Just in case you forgot that the seasons were about to change, we just just received our quarterly reminder: yet another Republican has been caught in a gay sex scandal. On August 8, Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho), entered a guilty plea for “misdemeanor charges stemming from complaints of lewd conduct in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis airport.”

According to a plainclothes officer who sat in a bathroom stall as part of an undercover investigation of sexual activity in the bathroom, Craig lingered outside and constantly peaked through the stall’s door crack at him. According to the officer’s official report, Craig soon entered the adjacent stall and did the following:

At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot…. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area. Craig then proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times.

In his own defense, Senator Craig insists that he reached down to pick up a piece of paper on the floor. Unfortunately, no one, including Senator Craig, was able to confirm that there was any paper in the stall. With regard to the foot tapping, Craig explained that he has a “wide stance” when going to the bathroom.

Wide stance indeed.

As always, my beef isn’t with Craig’s sexual proclivities (although my OCD makes it hard to see an airport crapper as a site for romance). Like Rep. Mark Foley, Rep. Bob Allen, and mega-preacher Ted Haggard before him, Craig has consistently used his considerable political power to disrespect, dehumanize, and deny civil rights to gays and lesbians throughout his career.

Although I have little respect for Craig political choices, I’m reluctant to simply refer to him as a hypocrite. Unlike the politician who opposes immigration but has an undocumented gardener, there are deeper psychological issues attached to this form of mendacity. By supporting policy measures like the Defense of Marriage Act while engaging in toilet room trysts, Craig and his closeted cronies are able to abuse those who represent what they hated in themselves.

This isn’t to excuse their behavior, only to explain the deep pathology that informs it.