Oh, for Pete's sake!

I have been busy today and tuned to CNN this evening to catch up on the national news...or their version of it...when Anderson Cooper began talking about how Senator Craig may - or may not - resign, depending on how the attempt to reopen his case in Minnesota goes. According to press accounts, the slippery wording in his statement on Saturday, that he "intends to resign on September 30" is nothing more than that...an intention, subject to re-evaluation and reconsideration. What this sort of parsing reminds me of, more than anything, is the ruminations of former President Clinton on the nature of the word "is," and what it might mean at a particular moment in time.

This is sad, pathetic, and unconscionable behavior, not worthy of a politician of his tenure. While I have no doubt that he regrets his decision not to fight the charges in the first place, the fact remains that he did not. And the reason he did not is that he feared the reaction which ultimately came to pass.

Is it reasonable that police spend their time sitting on toilets, trying to catch toe-tappers in public restrooms? Who knows? But I certainly would not want to find myself in a restroom where public sexual relations are occurring, and I absolutely would not want to subject children to behavior of that sort. And I could not care less whether the sex in question is homosexual, heterosexual, or has to do with plants, gourds, or watermelons. It is simply not appropriate behavior in a public setting.

Well. More than anything, it brings to mind the joke about how politicians are like diapers. They both need to be changed a lot, and for the same reason.

I sincerely doubt that the case will be reopened. Craig is a lawyer, and if I can read the statement he signed and understand that he absolutely forfeited his right to reconsideration or reversal, he clearly ought to understand the English employed by that document. There just isn't any wiggle room. And the thing is, the only thing that fighting that fight will accomplish is keeping the scandal on the media radar for the next couple of months. He cannot unring this bell, whether the case is overturned or no. His political career is over.

I believe that Senator Craig should gather the remains of his dignity and resign. Without equivocation. Immediately.