Larry Craig To Matt Lauer: "You Know I Don't Just Walk Away From A Fight" (Except When I'm Quietly Pleading Guilty And Hoping It Will All Go Away)

Tonight NBC airs its first "Matt Lauer Reports" featuring the "Today" Show host's exclusive interview with Senator Larry Craig, the embattled toe-tapping Senator from Idaho (and we do hope there's an "Idaho? You da ho!" joke in there, but we sorta doubt it). NBC has been on it from a syergy standpoint, teasing it with excerpts on last night's "Nightly News," this morning on "Today" (see HuffPo's excerpt here) and like clockwork on MSNBC, beginning with an excerpt on "Morning Joe" and continuing on throughout the day with multiple excerpts. Some takeaways:

• Lauer: "It may have been the most famous bathroom stop of the last ten years." Both Craigs laughed, and agreed.
  
• Craig on his intentions in that bathroom: "I walked into a bathroom, I walked into an entrapment and a sting that was going on....I got to bathrooms to use bathrooms."
  
• On Mitt Romney, whom he had previously been supporting: "I was very proud of my association with Mitt Romney....he not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again."
  
• On fighting to get his guilty plea for disorderly conduct overturned and keeping his Senate seat: "You know I don't just walk away from a fight..this is the toughest fight of my political life." (See above headline. There are credibility issues here, and it will be interesting to see how Lauer addresses them.)
  
• On not telling his wife and family: "I didn't want to embarrass my wife, my kids, Idaho, my friends...I sought no counsel. I made a very big mistake." (Well, at least that's not a mistake Romney would ever make.)
  
• Lauer on how uncomfortable the interview was: "It's a very embarrassing subject, even to ask the questions...I found myself constantly looking at Mrs. Craig and wondering what was going through her mind."

MSNBC's Tamron Hall described the interview as one where Craig "admits exclusively to Today's Matt Lauer that he handled it all wrong." Er, there are no doubt a few exclusives in the interview but that just is not one.

Matt Lauer interviews Senator Craig - Today Show excerpts [NBC]
Larry Craig Opens Up About Why He Did Not Tell Wife About Arrest [HuffPolitics]

Comments

[ColoradoDan]

BOTH Craig and the wife are as wacky as they get. Adept at conning the public and no sense of guilt whatsover. Sociopath?

Lies, deception, hypocrisy all for power, money and control. GOP poster boy for the Power of Denial regardless of the facts.

I do feel that Larry is not gay ... he has always been bisexual.

Stand wide and proud Idaho for Craig loves you all ... male or female.

[LeonFreilich]

A LIBERAL STANCE
Senator Craig, stay where you are,
You're a handsome media star
Like our would-be king in the White House,
And folks, you know, are bound to grouse
If you, Congressional Closet Queen,
Fail as balance in the D.C. scene.
Liberals like me support
Rights for such as you in court,
Never stalling to boost a lifestyle
Though it hides behind a wifestyle.
Only one thing, Larry--say
Once and for all that you are gay.
Give up hiding, tapping toes,
Hooking up with Johnny Doe's.
Closets, it's a historical tenet,
Don't belong in the U.S. Senate.

[Blutus]

This is such a sad man.
Can you imagine being married to this creep?

How twisted can one man get?

All the bullshit at the center of his life
for so long and he still doesn't get it,
still doesn't understand that he has
allied himself to people who would deny his very right to exist.

It is nothing but strange.

Come out Larry and save your life!

Right wing conservatives are full of shit!

Live it!

Their conception of reality, their conception
of themselves is built on lies,
nothing but lies!

This jerk doesn't realize he is not a real
human being.

He is living someone else's life.

Sick.

[Bobaloo]

one thing about Larry-he is always willing to take a stance.