A defiant Senator Larry Craig declared in a press conference a short time ago, “I am not gay. I never have been gay.” He asked “the people of Idaho on Tuesday to forgive him for being arrested two months ago in a police sting in a men’s room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.”

From the MSNBC report:

“I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport,” he said at a news conference with his wife, Suzanne, at his side.

Craig also lashed out at the Idaho Statesman newspaper, which reported Monday that, according to an anonymous source, Craig had a homosexual encounter in a Washington train station. Craig accused the paper of waging a witch hunt against him.

“I overreacted in Minneapolis because of the stress of the Idaho Statesman investigation and the rumors it has fueled all around Idaho,” Craig said.

Craig’s defiant news conference came as Senate Republican leaders in Washington called for an ethics committee review into his involvement in a police sting operation this summer in the airport men’s room.

“In the meantime, the leadership is examining other aspects of the case to see if additional action is required,” Sen. Mitch McConnell and other top GOP lawmakers said in a written statement.

FAUX News reports Craig will take some time to ponder re-election:

The senator has been debating whether to prolong his 27-year career as an elected official by running for a another term in office, and was expected to make an announcement next month. He said he will stick to that plan.

“Next month, I will announce, as planned, as many of you have already been told, whether or not I will seek re-election. As an elected official, I fully realize that my life is open for public criticism and scrutiny, and I take full responsibility for a lapse in judgment I made in attempting to handle this matter myself,” he said.

I’m dubious on all of this. He’s apologizing and he’s pissed off and defiant, and he pleaded guilty and claims he didn’t realize the implications of a guilty plea. How could he not understand that? I mean.. Hello!

Editor & Publisher asks the question today, that I asked here yesterday when the news broke, “How Did News Outlets Miss Senator’s Arrest for Nearly Three Months?”

The revelation late Monday that Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested nearly three months ago for allegedly making sexual advances in a men’s room raises the issue of how such an action could occur without the press reporting it.

Even Roll Call reporter John McArdle, who broke the story late Monday, admits he only received word of the arrest and subsequent guilty plea via a tip last week.

“You would think in the 24-hour news cycle, something like this would slip through,” said McArdle, a four-year veteran of the Capitol Hill daily. “He wanted to keep it quiet, and he almost got away with it.”

It’s absurd in this day and age, that it took this long for the media to pick up on this. E&P notes this about the investigation by The Idaho Statesman, that Craig complained about in his press conference:

In its story today about Craig’s arrest, the Statesman revealed that it had uncovered evidence of other Craig liaisons or sexual advances, including allegations that he had sex with a man in a Union Station bathroom in Washington, D.C., but had not previously reported it. “Until Monday, the Statesman had declined to run a story about Craig’s sex life, because the paper didn’t have enough corroborating evidence and because of the senator’s steadfast denial.”

But the paper also revealed, “Over five months, the Statesman examined rumors about Craig dating to his college days and his 1982 pre-emptive denial that he had sex with underage congressional pages. The most serious finding by the Statesman was the report by a professional man with close ties to Republican officials. The 40-year-old man reported having oral sex with Craig at Washington’s Union Station, probably in 2004. The Statesman also spoke with a man who said Craig made a sexual advance toward him at the University of Idaho in 1967 and a man who said Craig “cruised” him for sex in 1994 at the REI store in Boise. The Statesman also explored dozens of allegations that proved untrue, unclear, or unverifiable.”

The Statesman’s decision not to run its investigation until the arrest had been revealed raises the issue of when a news outlet should both investigate such allegations and report on its findings.

Questions still abound on the Craig scandal. There’s discussions at: All Spin Zone; The Carpetbagger Report; The American Street; HorsesAss; Minnesota Monitor, Captain’s Quarters and Connecting The Dots. Check Memeorandum for all the buzz.

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