Thanks for the replies so far.
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As far as letting him out of the crate at night when he is whinning is okay as long as he only gets to go outside to pee. He will learn that whinning will let him go outside only and not to be with you. It worked with Bigos...he did do it often but learned quickly.
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It's not at night that he's whining/crying. It's in the morning. He sleeps all night without a sound, but lately he's been waking up earlier and earlier (sometimes before 6am, sometimes around 6:30am, but always before his previous wake up time of 7am - 7:30am). So in the mornings, he's waking up early and just crying. Is it crying to go outside? Probably. Is it crying to be with us? Probably a little of that, too. If it's quite some time before we need to be up, do we let him outside and then put him right back in his crate until we're ready to get up? If it's close to our wake up time, do we let him outside to go to the bathroom and then keep him with us or do we put him back in his crate?
I think I just need to be more of hard nose when it comes to the food/water balance. If he just drinks water in the morning, and chooses not to eat, then I have to be okay with him waiting until 6:30pm or so to get his dinner. He won't starve, but maybe he'll learn to not just scarf down the water and no food. My fiance feels just as bad too and wants to leave him biscuits when he doesn't eat. I don't want to do that. I think he needs to learn that when his food is down, that's when he eats, take it or leave it.