What Is It with Politicians and Airports?

First Larry Craig goes looking for lust in the wrong places, and now this: A California congressman is getting busted for pushing around a (female) baggage employee:

Rep. Bob Filner said Wednesday he regrets a recent incident at Dulles Airport in which he allegedly pushed a United Airlines baggage employee, resulting in assault and battery charges.

Filner, D-Calif., offered few details of the Aug. 19 incident in a three-sentence statement issued after he returned from a week in Iraq.

Of course, like Craig, Filner assures us this is all a big misunderstanding:

"I was tired after a delayed flight and frustrated by the subsequent further delay of the entire flight's baggage. But I did not want things to turn out as they did, with offense obviously taken and much misunderstanding," the statement said.

That's not how the folks at the airport saw it:

Filner allegedly attempted to enter an employees-only area, pushed aside an employee's arm and wouldn't leave when asked, according to Courtney Prebich, assistant media relations manager for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

Filner had disputed accounts of the incident as "factually incorrect" and said the charges were "ridiculous," but he didn't elaborate on that in his statement Wednesday.

Repeat after me: "I am NOT an airport-employee abuser. I do NOT abuse airport employees!"

And now wait to see thousands of pundits and politicians denounce Filner as a hypocrite because he's voted to increase airport security and curb violence against women.