SHORT LIVED STEVE ROSE CANDIDACY SHOWS BANKRUPTCY OF REPUBLICAN COALITION

An interesting thing happened recently in the highly Republican state of Kansas which casts doubt upon the future of the Republican Party. A rather distinguished publisher, editor and editorialist, Steve Rose, announced and then abruptly withdrew his candidacy as a Republican primary candidate in the 3rd District. Why was the candidacy so short? Republican rightists did everything but hound Mr. Rose out of the Republican Party because he did not go along with their far right and extremist ideas.


When I first heard of the candidacy of Steve Rose I wondered if he might have a shot at being elected in the district where centrist former prosecutor Dennis Moore has ruled with finesse for many years. I would and do criticize both Moore and Rose from the left side of the political spectrum but found the Rose candidacy a breath of fresh air in an otherwise moribund ranks of Republican rightists.


So the Republican fundamentalists were as angry and intolerant about Rose as they are about any human being that dares to differ with them in any way. Rose soon announced his withdrawal from candidacy; so much the worse for Republican moderates. It seems that Republican fundamentalists and the evangelicals are terrorizing moderate Republicans as well as Democrats. Can such crude conduct keep the Republican coalition together? I would prefer that people like Steve Rose either take over the Republican Party or that they form new political allegiances apart from that increasingly extremist organization.


Of course Steve Rose isn't really qualified to run as a Republican candidate because he can write his own speeches and actually knows what he is talking about.  Republicans tend to look down on exceptional competence and the "witch hunt" faction of the party is always looking for someone in or out of the GOP to persecute.  Ever since the McCarthy era  in the 1950's Republicans have hated "eggheads".  That's how Republicans roll!


Steve Rose is a successful businessman and well informed.  Many Republicans prefer con men and ignorami.  Hence Reagan and GW,

were both blundering idiots, who absolutely squandered American wealth and influence.

Republicans Terroize Health Care Debate

Rachel Maddow and others are documenting some of the brutal behavior being unleashed by the Republicans. The thugery is meant to make impossible a public debate about health care. Republicans, in the service of parasitic "health" related businesses, are doing their best to sabotage a Public Health Care Option that would force so-called "health" insurers to compete with an efficient government run system. It is the simplest thing, much like making Medicare or VA-like medical care available to the public.

Medicare delivers about $97.00 dollars out of $100.00 for health care. Private "insurance schemes" generally commit twenty to thirty percent of all insurance premiums to something other than health care. A few people make a lot of money this way but only $70.00 out of $100.00 actually pays for health care.

More than ten thousand people die each year in the United States of treatable illnesses simply because big insurance companies and financiers run the health industry for profit, not for people. Some consider it a form of murder for profit. Anyway big insurers and the whole vampire pseudo health care industry like it this way. They like the multi- million dollar bonuses and multiple mansions, etc., etc..
So they are sending their quasi-fascist shock troops to intimidate decent law abiding citizens who just want to have a public debate about what health care option will serve the interests of the people,not the filthy rich!

Certainly some like their health insurance but for more than forty million, maybe more like eighty million the premiums are unaffordable. Projected premiums will make health care insurance unaffordable for most of us who are now satisfied.

Since the pseudo-health care industry is doomed anyway. we should escort it off the stage of history rather than let it drag the nation into an even more severe national medical emergency.

As long as public insurers and other narrow-minded profiteers continue to design the health care system for personal gain the United States will continue to fall behind
other nations in the delivery of health care to its citizens.
Republicans are generally complacent about mediocre American health statistics. The rest of us do care about the health of Americans!

Big, fat, ugly, whiter-than-thou folks are sent to these public fora not to discuss but only to disrupt the discussion about health care. Limbaugh look alikes and other assorted bigots shout until everyone gives up and the proceedings shut down.

We need to wake up! Republican thugs are brutalizing the rest of us as usual and making the Insurance Fascists proud. Of course the big Insurance companies want legislation that permanently puts their companies and investors on the public dole. That is what requiring citizens to buy insurance is all about.

The fascist offensive to shut down health care refor is similar to the Republicans tactics and strategy used to shut down the counting of the popular vote in 2000. Remember Bush v. Gore? The Republican coup of 2000 was largely the work of Republican brown shirts who cheerfully sabotaged democracy in Florida. Unlike the Iranian people we and especially Al Gore behaved shamefully and allowed the coup to occur without much protest let alone actually countering and defeating the Republican fascist offensive. The GOP and right wing Republican organizations sent conservative thugs to engage in rioting and the violent disruption of the work of officials trying to count the votes. It was a coup where Republican brown shirts stopped the counting of the vote by force thereby setting up the Supreme Court to bless the coup. Ultimately Supreme Court "Judges" backed the Republican brown shirts and gave the election to G. W. Bush supposedly due to some sort of discrimination!

It was at that time that the whole nation was treated to the spectacle of self-righteous Republican whites cheerfully joking that the people of Florida were too stupid to vote.

The politically corrupt and judicially bankrupt Supreme Court deliberately stood in the way of counting votes but the vote would have already been counted if Republican thugs and rioters were outmanuevered, arrested or wrestled to the ground by defenders of democratic processes. Shamefully the Democrats and most Americans went along with the coup which was only facilitated by Al Gore's loathesome surrender at every step of the way.

Today, Republican brown shirts are running riot again and trying to strong arm their way into destroying the public debates about health care in order to shut them down. It is just part of a broader hate campaign and white supremacist offensive lead by Republicans and their rank and file cracker supporters. This quasi-fascist mass movement that is meant not only to keep tens of millions of Americans without health care but also to overthrow Obama and any semblance of democracy. The Republicans want to turn back the clock but unable to do so they hope to impose a white supremacist cracker capitalism that expels immigrants and restores "white right", ie. forms of white supremacy that have been partially or completely abolished.

Numerous irrational, subtle but potentially effective attacks on Obama have been launched. One example is something you might see on any web site. It is a wandering head of Obama and the web surfer is invited to hit Obama with one of four boxing gloves.

Another attack on Obama shows Obama in Whiteface, looking like a demented clown but still, clearly Obama. He really looks diabolical sort of like the Joker in the Batman movies. This "whiteface" is obviously or not is a way to appeal to white supremacists while demonizing the President.

A third example of what may be scores of small scale assaults on the image of Obama the President is the use of Obama video to sell useless or fraudulent services. The example I have in mind shows an Obama video where he is saying something about credit card and consumer debt. This is on for hours and the salesperson and pseudo new person is using the Obama statements to push these miracle cures for personal debt.

Of course Obama has nothing to do with the product but his video is used for hours at a time, always running in the background to sell what are probably useless or fraudulent schemes to cope with consumer debt. These shoddy products are thus being associated with Obama and are likely to influence some to dislike him even though it makes no logical or factual sense.

Unable to win on any of the issues the Republicans have opted for terrorizing the public and scores of subtle, irrational and they hope effective attacks on Obama. It's
a form of psychological warfare being directed against Obama and the American people by the rich, super rich and Republicans.

Meanwhile Republicans in public office and in private suites shelter literally hundreds of violent militias and white supremacist organizations across the nation. Will anyone stand up to the Republican menace or will their fascist tactics win for them again like it did in Florida?

The Republicans murdered the Presidential election of 2000. The Republican rank and file organize and run white supremacist militias that seem to be configured to carry out acts of violence against other Americans. Curiously, these
well armed vigilantes and militia remain immune to scrutiny or prosecution because of protection by Republican lawmakers and the timidity of Democrats.

The remarkably powerful campaign to convince Americans that Obama is of foreign birth is indicative of the fanaticism and lethal intent of the Republican leadership. They want power and they seem to be willing to say or do anything to get it. I see no respect for the rules of the game with the Republicans!

Nor should we forget the Republican born and bred low intensity war against abortion and birth control providers. The anti-abortion terrorist movement, centered in the Republican right, recently claimed another victim in the person of Dr. Tiller of Wichita. After more than twenty years of bloodshed one might expect Congressional hearings and an effort to deal with this terrorist threat.

Democrats seem weak in their own self defense and in criticism of these widespread acts of terrorism. Republican sanctioned and protected violence continues to intimidate and undermine democracy. These assassins are nestled in the bosom of the Republican Party and are one reason the GOP should be outlawed as a criminal conspiracy.

Dr. George Tiller of Wichita was murdered by a right wing nut case typical of a sector of the Republican Coalition and Right to Kill, oops, I mean Right to "Life" movement. I suspect a majority of "law abiding" Republicans actually are pleased with the murder of Tiller.

Perhaps most residents of Johnson County think of Tiller's murderer as some sort of hero. Of course most are not going to go public with such views but a disturbing number of Republicans seem to think they have a right to terroize, threaten, besmirch and even kill those with whom they disagree politically. And those Republicans who don't endorse such violence themselves are pretty happy to smugly enable the whole thing.

Of course the Republican Insurance thugs invading and disrupting the public fora on health care must be confronted and defeated in the field of public opinion. Of course, legitimate discussion and even protest is fine but the Republican effort to shut down these fora is clearly part of a systematic effort to terrorize the general public and to intimidate politicians who care about actually delivering health care rather than simply funneling super profits to Republican fat cats, parasitic "insurance" companies, big hospital chains, big Pharma, etc., etc..

Republicans could care less about the forty and more millions of citizens not getting health care in this nation.
It is a disgraceful record and all the facts prove the health care vampires and Republican profiteers to be wrong, wrong, wrong. The Republicans, big Pharma, and the Insurance rip off artists cannot win this debate so they and their Republican thugs are going to do their level best to shut the whole debate down with shouting and other forms of violent intimidation.

Will the Republican bullies successfully kick us wimps around once again? I say, "Kick them down the stairs!"
and let them glide on their Limbaugh-like derrières to defeat at the hands of the tens of millions of Americans who need health care and who may ultimately struggle for it with at least the intensity of the Republican brown shirts.

Frankly, modern Republicans look more and more like the fellows that used to run around with ax handles beating up civil rights protesters in the 1960's. Lestor Maddox Republicans, that's what they are! The Republican Party is a party of the past and a party doomed to extinction. Hopefully the Republicans don't succeed in messing up health care reform or in overthowing our elected government.

WHAT IS THE REPUBLICAN COALITION ALL ABOUT? PART I

What is the social basis of the Republican Party, USA, the so called GOP? It is the big bourgeoisie and finance capital in particular. In that sense it is not unlike the Democrats who are also a party of big capital. Both parties need to drag the general public into supporting them and by proxy their masters, big capital.

Of course there is a wee bit of a problem. The extraordinarily wealthy constitute a percent or less of the population and their interests are often in direct opposition to those of the other 99% so they hardly can expect the Republicans or the Democrats to appeal to anyone without at least pretending to discuss issues of interest to the broader public.

If we think briefly about the gun control issue we can see a little better about how the Republicans co-opt their constituency into to supporting their class oppressors.

The Republican Coalition seems rather diverse although it can be thought of a white and Protestant to a large degree of accuracy. This provides a certain amount of cultural cohesion but in terms of issues the coalition is quite diverse.

So I imagine the ruling class would like to see all guns in the hands of their thugs, their armed forces and their police forces and they have done a pretty god job of arranging that
situation. Still, millions of Americans want to keep their guns so the Republicans appeal to that popular desire. So there is a great deal of discussion of supporting this right but clearly, the Republicans are just playing a game in this
regard, to deceive the public into thinking that they represent the interests of run of the mill citizens.

Those who support the citizens' right to bear arms are not necessarily crackpots, far from it. Of course they may have a lot of crazy ideas about other things but the concern about an armed people remains legitimate and perhaps is even foundational in at least revolutionary times such as the War of Independence, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Those citizens, who are stereotypically on the "right"
are certainly in touch with the reality that a more repressive government is more likely if the people are completely unarmed.

So I write this not to demonize a citizen who is concerned about the tyranny of the state or perhaps that the tyranny of the state can go to far.

This is not to completely flush the concerns of those who want to ban guns because these guns are not really helping the poor and oppressed when they are used in petty crime and personal disputes. Both sides have some merit and I hope that both sides can at least understand the concerns of the other side.

Of course it is the white supremacists and fascists, the far right, the open oppressors who have taken up the gun both officially and unofficially in the United States. The recent murder of Dr. Tiller reminds us of that low intensity war, a form of right-wing terrorism directed at progressives, in that case against abortion providers. And that is only one form of rightist violence in the United States today.

Somehow that particular war against abortion providers has not been labeled as such by the Republicans or Democrats. It is a low intensity war with the goal of stopping abortions by killing abortion providers. It is a strategy that ultimately paid off in Wichita for the terrorists, terrorists never labeled as such by the media that otherwise uses the term terrorist with virtually no discretion.

The Democratic party likes to appeal to the other side of the issue, to oppose guns because they kill thousands of folks in street crime, crimes of passion and accidents every year. Yet, at the end of the day the big bourgeoisie wants all the weapons in its hands and no weapons in the hands of the people.

In this regard it can also be said that the Republicans seem to be intimately related to the many militias, generally white militias that have sprung up across the nation. It has to be said that at the core of the Republican's cracker constituency is a morass of right wing organizations that seem to be almost under the protection of the Republican Party.

Crucially we must remember that while the Democrats were once the party of Jim Crow that the white racists left en masse for the Republican party after historic civil rights legislation was passed by the likes of LBJ and other Democrats. White supremacists incubate and flourish under the wings of the Republican coalition and those Republicans that are not conscious racists ignore it or think it is a good thing.

The Republicans have appealed to so-called social conservatism including being against abortion, against birth control, and for a fundamentalist anti-scientific view of the world. The fundamentalist campaigns against the theory of evolution, biological reasearch and modern cosmology have distracted the nation from improving our educational institutions which have been in decline for several decades. Home schooling and religious schools further contribute to the skewing of the population towards
schismatic and bizarre views of the world. At one end of diversity is frank insanity and the Republicans have something close to a monopoly upon the voting insane.

So the white protestants and the white supremacists, we have touched on those constituencies. Then there are the folks who support the right to bear arms. We discussed that and some of the issues that have grown up around it.
We also touched on the armed terrorist groups that seem to fester and live under the protection of the Republican movement as a whole. Some discussion of the role of religious fanatacism has also been introduced. Later on we can say something more about all of this and the Ron Paulists, economic conservatives, and even one of the rarests animals in the United States today the progressive Republican!

DESPERATE REPUBLICANS: SOME ARE KILLING AND SOME ARE JUST GOING PLAIN CRAZY

It seems that the Republicans are in a state of denial, which is not really a new problem. In the twentieth century I used to wonder when the Republican "cowboys" would ride out of the 19th century and enter the twentieth. The Republicans never made the transition.

Now it's the twenty first century and the Republicans are in a sort of panic. They know something is wrong but what could it be? It couldn't be their reactionary ideology of self-righteous narcissism so it must be something else. It couldn't be the ruling class and the finance capitalists even though the Ron Paulists sort of partially know their is a problem their but their only solution is to run the capitalist experiment again!

Republicans are coming up with different answers to the question about how it could be that a party blessed by God could possibly be out of power!

And the current Republican Governor of Texas seeks to lead Texas out of the United States. This is what Republicans have come to, secessionism. He's certifiable as was his predecessor!

Simultaneously the different Republican blocks are headed in their own directions, directions that may or may not leave the Republican Party behind.

Where have the Bushies gone? They are remarkably silent and it seems as if the broad masses of cracker conservatives are yearning for a hate campaign that leads their fools back into the White House. The shrinking middle and professional classes remain largely loyal to the big business and big government GOP but that may change
since the GOP is apparently flying apart despite the desperate efforts of the mass media to put Humpty Dumpty,
or the Republican coalition back together again.

Pretty much the same block of voters remained loyal to Bush despite the economic collapse and his notorious lies. These loyal Bushies have little to say about the great man now. Instead they look with horror at the prospect that they have not only lost political power but are unlikely to see it restored without doing crazy antidemocratic things.

The murder of Dr. Tiller by a religion and conspiracy crazed citizen, not so atypical of about a fifth of the Republican Party, shows in what direction some Republicans are going. Now that the GOP can't rule on behalf of cracker America what is to be done? Do the white supremacists stay in the GOP or start up a new party?

A similar question is being asked by the Ron Paulists. Should they leave a party that will never be libertarian or continue their charade within the GOP?

I am so tired of hearing one story after another about how to possibly revive the GOP! Let the "G-O-P" "D-I-E" a natural death and leave the world in greater peace!

Yes, all the Republicans are eager to find their next little Hitler to unite the wealthy, educated and light against the people of color, workers, small town America, Ma and Pa businesses, and all thinking beings. To paraphrase a President who once let the truth slip out only to rapidly recant it, "The Republicans have, do and will act stupidly!"

McCain Strikes a Pose and Blithers

Senator McCain strikes an arrogant superior pose but what is he actually saying? A nice side shot of Senator McCain can be pretty complimentary. A full view of the man suggests a certain about of physical debilitation. He often seems to be having trouble getting around the room.

For a while Senator McCain praised himself as a war hero and suggested that Senator Obama
was some sort of light weight by comparison. Of course Senator McCain is not admired by either the world or by many Americans for bombing Vietnam. Of course the bombing lobby is powerful and you rarely hear anything bad about an American bombing of some foreign land. It is usually conceived of as anything from a necessary, an absolutely always necessary way of dong business to a fun way to off inferior beings. McCain is on the record calling the Vietnamese "Gooks". That dehumanizing term helped the miltary personnel kill the Vietnamese. Of course McCain killed from the air and it must have been fun except for the fact he got shot down, captured, tortured, and ultimately released.

I can't help but respect and admire Senator McCain's virtues. He is resilient despite being
subjected to tremendous stresses. He has sometimes staked out noble causes while the rest of the Senate was indifferent, to campaign spending in particular. So it is really disappointing to see
him trying to smear Obama by likening him to two notorious creations of the paparazzi and the
pop music industry. It is a brainless comparison that makes McCain a primary candidate for "dumb blonde" jokes.

Then Senator McCain, perhaps thinking he is "oh so clever" taunted Senator Obama to visit Iraq and Afghanistan and "the troops". It was as if Senator McCain thought that Senator Obama couldn't possibly do thatwithout screwing up. After a tour of those nations and visits with many heas of state Obama was shining and Senator McCain cntinued to chatter about Britney Spears. You see, McCain tells us, Senator Obama isn't ready to lead. The jabbering fool trying to slime Senator Obama with tales of notorious women that have nothing to do with anything in this elector.

Then there is Senator McCain's absolue blither about how Senator Obama has caused high oil prices. This is an incredibly stupid assertion trying to be an enaffectivea lie thcat somehow turns Aimericans off to Senator Obama. Stilll, it's the kind of think that Repub

MCCAIN IS A LUNATIC

MCCAIN SEEM SO OLD, SO OLD FASHIONED AND HE MAKES YOU WONDER, WILL HE GET ACROSS THE ROOM?

ONE THING IS FOR SURE, HE IS JUST AS LOONEY AS HIS FELLOW CONSERVATIVES. OBAMA IS THE CAUSE OF EXPENSIVE OIL, ACCORDING TO MCCAIN. PURE INSANITY, NO?

NOW MCCAIN ACCUSES OBAMA OF PLAYING THE "RACE" CARD WHATEVER THAT MEANS. HE DOESN'T EVEN MAKE A CASE FOR THAT IDEA AND IT SEEMS THAT THE RACISTS THAT FORM THE CORE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ARE JUST HOPING FOR MAN OPPORTUNITY TO CARY OUT A POLITICAL LYNCHING OF OBAMA, MAYBE FOR PLAYING THE RACE CARD!

IS MCCAIN PROFOUNDLY IGNORANT OR JUST AN IGNORAMUS?

Forgive me for admiring Senator McCain a bit. Even if he is not as they say "a real mensch" he is at least a fierce old battle ax. He is apparently energetic and likely to live forever.

He has been quite a personal hero, such as things go, and I have to say that this is a lot more than we can say about his Republican colleagues, above whom he towers like a majestic elm.

Still, the other competencies required of a world leader cannot be ignored. Senator McCain recently indicated, in a response to a reporter's question, that Iran and Al Qaeda were working together. This is obviously a pretty silly idea because Sunni and Shia tend not to work together in the arena of fundamentalist military operations, ie. "terrorism".

Senator McCain's close association with Senator Phil Ghram of Conneticut is reavealing. I recently watched Senator Grahm take the would be President aside to inform him that what he was saying about Iran and Al Qaeda was ignorant babble. McCain immediately changed his rhetoric, a bit. Clearly, the would-be President didn't know even the fundamentals of the situation in the Persian Gulf region. It is a shocking realization. What has he been doing in the Senate and now posing as some sort of foreign policy expert not to know much about this region? To this day I wonder this about McCain, "Does he know the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni?" He didn't know then?

Right, Left or Center (I hate to say this) an informed leader is far superior to an ignorant one. Senator McCain has his virtues, understanding of the world is not one of them! So when it comes to understanding the world he hopes to lead he is merely a sickly sapling
even among fifth graders.

Do we want another igrorant man in the White House this time being manipulated by a Senator Phil instead of a Vice President Cheney? Or will it be Vice-President Graham? Did I spell it right this time.

LEWD OR A SELF-HATING GAY REPUBLICAN?

Republican Senator Larry Craig says he did nothing wrong in a men's airport toilet. This is probably true. After all if he was seeking sex with another consenting adult, albeit of the same sex, who can say there is anything wrong with that? Ah, there's the rub. That's exactly the sort of thing Republicans and other conservatives complain about! Senator Larry Craig has been one of those outstanding Christian right-wingers who has publicly condemned people just because they are not heterosexual. So, yes, Mr. Craig did not do anything morally wrong in seeking some sort of companionship, however sleazy, but he has committed serious offenses in seeking to deny people who are not heterosexual equality under the law.

Mr. Senator Craig's role in Republican Mitt Romney's Presidential campaign is interesting. After Senator Craig's brush with the law former Governor Romney is lambasting Senator Craig in a way almost all Republican's bash and discriminate against gays.

This isn't pedophilia. We're talking about adult consensual sex, and if a Republican Senator wants to get freaky while taking a leaky then let the poor man get it on. After all, he's a human being too! Surely Presidential candidate Romney doesn't want to be discriminated against because of stuff like the ancestral practice of "celestial marriage" associated with 19th Century Mormons; so why does he go out of his way to bash Senator Craig just because the Senator wants a "cosmic crap", or whatever he was looking for in the men's room.

On the other hand, we do wonder just how much Senator Craig campaigned against his own kind during his political career. It is incredible to see a gay man engage in such open anti-gay activity just because he is afraid of being exposed. Obviously his fears were justified. Once, just to impress his conservative friends and supporters, Senator Craig joined in the lynch mob to prove he is, a Republican. Now, Romney has flushed him. There is a lot of fear and terror in the heart of such men, a fear caused by a completely unjustified form of bigotry, Republican bigotry.

Let's reject the hypocrisy and expose the hypocrite. Let's repudiate the foremost political advocates of anti-gay law and policies in the United States, Republicans. Frightened gay men in organizations like the Republican party may be tempted, like Senator Craig, to take a highly visible role in persecuting others like themselves. Senator Craig did it and for all we know former Governor Mitt Romney may be playing a similar hypocritical role! What are the Republicans so afraid of? Is it themselves or that Senator in the next bathroom stall? Either way it doesn't make much sense to me.

These Repubicans need repudiation and, if possible, rehabilitation.

JANUARY 23, 2008

It has been great to see Senator Craig stick to his guns and his wide
stance story. Too bad the other Republicans remain just as homophobic
and anti-homosexual as ever. I guess it is political death for a Repubican to be tolerant of anything that isn't heterosexual. They certainly support a lot of divorced politicians so I guess endless fidelity is not required. Is
that especially true of them the more right wing and extremist they get?







___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BBC NEWS
US senator in lewd conduct furore
US Senator Larry Craig has denied being gay and has said he should not have pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after being arrested in a men's toilet.

The Republican senator was held in June by a policeman investigating complaints of lewd behaviour at airport toilets.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Craig said: "I am not gay. I never have been gay." He had done "nothing wrong", he added.

Republican leaders and a watchdog group have asked the Senate ethics committee to investigate Mr Craig's case further.

Mr Craig has already resigned from the 2008 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, former Republican governor of Massachusetts.

Mr Romney said the senator had disappointed the American people, adding that his conduct reminded him of former President Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

"Frankly it's disgusting," he told CNBC.

"He is no longer associated with my campaign ... I am sorry to see that he has fallen short."

Mr Craig, a married father-of-three, said he would announce next month as planned whether he will run for re-election in 2008. He is in his third term as senator for the western state of Idaho.

Hindsight

In a statement issued on Monday, Mr Craig confirmed he had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct three weeks ago.

But, the 62-year-old said, he should not have done so without taking legal advice.

"At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," he said.

"In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

A charge of "gross misdemeanour interference to privacy" was dropped.

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Senate ethics committee on Tuesday.

Toilet 'signal'

According to a police report seen by the Associated Press news agency, Mr Craig entered a stall next to that occupied by an undercover policeman in the men's toilets at Minneapolis-St Paul airport.

According to the policeman, he tapped one foot several times and then moved it into the neighbouring cubicle to brush against the officer's foot.

The police officer recognised that "as a signal often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct", the official complaint said.

Mr Craig then gestured with his hand under the cubicle divider, AP quotes the document as saying, at which point the police officer identified himself.

Court papers show Mr Craig paid $575 in fines and fees and was put on unsupervised probation for a year, while a 10-day jail sentence was stayed, AP says.

Mr Craig has a conservative record in the Senate and has voted against gay rights and same-sex marriage legislation.

The furore comes only weeks after fellow Republican David Vitter admitted he had committed a "very serious sin" after his phone number was linked to an alleged Washington prostitution ring.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6967559.stm

Published: 2007/08/28 22:46:38 GMT

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