Once again it seems the powers that be in the GOP knew that Senator Larry Craig had a "problem," but ignored it for the sake of political expediency - just like they did with Mark Foley. The "family values" party appears to have only one core value: stay in power and ignore anything that might undermine that objective. This from Think Progress (http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/06/novak-craig-secret/): On Bloomberg Television today, right-wing pundit Robert Novak revealed that “sources in the Senate” have told him that Senate conservatives had prior knowledge about Sen. Larry Craig’s (R-ID) “problem” but intentionally kept it “in the closet”:
"I have talked to several of my sources in the Senate, and this came as a surprise to me…They knew about it. They knew that he had this problem, and it was in the closet. And it was not just a homosexual relationship. It was this weird conduct. They didn’t do anything about it."
Novak added, “So Republicans, again, as in the case of Congressman Foley, their cover-up is coming back to haunt them.” Novak did not elaborate on what “weird conduct” Craig has carried out in the past. Recall, then-Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) “and at least three of his aides were told of allegations that then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) had improper e-mail contacts with a former House page months before the incident became public.”
Ultimately, at least a dozen GOP lawmakers and aides admitted to having knowledge of Foley’s lewd behavior, “some of them for a year or more,” but kept the matter secret. If Novak’s sources are correct, then the Senate ethics investigation into Craig — which conservatives have been aggressively pushing for — should determine what Craig has done in the past and which Senators were involved in covering it up.
