Though his conduct as an anti-gay hypocrite cannot be excused, practically everyone agrees that his guilty plea was implicitly extracted under the pressure of a career-ending outing and extreme humiliation, rather than the spectre of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Craig never had his proverbial day in court, and as much as you may loathe him or his conduct, such loathing does not compel the conclusion that his guilty plea was coercion-free or a particularly proud moment for our system of criminal justice.CNN Legal Expert, former prosecutor, Jeffrey Toobin and Anderson Cooper jointly noted that virtually no one, certainly no one at "America's Trusted Name in News" aka CNN, caught the words "intention to resign" when they were uttered by Craig on Saturday in Boise. (As it turns out he intentionally used the word intention to leave wiggle room for a later change of strategy.) Toobin and Anderson also momentarily brought the discussion around to the question: what were the Minneapolis police doing using valuable law enforcement resources on this sting operation, anyway? I am inclined to discomfort about the sting, especially when our airports need every available officer to protect us from terrorism. Couldn't some cameras and posted warnings ('This location is patrolled by undercover police. Loitering and lewd behavior will be vigorously prosecuted.") have gone a long way to discourage inappropriate behavior in the restroom, thus avoiding the unseemly planting of an undercover cop as bait in a restroom stall? Other than Spector, Senate Republicans are not happy to hear that the Larry Craig story has been resurrected for another news cycle. That, in the end, is probably the best news to come of this tonight.

Related, New York Post gossip columnist, Cindy Adams, writes:

I have nothing for this ruined ex- politico ex-senator ex-nice family man Larry Craig. Never met him. Never heard of him before. I don't care a fig about him. I don't care about Idaho either. I don't even know where that is, other than you get to Chicago and make a left. Aside from a baked potato topped with sour cream, who-the-hell ever makes mention of Idaho? So, I have no horse in this race. It's just that in my limited, not-very-smart view, his guilt is primarily hypocrisy.
The rest of the crime, if in fact Craig is gay, is of our making. The tawdry solicitation leaves us partly to blame. Draping homosexuality in shame is what forces the weak to hide and lie and rail against it publicly in order to cover themselves privately. A guess would be he spoke and voted and campaigned against it in fear for himself. To draw a curtain around his own being. Those Enron guys probably didn't start out bilking billions. They started small. A little here, a bit more there. It's always the first step. Suddenly you're in it up to your eyeballs. Same with this shivering little scared mess of a man. Terrified of his own self, he early on made one statement. Then maybe had to back it up. Then he maybe enlarged it. All in mortal dread that his innermost voice might make itself heard.
Possibly someday, if all of us, each with our own demons, could wash away the stain of whatever tints our sexuality, this pathetic soul would never have picked a bathroom for a bedroom.