Larry Craig

State Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., today said he would not return $10,000 he received from the political action committee of Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, while his District 21 opponent said he should have already given back the money.

"The money that I raised, I expended over the course of the campaign," the Republican said of his failed 2004 bid against U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.

Let me be clear. I don't like Larry Craig. He stands for everything that I abhor. It's just that there are some things that I dislike more than right wing, narrow minded, hypocritical Senators.

The more that you read about the arrest of Larry Craig in a Minneapolis airport restroom, the more troubling the situation becomes. He was engaged in no lewd act. There wasn't even a casual victim exposed to offensive conduct.

Few people who knew Larry Craig were probably surprised by the news of his arrest. Washington isn't known as a city to keep secrets and his sexual orientation was generally understood. What was surprising was the speed and intensity with which his Republican colleagues separated themselves from him.

Within hours of Craig's acknowledgement of his arrest for lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport restroom, he was stripped of his Committee assignments. Senators McCain and Coleman urged him to resign.

Craig has to be wondering about the intensity of the reaction. Perhaps he might reach some understanding in the hypocrisy of his situation. His colleagues must recall his vitriolic speeches demanding Bill Clinton's resignation. He was a self appointed spokesman for the American family and he fought every attempt at advocating the rights of gay Americans.