The Incongruent Larry Craig

The movie 'The Usual Suspects' has a great interrogation scene.

The detective says to the suspect, "The first thing I learned on the job, know what it was? How to spot a murderer. Let's say you arrest three guys for the same killing. Put them all in jail overnight. The next morning, whoever is sleeping is your man. If you're guilty, you know you're caught, you get some rest - let your guard down, you follow?"

When the whole Larry Craig fiasco came out, I thought back to that scene.

In case you've been out of the country (or in case you don't live the the U.S.), the Republican Senator from Idaho was arrested on June 11th at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer. The officer was investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men's public restroom.

Craig pled guilty to a misdemeanor on August 8th after paying $500 in fines.

Craig's spokesman said it was a "misunderstanding".

And yet, he pled guilty.

Craig later said, "I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

This is where the incongruity comes into play:

1. An innocent man doesn't plead guilty. An innocent man puts up a huge fight, doesn't get any sleep, rages about his innocence. (This is not to say that guilty people don't also use this same tactic.)

2. Mr. Craig didn't call for his attorney. The first thing anyone does--guilty and innocent--is call an attorney. The quickest and most expeditious way to handle a legal problem is to get represented.

3. Craig said, "I am not gay - nor have I ever been gay." This sounds like he believes it is possible to have been gay and then become ungay. It's waffling.

And last, but perhaps the most incongruous action of all:

4. Mr. Craig didn't go directly home to Mrs. Craig to tell her. Now, if something as allegedly preposterous as this happened to any one of us and had no basis in reality, the first place we'd go is our spouses or significant others.

Eventually the blame game started and Senator Craig decided this problem was the media's doing.

He claims that he pled guilty because he had been troubled by the investigations into his alleged homosexuality by the Idaho Statesman and claims that he has "been relentlessly and viciously harassed".

Well, I'm a big fan of blaming the media. They're seldom right and never in doubt. Somehow, Mr. Craig's history of this sort of activity, makes the blaming of the media seem false.

As persuaders, how, in either situation - whether the allegations are absolutely false or absolutely true - could we frame the story if we were in his shoes?

Did his incongruity give him away? And what can he do to unframe himself?

Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of affluent prospects using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.

Title:
The Incongruent Larry Craig
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