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From the Likely Story Department

Craig Probably Passed Toilet En Route to Flight Gate

By Nathaniel Hoffman, 9-06-07

	Click map to enlarge.

If it is a trial that Sen. Larry Craig seeks, then here is some evidence that could work in his favor. Or not.

Here’s what we know. Undercover Minneapolis vice cop Sgt. Dave Karsnia first spotted Craig at 12:13 pm on Jun 11. Karsnia sat on the john at the Northstar Crossing mall area of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport’s Lingdergh Terminal. The restroom is located just across from a large food court.

Refer to this airport map and the one above, which we will come to again in a moment.

The bathroom where Craig was arrested (circled in the map above) is located inside security, between the blue numbers “3” and “4”, near ticketing.

An “older white male with grey hair,” later identified as Craig, repeatedly peered into Karsnia’s stall through a crack for about two minutes, according to the detailed police report. Karsnia wrote that he could see Craig’s blue eyes.

The rest of the story is already well known from Boise to the Beltway.

But is it possible, despite the peeping, the foot tapping, the hand swiping, that Sen. Craig just had to use the potty? Oh, and despite Craig’s guilty plea?

Craig’s most likely arrival flight is Northwest Airlines flight 754, which leaves Boise just before 8 a.m. The plane arrived in Minneapolis at 11:51 a.m. on June 11 at gate F3, according to www.flightstats.com, a rather useful Web site that archives historical flight information. It was a few minutes late.

Twenty-two minutes later Karsnia first spotted Craig.

Now referring again to our map, there is a restroom and a restaurant right (in the green box) at gate F3 that one could use, if, say, one is afraid of airplane toilets. Or if the flight attendants had time for a second round of drinks. There is another restroom, two restaurants and a heart defibrillator station between this arrival gate and the now-famous pickup joint.

Craig would have had one hour and 14 minutes to make his presumed outgoing flight, which I will demonstrate in a moment. Assuming it takes 10 minutes to get off the plane from Boise and one would want to be at the gate a few minutes before it closes, Craig would have had about a 45 minute break between flights in Minneapolis.

In the arrest report, Craig tells Karsnia that he was worried he would miss his flight. This was sometime before Craig’s 1:05 p.m. release from police custody. Northwest 1542 to Ronald Reagan National Airport was scheduled to leave at precisely 1:05 p.m. on June 11 from gate D4. (See outgoing plane on map.)

It pushed off from the gate at 1:25, 20 minutes late, giving Craig time to board. (The flight has an average delay of 22 minutes according to www.flightstats.com, so plan accordingly.)

Again referring to our map, one can see that Craig did have to walk right by the suspect men’s room en route to his departure gate. It is plausible that he would have stopped at the can near Starbucks anyway, perhaps buy a copy of Roll Call and some gum, as he stretched his legs.

“One of the things we really do is encourage people to walk around the airport,” an MSP Airport spokeswoman told me after confirming the location of their now famous airport sex club/restroom.

So Craig could potentially argue that he did nothing out of the ordinary to seek out that bathroom, to target that stall where that not-so-lonely cop sat for a total of three minutes before being, presumably, hit on.

But in order to argue that, he’s going to have to face a whole lot of other evidence, including expert testimony from people who know about behavior in men’s rooms. Like this guy, a buddy of mine in DC who I think was the first person to tell me about the rumors surrounding Larry Craig’s sexuality years ago:

“This type of cruising represents a dying breed of gays in the states. Mostly married old men and maybe some younger repressed folks in particularly conservative states (say, like, Idaho!). But seriously, hang out in just about any fairly well trafficked public restroom and observe. This goes on a lot. I'm not sure who would be a cruising 'expert' per se (or who would admit to it!)...

...The 'technique' is easy to pick up. I've never participated in bathroom sex, but I've always paid attention to it. It's seriously common. Sit in a stall a bit longer than expected, and the feet start tapping. Seriously. Try it.”

I am not going to try it, crusading journalist that I am. And there has been plenty written about this activity already.

But can you imagine a jury trial pitting cruising experts like these guys who have been cited all week in national media reports, against a U.S. Senator? It would be the sensational trial of the century.

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