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<div><font color="#000000">From that bastion of Idaho
liberals.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">m.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">**********</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Twin Falls Times-News</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">October 5,2007</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Editorial</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">In the end, Craig's ego trumps what's best
for Idaho<br>
"Nothing ever gets settled in this town, a seething debating
society in which the debate never stops, in which people never give up
..."<br>
<br>
- Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, speaking of Washington,
D.C.</font><br>
<font color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">After 27 years on Capitol Hill, Larry Craig
has decided that serving Idaho isn't as important as serving himself.
Why else would he announce Thursday that he's decided to stay in the
Senate for the remaining 15 months of his term?</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
Craig's power is gone. His seniority has evaporated. His credibility
has disappeared, especially after announcing 35 days ago that he would
resign in the wake of his guilty plea for soliciting an undercover
policeman in a rest room at the Minneapolis airport.<br>
<br>
The senator changed his mind Thursday after a Minnesota judge rejected
Craig's request to withdraw that guilty plea. Idaho, he's decided,
can't do without Larry Craig in the Senate even though Senate
Republican leaders have made it abundantly clear they would rather do
without Craig.<br>
<br>
But ego is a curious thing. It warps human judgment in ways that
confound comprehension.<br>
<br>
By his decision Thursday, Craig is headed for an investigation by the
Senate Ethics Committee that will drag out his indiscretion - and
Idaho's shame - for weeks. David Letterman, Jay Leno and Jon Stewart
will have comedy material until the day Craig leaves the Senate in
2009.<br>
<br>
And Idaho will effectively have just one senator, Mike Crapo. Craig's
47 other GOP colleagues - much less the Democrats who run the Senate -
are unlikely to cut a deal with the lamest of lame ducks in recent
memory.<br>
<br>
Yet the senator has accomplished one thing: He's single-handedly made
next year's Democratic nominee for his Idaho Senate seat a viable
candidate.<br>
<br>
Larry Craig will be the issue in that election, and Lt. Gov. Jim Risch
or whomever the Republicans choose will have to defend his actions
from day one of the campaign.<br>
<br>
What a sad and sorry turn of events for a man who used to be Idaho's
most effective senator since Jim McClure and Frank Church.</font><br>
<font color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Perhaps Craig genuinely feels that he has
nothing to lose. That's too bad, because Idaho sure does.</font></div>
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