What ever happened to living in your own private Idaho?

"I am not gay."

Come on Larry, that ain't how it works. Let's go to an apt analogy.

If you drop a turd in a glass of water, you don't have a glass of water. You don't even have a glass of partially treated sewage. What you have is a glass of crap.

Similarly, if you voluntarily engage in certain sexual activities with members of your same gender, you are not straight. You are not even fulfilling a fantasy. You are a gay-American.

Beyond that, Larry Craig is a sleaze.

A few points.

Uno. Mark Stein posted this in the Corner today

A reader writes:

All of the easy Larry Craig jokes aside ...

So Larry Craig was looking through the cracks in the stalls, moving his hands oddly and tapping his foot in the airport bathroom and was arrested because such behavior fits the profile of someone looking to engage in bathroom sex. OK.

But isn't there actually a serious policy question here about why we're willing to let law enforcement use profiling to apprehend and prevent creeps from getting it on in the airport bathroom but not willing to let law enforcement use profiling to apprehend and prevent terrorists from getting on an airplane?

I take your point. If Senator Craig had gone into the stall, rolled out his prayer mat, yelled "Allahu Akbar!" and been observed attempting to weaponize the ballcock, the undercover cop would have shrugged, "Do I really want to get stuck with another four-week stint in Sensitivity Training hell?" and gone about his business.

Nonetheless, while I'm all for making lemonade out of lemons, I'm not sure it will help for the GOP to start going around saying, "See? This proves that profiling works." Best to stick to the easy jokes. We now return you to the Singing Senators and "Goodnight, Ladies".

This is particularly relevant considering that the two activities occurring at the same MSP airport. Terrorist-emulating imams are good. Homosexuals, not so good.

Dos. The Captain points out that nothing that Craig did was in and of itself a crime or lewd behavior. His commentary misses by comparing Craig's actions to prostitution, which is a specific crime different from peeping and disorderly conduct.

However, having sex in a public location is a crime and should be punished in order to deter it. I am aware that there are private parts of the White House, but I believe that the Oval Office is within the public portion of the building. Oh yeah, we learned 10 years ago that we should not be concerned with sexual behavior between consenting adults ...



Tres. By the time he reaches high school, every American male knows the rules for behavior in the men's room.

• No eye contact.
• No conversations.
• Do not occupy a stall or urinal next to one that is occupied, except as a last resort.

Follow these rules and you will stay out of Larry Craig's kind of trouble almost 100% of the time.

The description of the undercover police officer's behavior breaks those rules. He says he saw Senator Craig looking at him. The only reason to make eye contact in the men's room is if you are looking for a boyfriend. If sleazebag Craig looked through the door crack at me, I would not longingly return his gaze. I would clearly respond with hand gestures and a vocal outburst that would send him scampering down the terminal.

What the undercover officer did violated the norms of heterosexual bathroom behavior. This was done in order to send the message to Craig that he was willing to engage in homosexual sex with him. That is entrapment.