By DPA
Washington : A US senator who was a top official in Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s campaign has insisted he was not gay after pleading guilty to charges of disorderly conduct in a men’s airport bathroom in the Mid-West.
Idaho Senator Larry Craig made a public apology Tuesday for bringing a “cloud” over his home state, and blamed his poor judgement in the incident on the pressure he was under from a local newspaper, which had been investigating him.
“I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport… and I regret the decision to plead guilty,” Craig said in broadcast remarks. “I am not gay, I never have been gay.”
Craig was arrested in June at a Minnesota Airport – two states east of Idaho – by a plainclothes policeman who was checking out complaints of lewd behaviour and sexual activity in the men’s public bathroom, according to the Capitol Hill publication, Roll Call.
The incident has sparked lively public debate, and protests from the gay community over his remarks.
“There’s nothing gay about what he was doing,” said Dan Savage, a gay American sex advice columnist, on a CNN talk show. “Gays don’t like to see this going on.”
Craig resigned on Monday from the post in Romney’s campaign after revelations about the incident.
The Senate Republican leadership has called on the ethics committee for a probe, and intends to review other aspects of the case, CNN reported.
The incident has sparked public debate, and protests from the gay community over his remarks.
Craig, 62, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge – disorderly conduct – and paid a $500 fine, Roll Call reported. He was also sentenced to ten days in jail and was given a year’s probation.
Craig said his biggest mistake was not discussing the incident with a lawyer, his wife, family, friends or staff, before and after pleading guilty in August to the charges.
“I chose to plea guilty to a lesser charge in hopes of making it go away,” said Craig, who has served 26 years in the Congress.
He said it was a “mistake” to not have consulted an attorney before the plea, and blamed his poor judgement on an eight-month “witch-hunt” by the Idaho Statesman into charges of homosexual conduct in public men’s bathrooms.
The newspaper did not publish any results of its probe until Tuesday, after the revelation of the Minnesota incident. Until then, it said it had only one credible Washington-train-station incident after interviewing 300 people, and the person making the charges refused to allow his name to be used.
The rest of the information described in Tuesday’s article consisted of innuendo and rumours. The Statesman said impetus for the story came from charges made on the Internet in October on a gay-operated website that is trying to “out” homosexual politicians who oppose gay rights in public but act otherwise in private.
“For eight months … my family and I have been relentlessly and viciously harassed by the Idaho Statesman,” Craig said. “I am not gay … I love my wife.”
Craig, who has opposed gay rights in the workplace and allowing homosexuals in the military, said he “overreacted” in the Minneapolis airport incident by pleading guilty.
In the police incident-report cited by Roll Call, a plainclothes sergeant described how Craig came into the bathroom – the site of previous arrests – and took a seat in a stall.
The Republican senator came in and stood outside his door and peered at the detective through the crack, looked down, and then through the crack several times over two minutes, Sergeant Dave Karsnia said. The senator then entered the stall next to his, sat down and tapped his foot in a familiar signal “used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct,” the report said.
The senator then moved his foot to touch Karsnia’s, and swiped his hand under the stall divider several times, Roll Call reported.
Craig said he was trying to pick up a piece of paper from the bathroom floor when his hand strayed underneath the divider.