[StBernard] from www.politco.com Craig reversal angers GOP colleagues

[Westley Annis]

Just when Republicans thought things could not get much worse for their
scandal-stained party, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig leaked word Tuesday night that
he is reconsidering his abrupt plan to resign from the Senate in the wake of
his arrest in a police sex sting operation.

Top Republican strategists were neither delighted nor amused by the
senator's decision to rethink retirement after pleading guilty to disorderly
conduct following his arrest in a Minnesota airport men's bathroom.
GOP Senate sources said Tuesday night that Craig's staff was trying to tamp
down the story because Craig still intends to resign but wants to retain the
option of fighting the charges with a newly assembled, high-powered legal
team.
On Saturday, Craig said he would resign at the end of this month.
A senior GOP Senate strategist said Republican leaders want him gone now and
will press for him to keep his promise to resign. The strategist warned
Craig is "losing any goodwill built up among his colleagues," adding, "He is
simply a fish out of water, floundering right now to get his last gasp of
political air."
"It simply defies reality," said a Senate GOP aide. "You can't make this up
even if you are heavily medicated. The American people heard from Larry
Craig that he would resign, and using the word 'intent' as a back door
doesn't work with them."
But Tuesday night, spokesman Dan Whiting said Craig might not resign if he
is cleared of the charges before Sept. 30. Legal experts said it is doubtful
Craig will be cleared because he pleaded guilty to the charge.
The unexpected announcement caught fellow GOP senators - and members of
Craig's own crisis management team - mostly by surprise and threatened to
draw negative attention to the party at a time when it is preparing for big
fights over the budget and the Iraq war.

"I think the episode is over," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.) said during a press conference earlier in the day. "We will have a
new senator from Idaho at some point in the next month or so, and we are
going to move on."

McConnell wasn't the only one left in the dark about Craig's apparent new
strategy. Craig has hired a team of lawyers and crisis experts to push ahead
with a strategy aimed at repairing the three-term senator's reputation.

Washington attorney Stanley Brand said Tuesday that the Senate Ethics
Committee would receive a letter arguing that it should drop any plans to
pursue an investigation into Craig's arrest in a men's room at the
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

"I don't think the Senate ought to be policing misdemeanor offenses that
don't have anything to do with their office," Brand said. "They would be
very busy."

Senate Republican leaders called for an ethics investigation last Tuesday
into Craig's June 11 arrest and Aug. 8 guilty plea.

But Craig has since announced his resignation, making a probe moot, Brand
said.

"I am taking it as part of the good-faith exchange of his having resigned
and sparing everybody the difficult questions I am raising," Brand said. But
now the resignation might be moot, too.

The GOP Senate strategist said senators are frustrated they will now spend
another day or more deflecting questions about Craig and his bathroom
behavior. McConnell got a taste of what's to come at a press conference he
held Tuesday.

Why, he was asked, did the GOP leadership seek an ethics investigation of
Craig while giving a pass to Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) after he acknowledged
in July that his phone number was among those on the
client list of an alleged prostitution ring?

"No charges have been made," McConnell said of Vitter. "And it appears
whatever might have occurred, occurred before this individual came to the
Senate, therefore raising serious questions as to whether the Senate has
jurisdiction over it.

"The situation last week was, there was something admitted to; the legal
case was, in effect, over," McConnell continued. "The only question was what
the attitude was going to be in the Senate regarding
the admission that was made. It is clearly distinguishable."

McConnell was pressed again: Were the responses different because the Craig
incident involved alleged homosexual activity?

"This had to do with the admission of responsibility as opposed to charges
or suggestions," McConnell said.

He rejected suggestions that the Craig and Vitter incidents, coupled with
the FBI raid of the home of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) in late July as part
of a federal corruption probe, have contributed to Congress' sub-basement
approval ratings or soiled the Republican Party brand.

"The overwhelming majority of members of Congress, both Republican and
Democrat, are honorable people," McConnell said.

But the honorable thing for Craig to do, the strategist said, is simply
disappear.
Link:
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