In a September 6 column, Curt Dale of Colorado Community Newspapers referred to Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) as a “scummy pervert[]” who, Dale falsely asserted, admitted to “sexual deviancy.” Suggesting that Craig might be “too filthy to be a U.S. Senator,” Dale went on to distort numerous congressional scandals to claim that, in contrast to liberal Democrats, “conservative Republicans ... tend to clean house, quickly, of those who do crimes and perversities.”

Dale's column followed Craig's September 5 announcement that, in a partial reversal of his September 1 resignation announcement, he intended to remain in the Senate if by September 30 he is able to withdraw a plea agreement he signed following his June 11 arrest by a vice officer in a bathroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. According to the arresting officer, Sgt. Dave Karsnia, while occupying a stall adjacent to the one Karsnia occupied, Craig made a signal that Karsnia “recognized as a signal often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct.” By pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct -- not “sexual deviancy,” as Dale claimed -- Craig avoided the gross misdemeanor charge of interference with privacy.

On August 28 the Idaho Statesman reported that the revelation of the June 11 incident prompted the paper to publish the results of a five-month investigation into Craig's sex life that the paper previously had declined to publish because it “didn't have enough corroborating evidence and because of the senator's steadfast denial” that he is gay. The Statesman noted of Craig that "[h]is record includes a series of votes against gay rights and his support of a 2006 amendment to the Idaho Constitution that bars gay marriage and civil unions."

From Curt Dale's column “As for Craig, he gets just desserts,” published September 6 on the Colorado Community Newspapers website:

I've some thoughts concerning Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and his predicament for soliciting favors in the Minneapolis Airport toilet. Since he's already pleaded guilty, he's guilty. He's now trying to backpedal and say he's really not guilty. Saying he's “innocent until proven guilty” doesn't apply. Once he pleaded guilty, next stop is conviction and sentencing.

But it astounds me that he's expecting Republicans to jump to his defense. Frankly, I see only two possibilities, neither of which is probably original. Nevertheless, if he's so stupid as to plead guilty to something he didn't do, he's too stupid to be a U.S. Senator. But if he actually did what he pleaded guilty to, he's too filthy to be a U.S. Senator. So I stand squarely with Republicans who say he must go and won't argue with Democrats about it.

There's considerable whining about how unfair it is for him to be scourged and pilloried over this admission of guilt to sexual deviancy. He's a Republican. Many are saying we treat Republicans differently than Democrats for the same sexual offenses. Well, I certainly hope so. Broadly speaking, Republicans in public office are my representatives in the Republic, whether from my state or not. I'm not looking for comparisons of fair between sex perverts on different sides of the aisle. I don't want scummy perverts representing me and the Republican Party in Washington, D.C.

Dale then proceeded to distort several cases involving congressional Democrats:

There's whining that former President Bill Clinton wasn't forced to resign over dalliances with Monica Lewinsky. Whadda yuh expect? Some say that what Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., did by hiding $90,000 ill-gotten in his freezer is worse than what Craig has done, but nothing is being done to Jefferson. Whadda yuh expect? What Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., an open homosexual, did with his youthful congressional aide and allowing a prostitution ring run out of his basement in Washington, D.C., was glossed over, and he's now a powerful leader in the House of Representatives. Whadda yuh expect?

Contrary to Dale's suggestion that Democrats did “nothing” in response to federal allegations that Jefferson stashed $90,000 in his home, as Media Matters for America noted, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) asked Jefferson to resign from the House Ways and Means Committee and his case was referred to the House ethics committee. Media Matters also pointed out that when Jefferson refused to resign from the committee, House Democrats voted to remove him. Additionally, when the Democrats won control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections, Pelosi and other Democratic leaders -- over objections from the Congressional Black Caucus -- decided that Jefferson would not be given back his position on the House Ways and Means Committee following his re-election, as The Washington Post reported in December 2006.

Furthermore, Dale's assertion that Frank “allow[ed] a prostitution ring run out of his basement in Washington, D.C.” repeated a long-debunked falsehood. As Media Matters has noted, the House ethics committee -- which, at Frank's request, investigated allegations that his former companion Stephen Gobie had made -- found that Gobie's initial public assertions in 1989 that he had run a prostitution ring out of Frank's residence were “contradicted by third-party sworn testimony or other evidence.” In its report, the committee further absolved Frank of allegations that he was aware of “prostitution activities alleged to have taken place in his apartment,” as Media Matters documented.

In his column, Dale further claimed that in contrast to liberal Democrats, “conservative Republicans ... tend to clean house, quickly, of those who do crimes and perversities”; Dale then listed seven “Republicans [who] had sexual scandals or crimes and were shortly sans their seats in Congress, resigning or otherwise”:

Importantly, conservative Republicans, maybe Republicans in general, tend to clean house, quickly, of those who do crimes and perversities. Conversely, liberal Democrats rarely lose colleagues for the same crimes.

The following Republicans had sexual scandals or crimes and were shortly sans their seats in Congress, resigning or otherwise. Rep. Dan Crane, R-Ill., Rep Duke Cunningham, R-Calif., now in prison, Foley, R-Fla., Burton, R-Ill., Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., Rep. Don Sherwood, R-Calif., and others. Jack Ryan, R-Ill., was stopped dead in his tracks from even running for Congress because of allegations of perversions by his wife in divorce papers.

Contrary to Dale's suggestion that Republicans “clean[ed] house” in the case of Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) -- who resigned from Congress after his interactions with teenage male pages was made public -- a House ethics committee report concluded that Republican leaders were aware of sexually explicit emails Foley had sent to a former page months before the scandal erupted in September 2006, as Media Matters noted. Then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) acknowledged at an October 2, 2006, press conference that “Foley resigned almost immediately upon the outbreak of this information, and so we really didn't have a chance to ask him to resign.”

Dale did not substantiate his assertion that pressure from their Republican colleagues played any role in the departures of Crane, Cunningham, Burton, Packwood, and Sherwood.

Moreover, Dale omitted mention of former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX). As Media Matters noted, in 2004 and 2005 House Republicans enacted rules changes to protect DeLay, who, in the culmination of an investigation begun in 2003, was indicted on September 28, 2005, on money-laundering charges.