Sarah Palin made it into yesterday's Hardball Sideshow along with Larry "Wide Stance" Craig. Seems like a fitting place for her.

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Here is Palin's actual tweet:

Victory in NYC for liberty-loving soda drinkers. To politicians with too much time on their hands we say: Govt, stay out of my refrigerator!
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) March 12, 2013

"Liberty loving soda drinkers?" Seriously?

I guess it would be a waste of time to inform Palin that Mayor Bloomberg is really battling the drink manufacturers who create these bladder bursting, sugar infused, contributors to childhood obesity,  and not the people are so easily duped into purchasing them.

You would think a woman planning to write a fitness book would be supportive of such a measure.

Oh that's right, now she is writing about the "War on Christmas" instead.

Personally I doubt she knows any more about that topic, than she did about fitness.

Oh, and by the way, the government was never not going to "stay out" of Palin's refrigerator. This law was for New York only, a place that even Sarah Palin cannot see from Alaska, and it had to do with the sale of large servings of sugary drinks in restaurants, stadiums, and other eating establishments, not what was stored in a private refrigerator.

So the tweet is, as usual, ridiculous.

In an effort to keep myself from posting about Barack Obama, I bring back everybody's favorite Larry Craig!

In a bid to overturn his guilty plea, Sen. Larry Craig's attorneys are arguing the alleged hand swiping in a Minneapolis bathroom stall is constitutionally protected speech.

Lawyers for the Idaho Republican also argue the bathroom encounter isn't criminal because it didn't involve multiple victims. Craig is hoping to erase his guilty plea in the bathroom sex sting.

The appeals brief says Minnesota's disorderly conduct law "requires that the conduct at issue have a tendency to alarm or anger 'others."' The brief says only one person was affected -- the undercover officer.

So Larry Craig is innocent because his attempt to initiate sex could only have creeped out one person? Does that mean that if a man exposes himself to only one woman he cannot be arrested?

If that is so then I have the rest of my evening all planned out.

(By the way if any of you stare at that picture above for any length of time I am confident that you will be both alarmed and get a bad case of heebie jeebies.)

Oh you are not going to believe this!

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig will argue before an appeals court that Minnesota's disorderly conduct law is unconstitutional as it applies to his conviction in a bathroom sex sting, according to a new court filing.

This is the first time Craig's attorneys have raised that issue. However, an earlier friend-of-the-court filing by the American Civil Liberties Union argued that Craig's foot-tapping and hand gesture under a stall divider at the Minneapolis airport are protected by the First Amendment.

You might want to read that again just to convince yourself that you did not get it wrong.

Yes Larry Craig is saying that his actions in the bathroom stall of an airport was protected by this amendment to the Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So is Larry Craig claiming he was practicing some arcane religious belief? Probably not.

Well he is certainly not very competent when it comes to the press, so let us assume he is suggesting that he was practicing "free speech".

I guess I should commend Craig and his legal team with having gigantic balls to suggest that tapping your foot on the floor of a bathroom is protected by the First Amendment, but I can't because it just seems so completely desperate.

If Larry Craig thinks he is mending the damage done to his reputation by his initial arrest he is very wrong. He is simply providing vast amounts of ammunition for late night talk show hosts and bloggers such as myself. And though we appreciate it, I cannot help but feel sorry for somebody who created a life of cards and will not accept that it has fallen down and simply cannot be rebuilt.

Okay this may or may not be one of Larry Craig's sexual partners.

If you follow all of the links you are rewarded with a VERY graphic story of a sexual encounter that you may spend the rest of the day trying to forget.

Or maybe you will simply love it.

Who am I to judge?

Larry Craig on Mitt Romney: "And he not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again."

When asked if Craig regrets his decision not to tell anyone about the July 11 incident in a men's bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Craig tells Lauer:

"It was a tough call, Matt, a very tough call....I was very, very embarrassed about it. I wrestled with it. I didn't want to embarrass my wife, my kids, Idaho and my friends. And I wrestled with it a long while. I sought no counsel. I made a very big mistake. I should have told my wife. I should have told my kids. And most importantly, I should have told counsel."

Craig tells Lauer: "I was very proud of my association with Mitt Romney. I'd worked hard for him here in the state. I was a co-chair of his campaign on Capitol Hill. And he not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again."

It looks like if Craig is going down he is taking everyone down with him.

I think that makes him my brand new favorite Republican!

P.S. Apparently Keith Olbermann used that exact phrase earlier this year. I did not even know that Keith knew Larry Craig. Hmmm.

To the Republican party's dismay Larry Craig's "wide stance" proves impossible to budge.

Now that scandal-tinged Idaho Sen. Larry Craig has reneged on a pledge to resign this fall, his fellow Republican senators act as though they hardly know him. They want voters to forget him, too.

But they privately acknowledge that an earlier strategy to drive Craig from office has backfired, sticking them with an open-ended ethics investigation likely to keep the issue before the public for months.

I don't often find anything to thank the Republican party for, but I have to offer them my heart felt thanks for helping to keep the Larry Craig controversy alive.

Thanks fellas.

Saturday Night Live does Larry Craig. No not literally.

This was just to good not to post.

Idaho Hall of Fame inducts Larry Craig. I guess his wide stance made him irresistible.

Sen. Larry Craig has been chosen for induction into the Idaho Hall of Fame, despite his well-publicized arrest and guilty plea in an airport sex sting, officials said.

The nonprofit Idaho Hall of Fame Association picked Craig in March, months before he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after a Minneapolis airport police officer accused him of soliciting sex in the men's restroom, the organization's board chairman said.

"Larry Craig has made a great contribution to Idaho over the period of 20-some years. At the time it was considered, this other matter had not come up," Harry Magnuson told The Spokesman-Review newspaper Saturday.

Well good for Larry Craig.

This is a giant leap forward for closeted gay Republican Senators everywhere.

We are a nation of sick, sick people.

When tourists ask for the bathroom in the Minneapolis airport lately, it's usually not because they have to go.

It's because they want to see the stall made famous by U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's arrest in a sex sting.

''It's become a tourist attraction,'' said Karen Evans of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. ''People are taking pictures.''

I wonder if everybody who goes into the stall attempts their own "wide stance".

Republican politicians are just whores who cannot tell the truth, but here is one prostitute who can pass a lie detector test.

A former New Orleans prostitute who says she had an affair with Sen. David Vitter has passed a lie-detector test and will provide details of the four-month relationship at a press conference Tuesday, according to Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt.

Wendy Cortez, whose real name is Wendy Ellis, says she had a sexual relationship with Vitter, R-La., in 1999, when he was a state legislator.

Copies of the results of Cortez's polygraph test, which she took at Flynt's request, will be provided to reporters at the news conference at Flynt's office in Beverly Hills, Calif., Hustler said in a news release Monday.

Vitter spokesman Joel Digrado wouldn't comment on the Flynt news conference. In an e-mail, Digrado said, "Sen. Vitter and his wife have addressed all of this very directly. The senator is focused on important Louisiana priorities like the water resources bill and the Iraq debate."

Larry Craig gets vilified and given the bums rush for possibly trying to make a friend in the men's room, with a man. The hypocritical Republicans jump all over Craig for being unable to control his sexual proclivities and act like he is suddenly radioactive.

However Vitter gets a free pass and continues to represent the American people after being accused of breaking the law by paying for sex, with a woman. Nobody comes out saying he needs to leave office or acts all indignant that he cannot control his sexual proclivities.

Now I know that Craig pleaded guilty to "disorderly conduct", but he could have been faced with those same charges if he had an argument with somebody over a parking space.

But Vitter paid a woman, who is not his wife, to have sex with his pudgy ass! That is a real crime.

Now just in case anybody thinks I am not being fair, I will go on record as saying I could not care less WHAT these guys do to satisfy their sexual urges. Larry Craig could pull a train in the men's room as far as I am concerned. And David Vitter could have orgy's in his hotel room with a dozen or more ladies of the evening. I would never deign to pass judgement on them.

That is if they were not total fucking hypocrites!

If you are a "families values" Republican then you have raised the bar for yourself. You are standing yourself up as an example of the kind of deeply moral individual that your party arrogantly demands that all Americans attempt to emulate.

So if you are found to be the complete opposite of the person you claimed to be, and campaigned as, then you should step down from your public office. Because you attained that office by completely misrepresenting yourself. You are a liar. And we do not need any more liars running our country anymore.

And if you are a party which claims to be the arbiter of that which is moral and ethical in this country, then you cannot choose to treat those who have betrayed your trust based on which betrayal you find personally the most repugnant.

I look forward to watching the Republicans demanding that David Vitter take a lie detector test, and if he fails , to leave office just like they asked of Larry Craig. It is the fair thing to do.

Rob Corddry returns to help Jon "plumb" the depths of the Larry Craig story.

Yeah I know I am being a little self indulgent. But I have been waiting so patiently for Jon and company to riff on this, and it was so good, that I just have to share.

The Daily Show is back!

Jon laments the fact that he comes late to the "make fun of Larry Craig" story. But with the help of a back up singer he does a great job of catch up. Back up singer?



So good!

Larry Craig is going to file papers tomorrow to reverse his guilty plea.

Okay I am not going to make any puns, I am just going to report that I heard this on CNN.

I don't have a news story to link to yet, but when I do, I will.

Can you just feel the excitement in the air?

P.S. I found the news story. You can read it here.

Here is an excerpt from the story:

The source, who asked for anonymity because the pleadings had not been filed Sunday, also said Craig's court papers will argue that the Idaho senator essentially pleaded guilty to facts that did not constitute a crime. The source said Craig waived his rights to trial and counsel and never saw a judge before entering a plea by mail.

The senator's lawyers plan to argue that the police officer who arrested Craig suggested that pleading guilty was "an easy way out of this" because he claimed he would not alert the media. When asked if the police officer's behavior was "coercive," the source said no — but added that in his view, Craig did not make a "knowing and intelligent plea."

You know what? I think the crazy bastard is going to try to hang on to his Senate seat.

Is it Christmas? Why am I getting gifts already?

Larry Craig is giving Republicans a bad case of acid reflux disease.

Republican senators held what one participant called a "passionate" and "spirited" closed-door discussion Wednesday afternoon about how their leaders responded to the sex scandal involving their colleague Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, CNN has learned.

At least three senators complained their leaders "rushed to judgment" while others defended the leaders for quickly pulling their support from the disgraced senator, according to one Republican senator in the room and two GOP aides familiar with the meeting.

"We had to discuss it," the senator said.

Sen. Ted. Stevens of Alaska, whose home was recently raided as part of a federal corruption probe, stood up to say it's wrong to prejudge these matters.

He was joined by Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Sen. Michael Enzi of Wyoming, who also "wagged their finger" at the leadership, in the words of one of the aides. But many more senators stood to defend the leaders, even greeting Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky with applause when he was introduced to discuss the topic at the weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon in the Capitol.

Oh yeah, Uncle Ted would really like people not to pass judgement on possibly illegal activities.

I think that we are watching a political party that is being ripped to pieces from the inside out.

(I am going to confess that I tried to find a way to work the term "wide stance" into this post but could not come up with anything that did not seem immature and self serving. And for some reason that stopped me this time. God I hope I am not maturing or anything.)

Larry Craig not only tries to have sex with the wrong people he also leaves voice messages for the wrong people.

Sen. Larry Craig (R) opened the possibility of reversing his stated intention to resign from the Senate on Sept. 30 in a voice mail message obtained by Roll Call that the Idaho conservative inadvertently left at a wrong number.

Craig left the digitally recorded message on the recipient's mobile phone voice mail Saturday morning, about a half-hour before he announced his intention to resign his Senate seat at month's end. The message was provided to Roll Call by the phone's owner, who is a Washington, D.C., resident not involved in politics and is not the person the Senator was trying to reach. Craig discussed his forthcoming announcement more as a strategy to rehabilitate his political fortunes than a statement about his looming departure.

"Yes, Billy, this is Larry Craig calling. You can reach me on my cell. [Sen.] Arlen Specter [R-Pa.] is now willing to come out in my defense, arguing that it appears, by all that he knows, that I've been railroaded and all of that," Craig said on the voice mail. "Having all of that, we've reshaped my statement a little bit to say it is my 'intent' to resign on Sept. 30.

"I think it is very important for you to make as bold a statement as you are comfortable with this afternoon and I would hope you could make it in front of the cameras," Craig continued. "I think it would help drive the story that I am willing to fight, that I've got quality people out there fighting in my defense, and that this thing could take a new turn or a new shape; it has that potential."

How did this guy get to be a Senator? He just seems very scatter brained and not terribly bright.

Okay I swear that I was finished. I was done posting about Larry "Wide Stance" Craig. But everytime I try to quit they just drag me back in again.

Sen. Larry Craig is reconsidering his decision to resign after his arrest in a Minnesota airport sex sting and may still fight for his Senate seat, his spokesman said Tuesday evening.

"It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore, that the only thing he could do was resign," Sidney Smith, Craig's spokesman in Idaho's capital, told The Associated Press.

"We're still preparing as if Senator Craig will resign Sept. 30, but the outcome of the legal case in Minnesota and the ethics investigation will have an impact on whether we're able to stay in the fight _ and stay in the Senate," Smith said.

This is all over the cable news programs today. And who can blame them? This thing is the gift that just keeps on giving.

So Senator Arlen Specter recently said that he does not think that Craig should just give up, and that the case against him is flimsy. The very next we know Craig's spokesman is saying that Craig has not decided if he is going to resign or not.

Now I think that the case against Craig was kind of flimsy as well, right up until he PLEADED GUILTY! If you are innocent, and did nothing wrong, you do not plead guilty! The only people who would do that are guilty people!

And then he mentions entrapment during the police interview. But if you were entrapped, it means that you did the crime, but were tricked into doing it.

If Craig fights this thing he is going to be put under a microscope that I am pretty damn sure his reputation will not survive. I think that most of are pretty convinced that this was not Larry Craig's first time playing tap your toes in the potty. If he goes forward with this we are going to have a veritable potpourri of Larry Craig disgusting sexual shenanigans.

This is also going to keep reminding voters that the Republican party is filled with family values hypocrites.

Is it wrong that I am looking forward to this?

Do you want to see Larry Craig's press conference done as a musical number? Well duh!

I may have to go into rehab to get off of this like I almost had to do to get off of the "Dick Cheney shot an old man in the face" story. But this is like "blogger crack" to me.

I am still waiting for his official "I am stepping down to spend more time with my family" speech today. Maybe after that I can go cold turkey.

Thursday comics. Featuring guess who?

Republicans, who are clearly terrified of getting a little gay on them, call for Larry Craig's resignation.

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig's political support eroded by the hour on Wednesday as fellow Republicans in Congress called for him to resign and party leaders pushed him unceremoniously from senior committee posts.

The White House expressed disappointment, too _ and nary a word of support for the 62-year-old lawmaker, who pleaded guilty earlier this month to a charge stemming from an undercover police operation in an airport men's room.

Craig "represents the Republican Party," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the first in a steadily lengthening list of GOP members of Congress to urge a resignation.

Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Norm Coleman of Minnesota joined Hoekstra in urging Craig to step down, as did Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida _ and others who joined them as the day wore on.

McCain spoke out in an interview with CNN. "My opinion is that when you plead guilty to a crime, you shouldn't serve. That's not a moral stand. That's not a holier-than-thou. It's just a factual situation."

Coleman said in a written statement, "Senator Craig pled guilty to a crime involving conduct unbecoming a senator."

I do agree with McCain and Coleman that Craig did break the law and therefore needs to leave office. Where I disagree with all of these guys is the underlying theme that being gay is an automatic get out of "politics free card" for Republicans.

It is that very fact which makes somebody like Mr. Craig feel the need to find an outlet for his repressed sexuality in a public restroom. You don't hear about Barney Frank groping somebody under the bathroom stall door in Massachusetts.

Maybe if Craig could have been gay and socially accepted in the Republican party he may not have destroyed his life. Because lets face it, neither McCain nor Mitt Romney would ever let a Republican fag work for their campaign, or appear in a photo op with them. It would screw with their "family values and hate the homosexual"political platform.

By the way here is a YouTube video of "Wide Stance" back in 1982 denying that he was gay during a scandal centering on Congressional Pages that did not even name him as a participant.



Larry Craig, not having sex with men since 1982.

Another closeted Republican Senator arrested for being naughty in a mens room.

Roll Call is reporting that Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, was arrested earlier this summer in a men's room at the Minneapolis airport by an undercover officer investigating complaints about sexual activity. The Capitol Hill newspaper says it obtained the arrest report.

You just HAVE to read Craig's explanation for his behavior. It is a riot!

I sometimes feel badly for these guys. They decide, probably due to a small town environment and conservative parents, to hide who they really are and then spend their whole lives struggling with urges and desires that they find morally repugnant.

It must be a kind of living hell.

Unfortunately it is much harder to forgive anybody for these stances: Strongly Opposes Same-sex domestic partnership benefits. YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. NO on prohibiting job discrimination sexual orientation. NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage.