Wednesday, August 29, 2007
His Private Idaho [Andrew Stuttaford]
"I'm with the "why was this a crime?" crowd. Laws against public sex are understandable. Laws against merely soliciting someone for sex are something else entirely. Might as well send the SWAT teams into singles bars too, then. Maybe the foot tapping and paper-snatching really are code for "let's do it in the stall." I don't know. But Craig didn't actually engage in the lewd behavior. Didn't get that far. Aside from the peeping charge, which was thrown out, the only thing I can see that he's guilty of is looking for a willing sex partner. And I can't see how that is or should be a crime."
I don't think that I am entirely on Radley's side here. There's a pretty good case to be made that merely propositioning can be objectionable in the somewhat, uh, intimate circumstances of a public lavatory, but I have to say that in the wider scheme of things, Craig's offense doesn't seem to be a terribly serious matter. The question of hypocrisy is, of course, a different (and primarily political) discussion.
If Radley's take is flawed, Gov. Romney's may be even more so, at least in one respect. Here's what he had to say:
The truth of the matter is, the most important thing we expect from... an elected official is a level of dignity and character that we can point to for our kids and our grandkids, and say, `Hey, someday I hope you grow up and you're someone like that person.'
Frankly, I don't care very much about the "dignity and character" of elected officials. Their job is to govern effectively, honestly and minimally. The rest is just conversation.
08/29 10:20 AM
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