He's Still Not Gay

"But my favorite part was when Lauer asked whether his fellow senators were shunning him. Lauer asked, 'They're not parking in your parking spot?' Craig: 'They better not.' What better metaphor can there be, for an entrenched Washington politician who has pled guilty, has refused to accept the ruling of a state judge, and has compromised his party's purported 'family values?' What better boost to GOP morale can there be than to have a tainted Republican incumbent fighting in defense of his parking spot?"

Tom Shales didn't think much of the interviewer:

"For Lauer, self-important co-host of NBC's 'Today' show, the interview was obviously seen as a potential career- and credibility-builder, but even when he did ask an arguably tough question, he essentially apologized for it. He prefaced a question about whether the senator might be bisexual by saying to Craig, 'You're going to have to forgive me for this.'

"What? This is a journalist practicing journalism? Lauer's like a virgin veteran, an old hand who seems inexperienced. Diane Sawyer, to name one example, would have done a much better interview. Anyone on '60 Minutes,' Wallace or another member of the vaunted team, would have done a better one. Lauer's former 'Today' co-host, the much-maligned Katie Couric, also would likely have done a more effective job."

But HuffPost's Rachel Sklar rides to Matt's defense:

"Now I get what Lauer meant, how it must have felt to quiz Craig on the litany -- the long, long litany -- of gay-themed allegations (cruising, pickups, trysts) from throughout his political career and even from before, all while his wife was sitting there. Lauer did a good and deft job on this, and the Craigs candidly addressed it all head on, but the end result was the feeling of 'no smoke without fire' and wow was there a lot of smoke. Not that there's anything wrong with that! The saddest part is how, if it's true (and if they're just rumors, well, there sure are a lot of them, from a lot of different sources), this guy has felt the overwhelming need to hide it and rail against it for his whole life . . .

"To my mind, that was precisely the right approach: Sympathetic, respectful, but persistent, putting each episode to Craig for his response, which created an overall effect of so many dominoes leading to that inevitable and sad moment in that airport bathroom. What Shales doesn't get is that Craig's had MONTHS of hard-hitting and confrontational -- the cable shows, the late-night punchlines -- the last thing that would have drawn him out would have been an antagonistic interviewer. When Lauer cited 'cruising' and followed it with 'whatever that means,' Suzanne Craig laughed -- breaking the tension of an uncomfortable moment and keeping it as comfortable, really, as it was ever gonna be. This interview didn't need to be hard-hitting; as I mention above, just the litany of episodes and innuendos, presented to Craig again and again, had a far more quietly damning effect."

Andrew Sullivan says Craig is both a victim and, with an anti-gay voting record, a victimizer:

"It was excruciating. Beyond embarrassing. Extraordinarily painful -- especially for his wife. Why on earth they decided to subject themselves to prolonging this agony is a question worth asking. And the answer, I think, is: they have to. At this point in their lives, to allow the possibility that Craig is indeed homosexual, that he has sustained, lived, internalized a fundamental lie for his entire life, and involved his wife and children in that lie, would be to destroy themselves. I am not going to exonerate the man from hypocrisy because it is impossible."

This just in: The president is still relevant.

"A year after he pledged to find 'common ground' with the Democrats who now control Congress," the NYT reports, "President Bush on Wednesday delivered a scathing assessment of their performance, accusing lawmakers of dragging their feet on legislation ranging from trade deals and domestic surveillance to federal spending and children's health. . . .

"At one point, the president complained bitterly that Democrats had failed to negotiate with him over the health bill, a different version of which had been advanced by the administration in its budget. 'We weren't dialed in,' he said, adding that he was using his veto pen because 'that's one way to ensure that I am relevant.'