This is the part that is most disturbing. The effort to threaten and intimidate Larry Craig into a guilty plea, are disgusting. Such tactics are an appalling abuse of power.
So you think Craig should reverse himself, and hold his seat until the voters replace him with a Dim next year? And the Republicans being the stupid party should just sit on their hands all the while — maybe cut all his funding. Or maybe it could be a suicide pact, with our Presidential nominee holding pressers with him, smiling cheek to cheek like a couple of schmucks.
On the arrest and interrogation, once the police arrest you and read you your rights, wonder of wonders; they think you’re guilty and their efforts from that point on are to prove you are indeed guilty. If you plan on contesting any part of what the police are saying, you don’t argue with them, you say, “I want a lawyer.” If you talk to them it gives them the opportunity to say you appear evasive and untruthful, which they will do because they think you are guilty and they are not schmucks like half the people on this thread.
Having defended Craig, I will also defend the police officer. If you presume that the police officer is completely factual, then Craig is telling lies about what happened. Minor lies, but still clear lies.
If the police officer is certain that he saw a left hand and a ring, and Craig insists it was his right hand, the police officer is going to get pretty upset — after all, the charge isn’t dependent on which hand you use to signal anyway, so it appears to the officer that Craig is lying just to lie.
This presumes the officer was correct. If the officer made a mistake, but thinks he’s correct, his tactics still make sense, but would explain why Craig would plead guilty to a charge he didn’t really think he committed. What would you do if the police officer was threatening you, calling you a liar when you know you are telling the truth, and shows absolutely no indication that he could even ENTERTAIN the notion he might have misunderstood something or gotten something wrong?
And you realise that if you don’t make your flight, there’s going to be explaining to do. (I still don’t know about detaining a senator on travel, except Craig doesn’t seem to have asserted his right not to be detained on travel).