While the purists on the Right such as Hugh Hewitt call for Craig’s resignation (I wonder if that would be the case if he hadn’t been so close to Romney?), the left is also in a quandary with this story.

First, again, this was a bad bust. Hell people read the report. A commenter on my last post notes, “the arresting officer says that Craig entered the stall to the left of him. He then goes on to say that Craig passed his left hand, exposing his ring finger, under the wall connecting the stalls. If I am reading this right, Craig must have been turned on his head to use his left hand to motion to the stall to the right of him or would have turned to face the back of the wall to use his left hand.”.

That’s quite a maneuver for a 62 year old man, even a horny one. Hell I’m 50 and would have trouble with it – no really!

Nevertheless, Craig says he isn’t gay and still denies that he was attempting to solicit (He pleading guilty to what amounted to a public nuisance complaint). Hey, I’m not condoning sex in public bathrooms, but I’ve cuffed and stuffed a few who actually committed the crime and this was simply a bad arrest.

Anyway that isn’t the point of the post. If you’ve read some of the lefty blogs – not the stupid-assed posting about another “hypocritical family values gay republican being caught”.

Morons. Hell, they’ve been talking about the gay/lesbian lifestyle IS a family value for years, and as I said before “cruising restrooms” is a favorite single past time for many gay men.

But some of the mainstream liberal blogs like Salon have had arguments among editors on how to present the story. For instance, editor Jacob Weisberg: “Shouldn’t we stick up for the poor guy? I can’t believe it’s a crime to tap your foot on the bathroom to signal that you want to hook up, as opposed to actually having sex in the bathroom.”

Even muckracker Josh Marshall asks, “Following up on David’s post below on what Craig ‘did’, I have to imagine this was one of those catch-22s that Craig really had no way out of. I’m going to assume for the sake of the discussion that the gestures Craig is described as making are ones easily recognizable as soliciting sex. The rubbed shoe (see police report) seems unambiguous to me. With that assumption, it’s still clear that the whole thing didn’t get far enough for Craig to ‘do’ anything lewd. But I’m not sure that matters since obviously you can get hauled off to jail for agreeing to purchase sex from a prostitute even before things get freaky.”

Via Newsbusters, Chris Matthews called Craig a “deviant”, and editor Mark Finkelstein of Newsbusters asks:

“I challenge Matthews to flatly ask the Democratic presidential contenders and other Dem leaders he encounters in coming weeks whether they share his view that all men who engage in such conduct are “sexual deviants.” Should make for some illuminating TV as Dems walk a tightrope between public mores and the sensibilities of one of the Dem party’s important constituent groups.”

And that constituency?

Matt Foreman, of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

“‚ÄúWhat‚Äôs up with elected officials like Senator Craig? They stand for so-called ‚Äòfamily values‚Äô and fight basic protections for gay people while furtively seeking other men for sex. Infuriating pathetic hypocrites. What more can you say?

“There is sad irony that a United States senator from Idaho has been caught up in the same kind of thing that destroyed the lives of dozens of men in Boise in the 1950s, so tragically chronicled in ‘Boys of Boise.’

“And by the way, why are Minneapolis tax dollars being used to have plainclothes police officers lurking idly in airport restroom stalls?”

Read between the lines, they go after Craig, but defend his right to cruise the stalls. According to what they actually defend (free and easy on the Gay lifestyle), they have no choice.

So stand by on this one, it’s going to get interesting.