Matt Ortega

Listen to the audio from Senator Larry Craig’s (R-Idaho) June 11 arrest at a Minnesota airport restroom.

From the guys at Sadly, No!:

“The Saints are Coming,” by U2 and Green Day

Media Matters picked up on a bizarre story conservative commentator Tucker Carlson told on MSNBC Live last night while discussing the June 11 bathroom arrest of Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) at a Minnesota airport.

On the August 28 edition of MSBNC Live, hosted by MSNBC general manager Dan Abrams, Tucker Carlson, host of MSNBC’s Tucker, asserted, “Having sex in a public men’s room is outrageous. It’s also really common. I’ve been bothered in men’s rooms.” Carlson continued, “I’ve been bothered in Georgetown Park,” in Washington, D.C., “when I was in high school.” When Abrams asked how Carlson responded to being “bothered,” Carlson asserted, “I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the — you know, and grabbed him, and … hit him against the stall with his head, actually.”

Tucker Carlson’s spokeswoman e-mailed a statement from the commentator to Media Matters that, not surprisingly, isn’t the same story he told on national television less than 24 hours prior.

Let me be clear about an incident I referred to on MSNBC last night: In the mid-1980s, while I was a high school student, a man physically grabbed me in a men’s room in Washington, DC. I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men’s room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I seized the man and held him until a security guard arrived.

Several bloggers have characterized this is a sort of gay bashing. That’s absurd, and an insult to anybody who has fought back against an unsolicited sexual attack. I wasn’t angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me.

Read more about Carlson’s admission from Pam Spaulding at AmericaBLOG.

(Hat tip: Think Progress)

Rafael Noboa, a political consultant and Iraq War veteran, wrote an interesting piece at Open Left that asks the presidential candidates to stop thanking veterans for their service.

The “thank [you, your son, your daughter, etc.] for [your, their] service” has lost all value when you see candidates use it on the campaign trail. It is just another basic element of their stump speech and lacks the sincerity that the phrase deserves. It is something that I felt I could never authentically write about as I am not a veteran.

Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested June 11 on charges of lewd conduct while at a Minnesota airport public restroom and pleaded guilty on August 8, Roll Call reports.

Craig’s arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.

A spokesman for Craig described the incident as a “he said/he said misunderstanding,” and said the office would release a fuller statement later Monday afternoon.

MSNBC’s The News Hole has more:

“My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall,” Karsnia stated in his report. “From my seated position, I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig seated to the left of me.”

Craig was wearing dress pants with black dress shoes.

“At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area,” the report states.

Updated 8/27/07 at 4:47pm: Here’s the video of then-Congressman Larry Craig denying involvement in a sex/drugs scandal from July 1982: