Today's Daily Schadenfreude: Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho)

Stick a fork in Larry Craig. He's done.

Courtesy of the Idaho Statesman, the Boise paper that Sen. Craig blames for his inability to resist picking up men in airport restrooms:

A restroom-sex scandal will drive Sen. Larry Craig from office today, bringing an anguished end to the Idaho Republican's 27-year career in Congress.

Craig's office said late Friday that he would reveal his plans at 10:30 a.m. [12:30 p.m. EDT] at the Boise Depot. Republican officials told the Idaho Statesman and The Associated Press that Craig will resign. The Associated Press reported that Craig's resignation will be effective Sept. 30.

Gov. Butch Otter will name a Republican to complete Craig's term, which ends in January 2009. The contest for a full six-year term will be held in 2008.

It's the end of an era in Idaho ... and hopefully that means an era of appalling hypocrisy:

The loud consensus among political analysts was that Craig had become a dead weight on GOP hopes for retaining the White House and reclaiming Congress in 2008.

In Idaho, however, his imprint was historic. Only one other Idahoan, Republican Sen. William Borah, for whom the state's highest peak is named, represented Idaho longer.

[...]

[Craig] also was a reliable foe of gay rights, opposing gays in the military, extension of civil rights protections in the workplace and campaigning for the 2006 amendment to the Idaho Constitution that bans both gay marriage and civil unions.

[...]

But in recent months, for the first time in his 33 years in office, Larry Craig revealed a conflicted mind. He said he wasn't sure he could stomach a ninth campaign for national office.

"I'll tell you right now the politics of our world has changed," Craig told the Statesman on May 14, during an interview in which he denied any homosexual conduct, ever.

"It's all about self-destruction and destroying the individual based on his or her presence politically than it is about issues," Craig said, blaming Democrats and Republicans alike. "This personality thing has become very, very vicious."

For the record (and to paraphrase Sen. Craig's own very public statement this week), this issue is not about him being gay, and it never has been about him being gay (or not, for that matter). It's about the hypocrisy of living a certain lifestyle while publicly and vocally opposing rights and privileges for others who live that same lifestyle. No one (save for the batshit crazy lunatic fringe on the Right) would be pushing for Craig's ouster if he had just come out and admitted he was gay (or bi, or whatever). Of course, the lunatic fringe on the Right is what put Craig in Congress in the first place ... so maybe it indeed would have been political suicide for him to come out. But at least he wouldn't be a hypocrite. So much for integrity.

So long, Larry. Don't let the stall door hit you in the ass on the way out. And congratulations, soon-to-be-ex-Sen. Craig, for today's Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!