From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

Brooke Gladstone is out this week.

I'm Bob Garfield.

After 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and more than 16 years in the Senate,

for Larry Craig, distinguished gentleman from the state of Ohio, it has come to this.

Idaho Senator Larry Craig.

Tonight, his explanation.

Let me be clear.

I am not gay.

I never have been gay.

Tonight, the scandal in the Senate.

Powerful Republicans abandon Larry Craig.

On Monday, the Washington area political newspaper roll call dropped the

bombshell. Craig had been arrested in mid-June by an undercover police officer on suspicion of

lewd conduct in a men's room of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. Early in August, Craig pleaded guilty to the lesser charge

of disorderly conduct, and the nation has since received instruction in the silent signals of the

gay man bathroom pickup. What distinguishes this case is that the media have been picking up

signals about Craig's sexuality and honesty since 1982,

when he preemptively denied sexual involvement with male congressional pages,

despite the fact that his name hadn't previously surfaced.

Since then, rumors have followed him everywhere.

Everywhere, that is, but the Idaho statesman.

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