Sen. Craig - Stupidest Person of the Summer Award

I am a little late jumping into this discussion.

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig has got to win the stupidest person of the summer award (well maybe tied with the mom that let her 5 year-old son drive her home because she was too drunk).

Sen. Craig moves to the top of the list due to his stupidity of pleading guilty and paying the fine for an arrest in a airport bathroom back in June. The arrest was for engaging in actions "often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct" the police say.

I am making no judgement on whether he was looking for a little "man action" or not - I could care less.

His stupidity was pleading guilty and not consulting a lawyer, even if he did commit the crime!

First, if he had pleaded innocent and had his day in court I would have been surprised if the prosecutor would even shown up. This would be very difficult to prosecute since Sen. Craig is being accused of performing some actions (tapping his foot and sliding his hand under a bathroom divider) that might signal a desire to engage in sexual conduct according to some policeman who likes to hide in bathrooms. It would be next to impossible to prove that these were anything more than simple random and unfortunate gestures. I mean how would one prove that he did these actions/movements without a reasonable doubt for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct.

Since this blog is about If I Were In Charge, I am going to give you my opinion; I think he is guilty, guilty, GUILTY! With that said, I think if I was his lawyer the case would not have made it to the court room. In fact, the policeman and his employer (whether that is the Minneapolis PD or the Airport PD) would be scrambling to explain how they arrested a sitting United States Senator for something they have no actual proof of. They would be apologizing every possible way and would be using excuses like the policeman acted improperly and was overzealous.

Here is why I say if he had not pleaded guilty it would have been a different story:

• There was not lewd conduct.
• No conversation of any kind occurred, including any sexual discussions.
• The Senator did not ask for sex.
• Except for sitting on the toilet he did not expose himself.
• If none of the above worked, then I would use the argument that just because you wink at someone in a bar does not mean you have sexual desires for the person (it could, but it doesn't mean you do). The same goes for what the Senator did: waiting outside an occupied stall, putting his bag down in front of the stall, tapping his foot, and moving his hand near the floor. These could mean he wants a little action, but they many not as well.

Well as I say, If I were In Charge, it would be a different sorry. In this case, we would still have a closeted hypocrite of a Senator thinking about running for another term - that is if he had not been so stupid as to admit he was looking for a little action.