According to an article in today’s Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, more avid web readership might have saved Sen. Larry Craig’s (R-ID) career.

As a number of TPM Reader/Google sleuths have been telling us, there are sites out there that rate different public sex bathrooms around the country. One of them sounds sort of like it’s the Zagat’s of gay public restroom sex. And that bathroom at the Minneapolis airport is like the Spago of sex bathrooms.

In any case, this from the Strib reporters …

Another Web site lists Twin Cities-area malls, parks, health clubs and even a “cruisy toilet” at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Many postings list the best times to go and give graphic reviews of the venues.

An airport bathroom, specifically one near a shoeshine stand behind the ticket counter, generated the most comments until Web-site users posted warnings in June that men were getting arrested there. Craig was arrested shortly after noon on June 11 in the main men’s public restroom of the North Star Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal.

It’s not clear from the article exactly which review web site they’re referring to or whether the warnings about the sting showed up in advance of Craig’s June 11th arrest. But it seems that closer scrutiny of the web and available ratings sites could have kept Craig from his rendezvous with destiny.

Okay, it’s the unreported political story of the year: the GOP’s ability to dominate scandal news even while in the minority. Usually, the majority party, with more power and money, takes the scandal cake. It’s almost an iron law of politics. But whether it’s lobby shop or the restroom, the GOP has so far been able to reverse the historical tide, maintaining a decisive muck advantage even in the political wilderness.

In fact, the Muck Gap remains so great that we even caught CNN (see today’s episode) yesterday trying to fudge the numbers to make muck seem more bipartisan than it is.

We run the numbers in today’s episode of TPMtv …

White House “confident” it will win Iraq fight against Dems. In other news, salesman confident you will enjoy that used car.

CNN: Sources say Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) may resign as early as today.

Actually this is pretty remarkable if true:

A GOP source with knowledge of the situation told CNN’s Dana Bash that the Republican National Committee was poised to take the extraordinary step of calling on Craig to resign.

However, that move was put on hold, the source said, because top party leaders have received indications that Craig himself is preparing to step down.

Sources have confirmed that high-level meetings on the matter were being conducted in Idaho on Thursday.

I don’t recall a national party publicly calling for the resignation of a sitting senator of its own party ever before. Perhaps our Senate history buffs can help us here. More at TPM’s Election Central.

Finally, we’re getting more of a glimpse into the netherworld occupied by Thomas Kontogiannis, and it sure is murky.

Kontogiannis is the briber of Duke Cunningham who has pleaded guilty and will be a key witness in the upcoming trial of two other alleged Cunningham bribers, Brent Wilkes and Kontogiannis’ own nephew, John Michael.

Kontogiannis’ plea agreement and the legal proceedings surrounding it were originally kept secret, and he was not even fingerprinted at first, all of which, combined with his history of getting off pretty easy for serious felony convictions, gave rise to speculation about Kontogiannis’ ties to U.S. intelligence.

The judge in the case has now unsealed some of the records of the legal proceedings, and sure enough, Kontogiannis says bribing Cunningham was basically just the cost of doing business: “My interest is (the) United States, basically. And (Cunningham) was in a position that I could reach and tell (the government) information that I was gathering from all over the world.”

It’s hard to tell whether Kontogiannis fancies himself a real-life Jack Bauer, or if he just pulled the wool over the eyes of his presumed handlers. Spencer has the details.

Manhattan District Attorney Arthur Branch’s fictional career continues, as TNT has no plans for now to stop showing Fred Thompson’s Law & Order reruns. That and other political news of the day in today’s Election Central Morning Roundup.

This is deservedly getting a lot of attention this morning. From WaPo:

In an attempt to raise the nation’s historically low rate of breast-feeding, federal health officials commissioned an attention-grabbing advertising campaign a few years ago to convince mothers that their babies faced real health risks if they did not breast-feed. It featured striking photos of insulin syringes and asthma inhalers topped with rubber nipples.

Plans to run these blunt ads infuriated the politically powerful infant formula industry, which hired a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a former top regulatory official to lobby the Health and Human Services Department. Not long afterward, department political appointees toned down the campaign. . . .

The ads ran instead with more friendly images of dandelions and cherry-topped ice cream scoops, to dramatize how breast-feeding could help avert respiratory problems and obesity.

The Larry Franklin-AIPAC case–was it lobbying or espionage?–has been flying mostly under the radar of late. But arguments made in the case yesterday suggest this could get pretty interesting if the defendants have their way:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other senior intelligence officials should not be forced to testify about whether they discussed classified information with pro-Israel lobbyists, federal prosecutors argued in a closed-door court hearing Thursday.

Two former American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbyists facing espionage charges have subpoenaed Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams and several others to testify at their trial next year. . . .

Attorneys for lobbyists Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman have argued that the Israeli interest group played an unofficial but sanctioned role in crafting foreign policy and that Rice and others can confirm it.

Trial is set for early next year.

Poor Ted Stevens. The much-investigated senior senator from Alaska is so hamstrung by his own legal troubles that his lawyers have barred him from commenting on the Larry Craig bathroom imbroglio.

The investigation of the politicization of hiring practices at the Department of Justice appears to be broader than first believed. Among the practices that the DOJ inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility are looking into are what kinds of questions were asked of job applicants. As part of the investigation, they have sent a survey to DOJ hires inquiring whether they were asked things such as, Should gays be allowed to marry? Have you contributed to Republican candidates? What kind of conservative are you? More here.