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UPDATE: PODCAST - POLICE RELEASE SEN. LARRY
CRAIG
INTERROGATION AUDIO TAPE - LISTEN HERE -- "I
don't do
those things. I am not gay...I don't do these
types of things."
Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID)
Just when I thought this couldn't get any
worse.............
The police have released Sen. Larry Craig's
interrogation tape. You can listen here...length is 8:58...file is
4.11mb in MP3 format...click
here to listen or download...
Be sure to read the story below.
For background on the Larry Craig bathroom
bust, with backlinks...click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/
nf07/nfAUG07/nf083007-6.htm
For more on Sen. Larry Craig, use the VA
Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org
/sessearch.php?q=larry
+craig&op=ph
Latest story here...
http://www.forbes.com/
feeds/ap/2007/08/30/ap4070478.html
Story below:
-------------------------
Officer Accused Craig of Lying
By MATTHEW DALY
WASHINGTON - The officer who arrested Sen. Larry Craig in a police
undercover operation at an airport men's room accused the senator of
lying to him during an interrogation afterward, according to an
audiotape of the arrest.
On the tape, released Thursday by the Minneapolis Airport Police, the
Idaho Republican senator, in turn, accuses the officer of soliciting him
for sex.
"I'm not gay. I don't do these kinds of things," Craig told Sgt. Dave
Karsnia minutes after the two men met in a men's room at the airport on
June 11.
"You shouldn't be out to entrap people," Craig told the officer. "I
don't want you to take me to jail."
Karsnia replied that Craig wouldn't be going to jail as long as he
cooperates.
At one point during the interrogation, the officer told Craig: "You're
not being truthful with me. I'm kind of disappointed in you, senator."
Meanwhile, more of Craig's Republican colleagues moved away from him
Thursday in the wake of his guilty plea earlier this month to a reduced
charge of disorderly conduct in the undercover police operation aimed at
sex solicitors.
Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who chairs the GOP's senatorial campaign
committee, stopped short of calling on Craig to resign, but suggested
strongly that he should.
"I wouldn't put myself hopefully in that kind of position, but if I was
in a position like that, that's what I would do," Ensign told The
Associated Press in his home state. "He's going to have to answer that
for himself."
Sens. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, each turned
over to charity $2,500 campaign donations they had received from Craig's
political action committee. Coleman and Collins both face potentially
tough faces for re-election next year.
Coleman and several other Republicans - including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
- have called for Craig to resign his seat in the Senate. Craig already
has agreed to a request by Republican leaders to give up his ranking
status on the Veterans Affairs Committee and appropriations
subcommittees.
Craig said Tuesday he had committed no wrongdoing and shouldn't have
pleaded guilty. He said he had only recently retained a lawyer to advise
him in the case, which threatens to write an ignominious end to a
lifetime in public office.
GOP Senate leaders said they did not act lightly in asking Craig to give
up his leadership posts temporarily. But they said their decision was
"in the best interest of the Senate until this situation is resolved by
the ethics committee."
On the tape, Craig and the arresting officer can be heard arguing over
what happened in the men's room minutes earlier. Craig acknowledges that
the men's feet bumped, but says nothing improper happened.
"Did we bump? Yes, I think we did. You said so. I don't disagree with
that," Craig said.
But Craig disputes the officer's account that he swept his hand under
the stall next to him in an apparent effort to advance the encounter.
They even disagree whether Craig used his right hand or his left hand.
Craig said he was merely trying to pick up a piece of paper - an account
the officer disputes.
"I'm telling you that I could see, so I know that's your left hand. Also
I could see a gold ring on this finger, so that's obvious it was the
left hand," Karsnia tells Craig.
"Well we can dispute that," Craig says. "I'm not going to fight you in
court. I reached down with my right hand to pick up the paper."
Meanwhile, Idaho Republican Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter told CNN that
Craig's loss of his committee leadership posts was "problematic,"
adding: "I'm sure Larry and his family are going to take those things
into consideration as they go forward with their decisions."
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, said that "like most Idahoans, I was shocked
by the allegations against Larry and by his guilty plea. However, I tend
to judge people by the totality of their career and Senator Craig has
been a dedicated public servant who has been an asset for Idaho for
almost 30 years. At this time, I will not pass judgment on this matter."
Associated Press writers Scott Sonner in Reno, Joshua Freed in
Minneapolis and Todd Dvorak in Idaho contributed to this report.
-------------------------
Larry Scott --
