Can't Touch This (Larry Craig and Constitutional Rights)

Bill Handel spent a little bit of time analyzing the allegations against Idaho Senator Larry Craig that appeared in the police report. Here are some of the allegations:

According to the report, an undercover officer entered an airport restroom stall on June 11 and saw Craig standing outside for about two minutes. "Craig would look down at his hands, fidget with his fingers and then look through the crack into my stall again," wrote the officer, Sgt. Dave Karsnia.

The officer said Craig entered the next stall and placed his roller bag against the door. "My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall," the officer wrote.

The officer said Craig tapped his right foot, "a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. ... [Craig] moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area."

Craig then passed his left hand under the stall divider into Karsnia's stall with his palm up and guided it along the divider toward the front of the stall three times, the complaint said.

On this basis, Craig was charged with lewd conduct.

This is probably another example of "when there's smoke, there's probably fire," but Handel pointed out that if Craig hadn't entered a guilty plea to the lesser charge, Craig (in Handel's view) could not have been convicted of lewd conduct.

Congress.org publishes an anonymous letter with a similar theme:

To:
Sen. Larry Craig

August 28, 2007

I would like to show my support for sen.Larry Craig. If anyone posting Letters on this sight actually read the article, since when is it lewd conduct to tap your foot on the floor i believe he was targeted because of who he is if he had been joe american it would have been completely ignored if this is not the case I fear for the future of our country. Larry Craig has my full support.

Idaho Falls , ID

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