Matt Lauer's Larry Craig Interview: Exclusive and Excruciating

Huffington Post   |  Rachel Sklar   |   October 17, 2007 07:26 AM


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2007-10-17-cap1001.bmpOh gosh, Matt Lauer's interview with Senator Larry Craig and his wife Suzanne last night was uncomfortable to watch. Now I get what Lauer meant yesterday, how it must have felt to quiz Craig on the litany — the long, long litany — of gay-themed allegations (cruising, pickups, trysts) from throughout his political career and even from before, all while his wife was sitting there. Lauer did a good and deft job on this, and the Craigs candidly addressed it all head on, but the end result was the feeling of "no smoke without fire" and wow was there a lot of smoke. Not that there's anything wrong with that! The saddest part is how, if it's true (and if they're just rumors, well, there sure are a lot of them, from a lot of different sources), this guy has felt the overwhelming need to hide it and rail against it for his whole life. Here is a representative clip:

"I have a medical discharge based on my feet." Oh, Senator Craig, those feet.

Update: I'm going to have to disagree with Tom Shales, who criticized Lauer for being "anything but hard-hitting or confrontational." To my mind, that was precisely the right approach: Sympathetic, respectful, but persistent, putting each episode to Craig for his response, which created an overall effect of so many dominoes leading to that inevitable and sad moment in that airport bathroom. What Shales doesn't get is that Craig's had MONTHS of hard-hitting and confrontational — the cable shows, the late-night punchlines — the last thing that would have drawn him out would have been an antagonistic interviewer. When Lauer cited "cruising" and followed it with "whatever that means," Suzanne Craig laughed — breaking the tension of an uncomfortable moment and keeping it as comfortable, really, as it was ever gonna be. This interview didn't need to be hard-hitting; as I mention above, just the litany of episodes and innuendos, presented to Craig again and again, had a far more quietly damning effect.

(Hat tip to TVNewser, and thanks — I sort of love disagreeing with Tom Shales.)

Related:
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)
[ETP]

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"The Nation Guard? I have a medical discharge, based on MY FEET."

Does it ever get any more hilarious than that?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:02 AM on 10/18/2007
- Ping I'm a Fan of Ping permalink

Their performance was Clintonesque to say the least. Just two smiling people, lying their asses off, that's all.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:50 AM on 10/18/2007
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Did you see all of those family pic's? It was hard to make out Laeur and the Craigs. Especially, because of the ones in the foreground.

The real question to Craig shouldn't be are you gay or bi. It should be have you ever given or had fellatio? I bet Craig has his wife dress up in a suit and tie and then go down on him.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:49 PM on 10/17/2007

Craig or no, perhaps a more important aspect of this mess deals with the two Minnesota statutes used to "trap" or police the men's room at the airport. The two statutues on their face do not fit the facts of the Craig case.
Sure, he's a typical republican closet case.
But cities and airports must police their airports of deviants, panhandlers, religious freaks etc...and they need to do it with clear and precise criminal statues so that the criminal offense meets due process standards.
Minneapolis and its airport need to import some capable criminal attorneys to show them how to draft legislation that, properly, fits the Craig case.
On the law, Craig's appeal should be allowed and his case dismissed. One cannot plead guilty to a statute that he has not violated on the facts.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:37 PM on 10/17/2007


Who wants this lying, devious man making laws that govern their lives? He is a sick and pathetic creature who certainly does not deserve to sit on the US Senate.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:42 PM on 10/17/2007

If Matt Lauer was a good reporter he would have asked the burning question everyone wants to know ie: Matt Lauer " Senator let's get down to brass tacks , what the whole country want know is, as Al Pacino so eleoquently asked in "Cruising," which do you perfer, "Lips or hips" ???

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:33 PM on 10/17/2007
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What keeps getting lost in the Sen. Larry Craig debate is this:

The US Senate is entrusted with awesome power. Each senator has extraordinary influence over the US Government. Access to secrets, both legitimately and otherwise.

Confronted with a personal crisis that took place within the criminal justice system, with two months to consider this decision before formally entering his plea, the Senator now asks our sympathy in having chosen, he says,

1) not to have solicited anyone else's advice

2) to try to cover it up, by

3) lying under oath by entering what he now claims was a false plea.

Forget about hypocrisy. Forget about his apparently pathetic/bathetic double life. If what he's now saying his true, and he pleads with us to believe it is, his fitness for office is rendered nil because

1) a Senator who is so utterly isolated as to have no one he can trust with something as pathetic as a sex bust is

2) a huge security risk for his still-sky-high potential for blackmail, while revealing his character to be

3) so ethically and morally unfit as to be criminal.

Not to mention that lying about sex under oath is precisely what President Clinton was impeached for. And Sen. Craig voted to convict.

OK, I didn't totally forget about hypocrisy.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:27 PM on 10/17/2007

wonder if Mitch,Lindsay or some other dick breath rethuglicans watched the interview?-they got to be a little nervous right about now-

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:41 PM on 10/17/2007

That was Tim Gunn, wasn't it? Maybe his twin brother? I suppose Gunn isn't gay either....

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:22 PM on 10/17/2007

Senator Craig,

Hang it up dude!

You were caught, pleaded guilty, and were sentenced.

Nobody gives a rats ass whether you're straight, bye, or homosexual.

The problem people have with you is you are a lying political prick.

If you had come clean when you were caught you could have went into rehab for a couple of months and then emerged as a better Conservative.

But NO, you have to keep lying to yourself, your family, and everyone around you!

You will get what you deserve.

Troubled

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:22 PM on 10/17/2007

Poor Larry. It's been his feet all along -- first in the Guard and then finally at the airport. And by now you could safely say he has put his foot in his mouth.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:05 PM on 10/17/2007

Yes, and what a contortionist he is to get it past his crooked smile. BTW, did anyone notice the brown stuff in between his teeth? It must be the remnants of the Republican Leadership Toothpaste he uses.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:13 PM on 10/17/2007

I refuse to watch this sleazy journalism. This type of interview serves no one! I'm taking Dateline off my TIVO list.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:04 PM on 10/17/2007

It's sleezy journalism because hes a Republican right?

The cops there because other patons of the bathroom were creeped out by the fags mining the stalls for some sort of action.

The cops acted and planted a detective in the stall to catch whom ever fell into the snare.

It could have been another fella....

No Senator tappy toe is the catch because he's the one who was waving under the stall wall to the next guy - I want my, whatever it is they do or get....(shiver).

Now it's the makeover.

.........I'm not gay,.......I never have been gay!!!

He's looking gay.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:35 PM on 10/17/2007

The question I kept waiting for Lauer to ask, and it never came, was why does Craig think there are rumors about his sexuality? There are many other senators and politicians that have voted against gay-rights issues, why him?
Is it the way he talks? His manner? Can he understand why people have a hard time believing him?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:40 PM on 10/17/2007

I never thought of this until now. But was the undercover cop a hot guy? He must have been or queen Craig wouldn't have gone to such lengths to get in his "stall".

Anyone seen pics of the undercover cop who busted queen Craig?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:36 PM on 10/17/2007

Arianna had pix back in August when this story came out. RO looks like a young Knute Rockne. I.e., handsome & nordic.

Schadenfreude keeps this story percolating, doesn't it??

Larry's pathology is severe. That wife of his must be phoning that ex Gov McGreevy's ex wife for support. A support group. She, Mrs. McGreevy Mrs McConnell ........

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:48 PM on 10/17/2007

Yes, Craig is obviously a liar. He can't accept what he is (gay or bi-sexual)- so what, he has major issues! I didn't bother to watch the interview because the guy is creepy. Next time, some one will have him on tape.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:24 PM on 10/17/2007
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