Controversy: December 2007 Archives

Gee, this is a big surprise.

The Idaho Statesman has a big package, complete with audio links, detailing claims from several men who poke some holes in Sen. Larry Craig's pathetic "I've never been gay" claims. The four gay men say they had sex with Craig or that he made a sexual advance or that he paid them unusual attention. The paper reports that they are telling their stories now because they are offended by Craig's denials, including his famous statement, "I am not gay, I never have been gay."

David Phillips is a 42-year-old information technology consultant in Washington, D.C., who says Craig picked him up at a gay club in 1986 and that they subsequently had sex. Mike Jones is a former prostitute who told the world he had sex with the Rev. Ted Haggard last year. The former Colorado Springs evangelist at first denied it but eventually confessed. Jones says Craig paid him for sex in late 2004 or early 2005. Greg Ruth was a 24-year-old college Republican in 1981 when he says he was hit on by Craig at a Republican meeting in Coeur d'Alene. Tom Russell, now 48, is a former Nampa resident who lives in Utah. Russell said his encounter with Craig occurred at Bogus Basin in the early 1980s.

A fifth gay man, who is from Boise but who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, told the paper he was in a men's restroom at Denver International Airport in September 2006 when the man in the next stall moved his hand slowly, palm up, under the divider. The man said he waited outside the restroom and then identified the man in the adjoining stall as Craig, whom he had met in Idaho.

Craig has been denying he was gay since 1982 when CBS broke news of a scandal alleging gay sex between congressmen and underage pages. Craig married a year later and adopted the three children of his wife, Suzanne. In 1990, the Idaho Statesman asked Craig about an allegation that he was gay made by an opponent in his first Senate race. "Why don't you ask my wife?" Craig replied.

This is all so sad and pathetic. There's nothing wrong with being gay but there is a lot wrong with deception and lying. This will not be the end of it. There will be more, I predict, and Craig will be further humiliated.

You can go the Statesman's online site to see the coverage, including audio links.