Larry Craig, Loser

Larry Craig, Loser

Senator Larry "Happy Feet" Craig just lost another appeal. From the Washington Post:

A Minnesota appeals court today rejected Sen. Larry Craig's (R-Idaho) latest effort to withdraw his guilty plea, 18 months after he was arrested in a Minneapolis airport bathroom during an undercover sex sting.
Since pleading guilty in August 2007 to disorderly conduct charges, Craig has tried to pull back that plea, arguing that his behavior was not illegal and that he was pressured into the plea by police. The Hennepin County District Court denied that petition in October 2007, and the Minnesota state Court of Appeals today affirmed that decision.
In his appeal, Craig argued that the district court fundamentally erred in its decision, that the state's disorderly conduct statute was unconstitutionally broad, and that his behavior in the airport bathroom stall should be considered legally protected speech. The Appeals Court rejected all three arguments.
"Appellant has not shown that the district court abused its discretion in denying his petition to withdraw his guilty plea, and neither he nor amici have shown that the disorderly conduct statute is unconstitutionally overbroad," wrote Edward Toussaint Jr., the appeals court's chief judge.
Toussaint added that even if Craig's actions in the stall were considered speech, they can be restricted because they invaded the "privacy interest" of a "captive audience" -- in this case, the undercover officer in the neighboring stall.

The "I didn't know I was doing pleading guilty" argument I might accept from some guy with a limited education. But Larry Craig, while foolish, isn't stupid, nor is uneducated. He could have argued that his arrest was a "misunderstanding," and doing the "Aw shucks, this doesn't happen in public restrooms in Idaho" might have worked. A Minneapolis jury might have given Craig the benefit of the doubt for such an argument; pleading guilty pretty well blows out that argument.