A few minutes after you read this, there is no guarantee that Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho won’t change his mind again about resigning because he was nabbed in a Minnesota airport men’s room  trolling for sex.

As of this writing, it has been almost impossible to keep track of his on-again, off-again plans to carry out his statement after his arrest became public that it was his “intention” to resign his Senate seat on Oct. 11

Even USA Today’s OnPolitics fast-moving web site  couldn’t keep up with the current state of Craig’s intent, and, apparently, neither could his office, as his spokesmen, being of two minds like their boss, issued contradictory clarifications.

Still, his waffling has provided a clearer look into his mind, and the sight of what’s there isn’t pretty:

It is a mind at war with itself, pleading guilty to a disorderly conduct charge, and then taking it back. A mind that thought he should leave the Senate, then not leave, and then leave and what’s next? A mind filled with lusty thoughts of anonymous sex with male strangers picked up in an airport washroom, yet denies that he is gay.

A mind that fails to grasp the hypocrisy of spending a career deploring the very conduct he engaged in. A mind harboring hope that the public will accept his behavior. and that he should have been left alone. And, a mind that thought it heard Republican voices urging him to stay on, when even tin ears were picking up the message: “go away.”

True, some folks from both sides of the political spectrum strangely think that what he was doing in the airport washroom was “minding his own business.” Still, many (hopefully most) of us dislike the authorities allowing public restrooms to be places of sexual solicitation. To have to explain why we feel this way is a sad commentary about what America has come to.

Republicans, just on the strength of their principles, were right to give Craig the boot. Let Democrats defend the moral neutrality or acceptability of propositioning strangers in a public place. Leave it to the Democrats to declare the police should “mind their own business,” and to decry routine police work as “entrapment.”

Never wanting to accuse Republicans of acting on principle, however, the conventional wisdom would have it that they wanted Craig out of their midst only for politically expedient reasons. Echoes of the disastrous 2004 elections ring up reminders that public tolerance of scandals is limited, a dawning that apparently is late in coming to the assembly of GOP miscreants.

Here are a few (keeping in mind that suspicions do not constitute guilt): Mark Foley resigned his Florida House seat after soliciting teenaged boys who had formerly served as congressional pages. Rep. Mark Miller (Calif.) reportedly is under investigation for kinky land deals. The FBI has raided the home of Rep, John Doolittle (Calif.), reportedly under investigation in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. The FBI also has visited the home of Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska). The name of Sen. David Vitter (La.) has appeared in the phonebook of the “D.C. Madam.” Rep. Rick Renzi (Az.) has agreed to retire after questions were raised about legislation he sponsored that benefited his father. And so on.

House Republican leaders have reportedly adopted a “zero tolerance” policy, which seems to have resulted in Craig’s quick gangplanking. Still, he has his defenders, who operate on the rule that party loyalty should trump such “minor” transgressions as Craig’s. Party loyalty, however, cuts both ways, and Craig has brought discredit on the party of family values, and now that party fears the public backwash.

As it should in a democracy. Republicans are responding to the threat of public disgust showing up in the voting booth. Which suggests that at least they give the American voters, or at least the party’s base, some credit for valuing clean and honest living.

Dennis Byrne is a Chicago writer. http://dennisbyrne.blogspot.com

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