when we measure physiological responses like vaginal lubrication.
So there. Stop it with the whole “more foreplay” game, and get in touch with your own bodies, already!
As to people having sex in bathrooms…you were saying.
demi “just the facts, ma’am” mondian
Dreggas
Cheerleaders…Lesbian Cheerleaders…mmmmmmmmmm
Rome Again
Well, I never said I got it on in a bathroom, but yes, I’ve led a pretty wild life. ;)
Personally, I like much more comfortable settings.
JGabriel
Brachiator: “Meanwhile, somewhere down the line, Craig will be thrown a bone for taking one for the team.”
Jeff Gannon’s or James Guckert’s?
JGabriel
JennieBee”I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to be a girl. First of all, our public restrooms sound a hell of a lot neater than yours. Second, nobody’s having sex in them.”
Umm. Yes, they are.
Rome Again
JennieBee, saying “nobody is having sex in…” women’s restrooms is an awfully strong statement. Are you sure you want to back that? You don’t think it’s possible that this situation has happened at least once or twice? Perhaps even a few thousand times?
I think you are being naive, personally.