WIDE STANCE REPUBLICAN LARRY CRAIG RETURNS TO THE SENATE-- TO BE SHUNNED BY HIS FELLOW WINGNUTS

Earlier when I was looking for the list of the extremist Republicans who had joined Mitch Obstructionist McConnell in blocking a bill that will give residents of Washington, DC permanent congressional representation, I saw Larry Craig's name right up there where it usually is-- with Trent Lott and John McCain, Saxby Chamberpot, John Cornyn, James Inhofe, Pete "Sneaky Pete" Domenici, Jeff Sessions, Lindsey Graham, Elizabeth Dole and the rest of the radical right whenever it comes to putting the kibosh on granting equal rights to anyone who isn't white, rich, straight and male. I guess toilet trolling Craig hasn't had his moment on the road to Damascus yet.

Maybe he thought that showing up on the Senate floor and voting like an extremist would show his fellow rightists that even if he is a toe-tapping hypocrite, he's still one of them. It didn't work. With John McCain-- who was forgiven by his fellow Republicans after his participation in the S&L Bank fraud scandal (the Keating Five brouhaha, which cost taxpayers billions of dollars thanks to the bribe-taking McCain) and Miss McConnell-- leading the way, Republican senators largely turned their backs on Craig and shunned him like a pariah. The senators who did treat him like a human being were Mary Landrieu (D-LA), fellow Idahoan Mike Crapo (R-ID), Arlen Specter (R-PA), fellow closet queen Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Evan Bayh (D-IN). Most of the time Craig stood "awkwardly alone" and when he barged in on the weekly GOP closed-door luncheon, it was described by one participant as "awkward." Nice bunch of Christian gentlemen, aren't they?

At a Free Speech Symposium in Baltimore, Ralph Nader wondered how many more wrongs does George Bush have to do in order for Nancy Pelosi to put impeachment back on the table: "Go to a Minneapolis airport toilet and tap someone's foot in the next stall?" Nader and John Waters discuss who's more odious-- George Bush or Larry Craig: