"In June, I overreacted and made a poor decision. While I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct at the Minneapolis airport or anywhere else I chose to plead guilty in the hope of making it go away."--Senator Larry Craig
The aforementioned quote is a leading candidate for understatement of the year in 2007. It was indeed a bad decision that did not go away until Craig fell on his political sword by announcing his intention to resign last week.
Not to be compared with Senators Daniel Webster or Everett Dirksen, Craig does not possess myriad landmark legislation that bears his name. He has, however, entered the pantheon of popular culture that enshrines one into the answers in Trivial Pursuit and the questions on Jeopardy, based on his behavior in a public restroom.
It is tragic because his Republican colleagues, hiding behind that fact that he broke the law, threw Craig under the bus. Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, called Craig's behavior 'unforgivable." Would that be for claiming that he was picking up toilet paper on a public bathroom floor or voting to send our troops into a hopeless quagmire?
I wonder why members of Congress, convicted of a DUI, are not forced to relinquish their committee assignments, backed into the corner of the room reserved only for pariahs, leaving resignation as the sole option available, as was Craig.
Why didn't Republican leaders do likewise to Louisiana Senator, David Vitter, when it was recently revealed that in addition to leading the clarion call for family values, the married Vitter also possesses a delectable appetite for ladies of the evening?
The reason is simple; Craig was convicted, albeit a misdemeanor, of something that is perceived to be outside of the dominant culture. And that was unacceptable to a political party whose rhetoric is based, in part, on a linear definition of family values.
Human history is paved with those who have fallen under the weight of their own moral hypocrisy. Preachers and politicians, in particular, have been guilty of building towers of morality for others that they are unable to attain and unwilling to attempt.
I can only guess the amount of pain and confusion that has been placed at the feet of Craig's family. Given the longevity of the rumors about Craig's sexuality, it is quite possible what transpired may simply reflect the inevitable that they had come to expect. Or this could all be, as Craig's son Michael told Good Morning America, a case of, "he was a victim of circumstance, in the wrong place at the wrong time."
But this tragedy goes well beyond a senator being convicted of a misdemeanor in a Minneapolis airport and the impact on his family. Those opposed to same-gender marriage could not have had a more staunch supporter for their cause than Larry Craig.
We have repeatedly witnessed the Larry Craigs, the Mark Foleys, and the Ted Haggards cruelly using their influence by day to dehumanize the same folk that they become by night. In doing so, they wrap themselves in a cocoon of self-hatred, eagerly feeding on the nutrients of ambition as a way to not confront their own reality.
Such Freudian behavior may make for fascinating study for legions of psychotherapist at their annual conferences, but it is unduly harmful to the legions of same-gender couples that simply want to drink from the well of equal protection under the law.
Craig's actions, along with those of former Rep. Foley ignorantly justify the public's "see I told you so" impulses. With little insight into gay culture, lewd acts in public places and the preying on Congressional pages unfairly become the stuff by which an entire community is wrongfully defined.
Going forward, video of Craig's moral indignation about Bill Clinton's sexual dalliances on Meet the Press during the Lewinsky affair ought to be a healthy reminder of the hypocrisy of the hypocrisy.
Moreover, we ought to at least wonder if the pied pipers of morality have indeed constructed moral standards for others that is well beyond their personal reach.
Byron Williams is an Oakland pastor and syndicated columnist. E-mail him at byron@byronspeaks.com or leave a message at (510) 208-6417.