Roll Call reports: Craig Arrested, Pleads Guilty Following Incident in Airport Restroom

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon.

Craig’s arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.

The story has the details of the allegations. The short version is that it appears that Craig was seeking a sexual encounter in a Minneapolis men’s room.

The key issue here is that he pled guilty. If this was all a misunderstanding, as Craig has alleged, then one would think one would have pled not guilty. Who in the right mind would plead guilty to disorderly conduct simply because they accidentally bumped feet with someone? Indeed, Craig’s statement makes little sense (source: story linked below):

“I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct. I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously.”

What, is he asserting that he is smart enough to be a Senator, but not smart enough to know how to plead?

The Idaho Statesman has a lengthy piece which details a series of long-term allegations about Craig’s sexuality and behavior: Men’s room arrest reopens questions about Sen. Larry Craig.

The whole thing strikes me as, among other things, quite sad and pathetic. The evidence suggests a life plagued by an internal struggle over identity that lead to actions such as the one that got him arrested in Minneapolis.

Marc Ambinder has a run-down of some of the political implications.

Remember the AUC member who was stripped of his cease-fire privileges that I mentioned the other day? Well, the US has requested his extradition (via the BBC: US seeks Colombian paramilitary):

Colombia said Jimenez violated a peace agreement by continuing to organise cocaine shipments and run a criminal empire from prison.

Jimenez is wanted in the US on drug trafficking charges

[…]

He is the first jailed warlord to lose benefits agreed under a 2024 peace deal which led paramilitary leaders to surrender and demobilise 31,000 of their men in exchange for reduced jail terms and extradition protection.

The Uribe administration has been quite willing to extradite such persons to the US, so the track record suggests that they will do so here. Further since, Jimenez was caught breaking the demobilization agreement, I suspect that the Colombian government will want to make an example of him. Given that one of the things that narcos have wanted to avoid is extradition to the US this situation will give Uribe a chance to send a signal to the other AUC commanders: behave or be sent to the US for trial.=.

On the round table segment of Special Report tonight, Nina Easton (of Fortune magazine) made the rather bizarre assertion that one of the main reasons that the Congress is currently experiencing such low popularity is because of their treatment of Alberto Gonzales. This struck me as a rather remarkable argument, to say the least.

Should I find video and/or a transcript, I will post it.

Also, as a side note, in watching some of the Fox coverage of Gonzales’ departure, and then portions of Hardball and Countdown I was struck as to the degree to which watching different networks is almost like looking at two alternative universes…

Here’s a screencap of Clay Johnson’s OMB office from a February piece on Bush loyalists in the NYT:

On the one hand, I am sure that the Bush action figure is meant to be a joke, on the other, it is still a tad creepy–especially with quotes like this:

“There’s a lot of devotion to George Bush the person,” said Clay Johnson, a prep school buddy of Mr. Bush who is now a deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.

h/t: Think Progress.

Via CNN: Senior admin. officials: Chertoff may get nod

President Bush may nominate Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to replace Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, senior administration officials told CNN Monday.

I will allow that Chertoff’s resume, including time on the federal bench, make him qualified for the position. However, two thoughts come to mind:

1) I suspect that Chertoff will be just as prone as Gonzales to see the War on Terror to be a guiding principal of the DoJ’s mission (something that makes him appealing to Bush, but something gives me pause–not that I expect Bush to appoint someone that I would necessarily be keen on at this stage of the game).

2) Chertoff hasn’t exactly been a shining star at DHS. He was initially clueless over Katrina and famously utilized indigestion as a method of counter-terrorism analysis.

Beyond that, CNN is reporting that Chertoff’s alleged replacement will be Clay Johnson III, who is that Deputy Director of the OMB. That strikes me as an odd place to get a Homeland Security Secretary. As Think Progress notes:

Johnson, who has no homeland security experience, is a professional Bush loyalist. While Johnson may have familiarity with some aspects of DHS’s budget, he appears to have no experience in the many responsibilities of the department, including immigration, air travel security, disaster response, and other aspects of our nation’s homeland defense.

He is one of Bush’s oldest friends, having attended both prep school and college with the President. Johnson served as Bush’s gubernatorial chief of staff in Texas before heading up the Bush-Cheney transition team.

Lovely, insofar as this is the Bush cronyism model reemerging. (You know, the model that got us Gonzales in the first place and was aiming to give us Associate Justice Miers).

Via the NYT: Embattled Attorney General Resigns

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington.

The news broke in the last hour, with Morning Edition having only a short story on it at about 7:20 central time and it was based on the NYT piece.

Anyone who has been reading PoliBlog in the last six months or so will know that I am pleased with this news. At best Gonzales has been incompetent and unsuited for the job and at worst he has been an AG with an inappropriate relationship with the truth who was oriented not towards public service and law enforcement, but instead to the narrow interests of his boss. Of course, the best and worst here are not mutually exclusive.

Via the BBC: Iraqi leaders sign unity accord

Iraqi Shia, Sunni and Kurdish leaders have signed a reconciliation deal, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki says.

The accord was the second step towards rebuilding Iraq’s political process, Mr Maliki said, after four Kurdish and Shia parties formed a new alliance.

[…]

After the meeting, Mr Maliki appeared at a news conference alongside Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi, Shia Vice-President Adel Abdul-Mahdi and Massoud Barzani - president of the Kurdish region.

But nothing suggests that the rebuilding of a broad-based government is necessarily any closer, the BBC’s Mike Wooldridge in Baghdad says.

And there’s the rub. One wonders if this isn’t just an attempt to placate the US in terms of political progress.

Reuters refers to the accord as follows: Iraq’s leaders agree on key benchmarks

Iraq’s top Shi’ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political leaders announced on Sunday they had reached consensus on some key measures seen as vital to fostering national reconciliation.

Like the BBC piece, it is unclear as to exactly what it is they agreed to, aside from a joint TV appearance.

The only specific detail mentioned in the draft oil law (which has been in draft form for quite some time now):

Yasin Majid, a media adviser to Maliki, told Reuters the leaders also endorsed a draft oil law, which has already been agreed by the cabinet but has not yet gone to parliament.

Not only has the law not gone to parliament, the next paragraph starts with “but”:

But a statement from Talabani’s office said more discussions were needed on the draft oil law and constitutional reforms. Committees had also been formed to try to ensure a “balance” of Shi’ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds in government.

So, the draft still needs revisions, it would seem.

Quite honestly this whole event (the accord and the TV appearance) smacks of PR instead of progress. Perhaps I am being overly cynical, but it seems like we’ve heard this tune before.

On Saturday I noted that there were rumors swirling around like mad in Miami concerning Fideal Castro’s earthly status.

The response has been for a column with Fidel’s byline to be published (via the BBC: Castro column amid health rumours):

In the article, Mr Castro makes no mention of his health but writes about the events of the 1950s that eventually saw him and his band of rebels topple Fulgencio Batista and come to power.

Call me crazy, but somehow I don’t think that that is going to quell any rumors about Castro’s health.

“Thank God Yeltsin still isn’t president” (or something like that)–Mo Rocca on Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight when discussing the posting of shirtless photos of President Vladimir Putin on the Kremlin’s web site.

And I think we can all say a hearty “amen” to that.

David Broder waxes poetic on the potential of a Bloomberg-Hagel Unity08 ticket in today’s WaPo: Bloomberg And Hagel For 2024?

Today, that tide may be carrying him away from his Republican Party and toward a third-party or independent ticket with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg — a development that could reshape the dynamics of the 2024 presidential race.

Look, I have no problem with the generic notion of more choices. However, the likelihood that a Unity08 slate could “reshape” the dynamics of the race strikes me as rather unlikely.

What is especially odd from the point of view of reshaping the ‘08 political landscape, is that the column is focused mostly on Senator Hagel, who would be the VP nominee on this mythical Unity08 ticket. However, if a VP nominee on the Democratic and Republican tickets end up really having very little to do with whether voters vote for those tickets, how much less will the VP nominee matter for a third party bid?

Certainly if a third party bid is ever going to be competitive given the current rules, the impetus of support will have to be the presidential candidate (and some specific set of ideas that go beyond “let’s all get along”). And even then, a widely popular and significant candidate would still have a number of structural barriers to overcome. The second name on the slate would certainly not be the main issue, not by a long shot.

Also, I would like to nominate the following for the non sequitur category of ending paragraphs in a newspaper column:

John Kennedy liked to say that a rising tide lifts all boats. The Bloomberg-Hagel pairing would test that proposition.

(Yes, it is play on the first paragraph (see the link) and Hagel’s “tidal politician” bit, but it still really doesn’t make a lot of sense).