Senate Scolds Craig Over Bathroom Sting

Ex-senator goes on and on about 'perks' of the job

(NEWSER) - Larry Craig was so convinced he wouldn’t be discussing “the past” during his appearance on last night’s Daily Show, he had a former member of his staff send around an email saying just that. The appearance, part of a segment on retired senators, was supposed to be “fun,” it read, according to The Atlantic . “Uh, has he ever seen the show?” wonders Adrian Chen on Gawker . "Fun" it was…just not in the way Craig expected. More»

Lovechildren, gay affairs, and hookers, oh my!

(NEWSER) - From Eliot Spitzer’s $80,000 worth of prostitute action to Mark Sanford “hiking the Appalachian trail,” this decade has been ripe with political sex scandals. The Frisky picks the juiciest. Some of the slightly-lesser-discussed affairs:

• Mike Duvall: A self-described “family values warrior” in the California State Assembly spilled about his mistress—while miked—meaning that a whole bunch of politicians got to hear about his propensity for “spanking her.”

Media are hypocrites about hypocrisy

(NEWSER) - The press jumped all over Larry Craig’s bathroom dalliance not because he was gay, it was claimed, but because he was a hypocrite with an anti-gay voting record. But no one is piling on John Edwards, whom the National Enquirer says it caught visiting his mistress and love child this week. Jack Shafer of Slate thinks the non-coverage reveals a double standard: Homo-hypocrisy is wrong, but hetero-hypocrisy is OK. More»

German scribe salutes Spitzer, Craig for pulling towel off prudish Americans

(NEWSER) - Here's to the US sex scandal! Eliot Spitzer and Larry Craig make American politicians seem almost human, Gabor Steingart writes in Der Spiegel. He claims that prudish Americans are fueled by secret lust—"and, in the case of some politicians, naked lunacy." Which makes public shame "an invaluable benefit" to the body politic. More»

Mike Jones, who outed Haggard, says Craig also paid him for sex

(NEWSER) - The man who exposed his sexual relationship with evangelist Ted Haggard is now among four men claiming sexual encounters with Larry Craig, the Idaho Statesman reports. Mike Jones, who published a tell-all of his relationship with Haggard, says Craig paid him $200 for sex, while an IT consultant claims the two had sex in a Capitol Hill house in 1986. More»