[Vision2020] Craig going down fast

[Mark Solomon]

Party Leaders Strip Idaho Senator of Leadership Posts

By DAVID STOUT
Published: August 29, 2007
NYTimes

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 - The political career of Senator Larry Craig of 
Idaho appeared to be collapsing today as fellow Republicans called 
for his resignation and party leaders ousted him from his committee 
leadership posts amid the fallout over his arrest and guilty plea in 
connection with an incident in an airport restroom.

A statement by the Senate Republican leadership said Mr. Craig "has 
agreed to comply" with a request to step down as the top Republican 
on the Veterans Affairs Committee, the Appropriations subcommittee on 
the Interior and the Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee on 
public lands and forests.

"This is not a decision we take lightly, but we believe this is in 
the best interest of the Senate until this situation is resolved by 
the Ethics Committee," the statement said. It was issued by Senators 
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the party leader; Trent Lott of 
Mississippi, the whip; Jon Kyl of Arizona, the conference chairman, 
and other prominent Republicans.

Mr. Craig will still retain membership on the committees, but he will 
have no more power than a freshman senator, even though he is nearing 
the end of his third term and was himself in the party leadership not 
so long ago.

Meanwhile, Senators John McCain of Arizona and Norm Coleman of 
Minnesota and Representative Pete Hoekstra called on their fellow 
Republican to resign.

"My position is that when you plead guilty to a crime, you shouldn't 
serve," Mr. McCain said in an interview on CNN. "That's not a moral 
stand. That's not holier-than-thou. It's just a factual situation."

Mr. Coleman issued a statement saying that Mr. Craig had pleaded 
guilty to "a crime involving conduct unbecoming a senator. He should 
resign."

And Mr. Hoekstra, who was apparently the first Republican in Congress 
to call for Mr. Craig's resignation, said the senator should quit 
because he "represents the Republican Party."

"It's not a judgment on gay rights or anything like that," Mr. 
Hoekstra said in an interview with The Associated Press. "This is 
about leadership and setting a standard that the American people and 
your colleagues in the Republican Party can feel good about."

Mr. Craig was arrested on June 11 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul 
International Airport by an undercover police officer investigating 
sexual activity in a men's room. He denied any sexual intent and on 
Aug. 8 pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. A second charge, of 
interference with privacy, was dismissed. The senator was fined more 
than $500, given a suspended 10-day jail sentence and placed on 
unsupervised probation for a year.

On Tuesday, Mr. Craig said he regretted having pleaded guilty and had 
done so because his judgment had been clouded by a "witch hunt" being 
carried out by Idaho newspaper reporters looking into his personal 
life.

Today, Mr. Hoekstra called that explanation "not credible."
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