Idaho Senator Mike Crapo was arrested for drunk driving on December 23, in Alexandria, Virginia. Especially awkward because he has apparently said he doesn’t drink alcohol (as a Mormon thing).
I gather that’s pronounced KRAY po. Okay? The man has enough problems.
Mug shot
It was after midnight, and police say they noticed Crapo running a red light. They pulled him over, and did field sobriety tests. Despite Crapo’s telling them it had been hours since he drank several shots of vodka, he failed the tests and was run in.
Crapo quickly apologized.
I am deeply sorry for the actions that resulted in this circumstance. I made a mistake for which I apologize to my family, my Idaho constituents and any others who have put their trust in me. I accept total responsibility and will deal with whatever penalty comes my way in this matter. I will also undertake measures to ensure that this circumstance is never repeated.
It’s pretty good. It’s direct. It takes responsibility. I would like to know what measures he’ll undertake to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and if I were a family member we might be discussing that right now. Maybe it’ll come up when he appears in court January 4.
But there’s something important missing. By addressing his family, his constituents, and any “who have put their trust” in him, he’s showing that what he’s remorseful about is that betrayal of trust.
But what about me, Susie Citizen? I never put my trust in Senator Crapo because I didn’t know he existed, let alone that he was a claimed abstainer. He’s not in my family, I don’t live in Idaho, I’m not a Mormon, nor a temperance advocate. No personal betrayal here. (Sorry, Daddy White, Mother White, I know you worked hard to keep Buckhannon dry. Don’t make me bring up the fruit punch incident.)
But I do leave my house from time to time, and I hate meeting drunk drivers when I do. They’re scary. (“Look, a murderer,” I growl.) Even if he hadn’t let his family/Idaho/the Latter Day Saints/the Republican Party down, he committed a reckless act. His apology doesn’t mention that.
Maybe Senator Crapo’s new at this. Maybe he never read any of the memos about Demon Rum because he didn’t think they applied to him. When he appears in court, maybe he’ll take note of the fact that driving drunk isn’t just an embarrassment. It’s dangerous. And not just to careers.
Addendum
Senator Crapo pled guilty today (1/4/13), was fined $250 and had his license suspended for a year. He requested and got the right to drive with a restricted license, but said afterward that he won’t drive for the full year. He’ll have to do an alcohol safety program. He got an 180 day suspended sentence.
New statement:
I am grateful to have this matter resolved and will follow through on the sentence imposed by the court. I sincerely regret the choice I made because tragic consequences can result from combining drinking and driving. I am grateful that no one was injured. I am profoundly sorry for the pain and embarrassment that I have brought to my family, to Idahoans, to my church, to my colleagues in the U.S. Senate and my staff, to anyone who has placed their trust in me…. I will work hard to regain the trust of my family and Idahoans.
Crapo said he’d been keeping alcohol at his apartment for a few months to relieve stress. He said he’d never driven drunk before.
This is a better apology, in that he now seems to understand that bad things can happen to other people when you drive drunk. Perfect strangers, non-Idahoans, “gentiles,” political naifs, and even untrusting suspicious leery paranoids can get hurt.
Dear Susie Citizen, thanks for the deconstruction (as with all). That incident occurred just blocks from where gjk, and in the other direction, where I live. I have done plenty of drinking and driving back in the day, so certainly difficult to throw the first stone. However, after a few years of not doing the drinking and driving, I distinctly remember sitting around one night, going, jeez, it’s *illegal* to do that. Besides all the other data, death and destruction, wonder why this doesn’t even get thru to people – I broke the law, a particularly dangerous law to break. Ah, well.
PS I love the “shots of vodka.” That’s not exactly a first time drink, unless he was kidnapped by some Russian delegation, “I’m sorry I was kidnapped. FU.”
I haven’t gotten an apology from him for driving blotto and running a red light in my neighborhood (the intersection is up on the corner), or even an explanation of what he thought he was doing here.
This neighborhood went through some terrible times in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and now that it’s pretty safe, we don’t want his kind around here.
His kind?
Yeah, the fact that he could be having to make this apology to a victim’s family, if there had happened to be someone in the intersection at the time, does not seem to have gotten through to him. He sounds moderately sorry alright, he does not sound horrified.
And I must say, that even though I don’t know the guy, I am deeply suspicious that “I made A mistake for which I apologize…” Should probably be, “I have been routinely making this mistake, for which I am sorry I got caught, so now I have to apologize…” (Which I will do reeeally sincerely.)
Indeed I also agree with Tom “several shots of vodka” hardly sounds like a one time mistake. Maybe driving after several shots of vodka was a one off, but that doesn’t even sound likely does it?