Republicans finally respond to rampant hypocrisy

Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007 | 10 p.m.

Washington

Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho is the latest conservative champion of so-called Republican “family values” to be exposed as a political fraud.

Hypocrisy in the capital's corridors of power is never in short supply, but Craig's duplicity is particularly crude.

A vice squad cop caught Craig in an airport men's room making an overture widely recognized as an invitation to public sex. Craig pleaded guilty but tried to recant later with his downcast wife at his side, repeating “I am not gay”' and blaming it all on that favorite political villain, the prying media. Nobody believed him. The remarkable thing about this ugly episode is that his GOP colleagues, as well as President Bush and Mitt Romney, in whose campaign Craig held a leadership position, all turned instantly against him.

The Republicans, it seems, are finally getting it. The mantra of moral purity invoked by the religious right is collapsing from its own obvious shortcomings. “Watch what I say, not what I do” has never been a winning message.

Congressional Republicans have repeatedly pushed punitive measures to ban same-sex marriage, deny legal benefits such as health insurance to unmarried partners of workers, and generally demonize gay men and women. Craig, predictably, voted for all of them, although rumors about his sexual orientation have circulated for more than 20 years. Until now, however, there was no proof. Change has been slow in coming. Last year's scandal over Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., was a major turning point.

The House GOP leadership refused to face the mounting evidence of Foley's inappropriate interest in young congressional interns and watched helplessly as the scandal erupted in their faces.

It contributed to the loss of the party's control of Congress and prompted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's pending retirement.

Republicans slowly are waking up to the reality that we are no longer a nation dominated by stay-at-home moms and devout church-going families who believe everything their minister says.

Craig's offense comes at a time when Republicans find themselves in a congressional minority, hobbled by an unpopular president and an even more unpopular war. To their credit, the Senate GOP leadership has had a reality check. Craig's case was immediately referred to the Senate Ethics Committee, headed now by a Democrat, Barbara Boxer of California.

GOP leaders asked Craig to give up his ranking position on a committee and two subcommittees “for the good of the Senate” and he dutifully complied. Some senators also called for Craig to resign right away, not simply announce that he would not seek reelection next year. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a GOP presidential candidate whose fortunes are fading, led the way on the grounds that “when you plead guilty to a crime, you shouldn't serve” (in public office).

Romney called the hypocrisy of his former ally “disgusting.” 

Actually, wasn't that what Craig called President Bill Clinton when the Monica Lewinsky affair was exposed? Oops, no. According to television clips, Craig called Clinton “nasty.”  That's even more harshly judgmental. The attitude of moral superiority is the same, though.

Ex-New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who leads in the polls for the GOP presidential nomination, has endured a lot of conservative criticism for his messy private life, with a third wife and grown kids so distant they won't campaign for him. Asked about this at a town hall meeting, he responded testily, “Leave my family alone -- just like I'll leave your family alone.”

He did not elaborate, but if this is the philosophical breakthrough it appears to be, a Giuliani presidency actually might prompt the GOP finally to shake off rigid family-intrusive policies that are mean-spirited, narrow-minded and increasingly out of step with the changes in American lives.

For Craig, the only question left is how swiftly he can be run out of town on a rail now that he has resigned. His political career is finished, and possibly his marriage. He said there was a “cloud over Idaho.” No, the cloud is only over Craig. Idaho will do just fine without him.

Marianne Means is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers.