Craig Won’t Resign For Now

Missing his Sunday deadline

By Jill Kuraitis, 9-26-07

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig released a statement Wednesday saying: “Today was a major step in the legal effort to clear my name. The court has not issued a ruling on my motion to withdraw my guilty plea. For now, I will continue my work in the United States Senate for Idaho.”

Craig’s lawyers have argued that his guilty plea in a Minneapolis airport sex sting should be reversed. County prosecutor Christopher Renz has argued it should be upheld.

The hearing went as scheduled Wednesday, but the judge said he wouldn’t make a ruling then, and NewWest.Net/Boise has learned it could be as late as next week – after Craig’s self-imposed resignation deadline of Sunday, September 30.

Weeks of conflicting statements by Craig and his spokespeople have now been followed by CNN’s report that a political source close to Craig said he won’t make any decisions until the judge’s ruling, and that “he wants to find a way to stay in office.”

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter will be charged with appointing a successor to Craig if and when he leaves the Senate, but Otter’s press secretary, Jon Hanian, told NewWest.Net/Boise, “Well, until we have a resignation letter from the senator, we have no role to play.”

After the hearing, Craig’s lawyer, Billy Martin, told the national media live on numerous networks, “We were hoping he’d rule....we’re hoping he agrees with us; he’s a very experienced judge.”

“The Senator will make a statement later from his Washington office...he’s at work.”

Martin also said that he would have advised Craig to immediately hire a lawyer before entering a plea. “It was clearly a mistake,” he said.

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By Jill Kuraitis, 9-26-07 | comments (14) | email story | print story

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By Tom von Alten, 9-26-07

A lawyer said he would have advised Craig to hire a lawyer? There's a shocker. But what's up with this judge? He had plenty of time to read up on the issues, including the ACLU amicus brief, for this misdemeaner offense. And he can't rule until maybe a week later? Jiminy God.

By Disgraced in Idaho, 9-26-07

How much tomfoolery do the constituants of Idaho need from our leaders?

This has got to stop.

Apparently, Mr. Craig, you think you have the same set of rules as OJ. Enough!

I'd like to see Susan Powder drop kick Craig off his senate chair screaming.. "Stop the Insanity"!!

By Sisyphus, 9-26-07

Tom, the judge smells what every one else is missing, the appeal. Judges hate getting reversed so he's going to try and make the decision bulletproof. Plus this isn't his only case. As you imply this hardly merits the devotion of court time it has taken.

Now the real question of the day I've pondered here: http://www.43rdstateblues.com/?q=node/3612

Craig ain't goin nowhere.

By MT Wilderness Hunter, 9-26-07

Senator Craig's friends in the wise-use and resource exploitation wing of the GOP are sure rallying behind their man.

http://www.landrights.org/

By mike, 9-26-07

I'm kind of liking all of this "spotlight on the real character of the rightwing" media circus. I hope Larry "Do I catch the scent of a sexy toilet stall?" Craig stays on to fight his very, very, very public battle for years and years to come. Go, boy, go! I hope John Stokes and Chuck Cushman and maybe Pombo and Cubin and Mark Foley can all get publicly involved and run a whole bunch of national primetime network TV ads in defense of Craig and his... er, uh, well, beliefs; it'll be great. Maybe they can bring Little Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew and Louis Rove all back from the dead and get together with Newt Gingrich's sister and Dick Cheney's daughter and all hold hands for a big panoramic group picture. As far as I can tell, that's what it'll take for Idaho to wake up and not do it all over again with different faces in the same old roles. I mean really; who in the world would actually elect Butch Otter as governor anyway? Hellooooooo!

By joe p, 9-27-07

"I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot. ... The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area. Craig then proceeded to swipe his left hand under the stall divider several times, with the palm of his hand facing upward."

Amazing! Bathroom handies. Ahh the life and trivial nature of a US Senator-Thanks Larry

By Don Iarussi MFA, 9-27-07

are we not over this yet? Craig should not resign. he did nothing wrong but fall victim to a lying cop.

wow, clinton was accused of raping so many women but the rapist is a hero to the left? barny frank ran a house of prostitution out of his house, hillary clinton made 100k in cattle futures in days from a man who she and billw ere doing favors for.

ted kennedy drove his pregnant lover off a bridge in chappaquiddick and left her to die while his pregnant wife sat at home. he fled to a hotel to sleep it off.

what a joke this is.

By Marion, 9-27-07

C'mon Don, this is all they have, they have to beat it into pudding to get every last drop from it. Whatever you do if you should use a public bathroom, do not make a sound or move., there may be a bathroom cop patrolling the place. Best scenario hold it until you get home.
I believe this is article 8 on Mr. Craig, talk about a bathroom fixation!

By mike, 9-27-07

I hear that Loverboy, er, I mean Larry Craig is going to try to hold his seat (no pun intended) until Rex Rammell can get his campaign kickstarted.

By 6degrees, 9-28-07

Marion, you want this story to go away? It is Senator "Wide Stance" who is keeping it on the front pages of newspapers around the world. His "intent" to resign on Sunday. His continued insistence on keeping his office until the legal issues are resolved. The day following his official resignation from the US Senate (and the inevitable stories that will engender) will be the day this story moves onto the dustbin of history.

As for Don, your continued insistence on deflecting the issues onto various shenanigans perpetrated by Democrats over the past 3 decades just points out your own partisanship. Face it, both Dems and Repubs live in glass houses when topics like this one are front page fodder. Can you say "Senator David Vitter and the DC madam"? The difference is that Dems are not the "holier-than-thou" party who want to impose their own unique brand of "family" values on everyone else in the country. If that brand includes toe tapping and anonymous bathroom sex, then perhaps you would be better served trying to clean up your own house before defiling everyone elses.

By Sisyphus, 9-28-07

How is it exculpatory for Craig or relevant to this post to say that a variety of Democrats engaged in bad acts? Actually Don the joke is a guy who continually uses the designation "MFA" after his name in some misguided effort to lend credence to otherwise unrelated comments. Its a sophomoric affectation disclosing a lack of confidence in your contentions to constantly assert some sort of educational designation like you trump the rest of us cause some school somewhere gave you a piece of paper with those letters. You don't see anyone else doing it.

What's it stand for anyway, Master of Fine Arts or mighty frickin amazing. For a guy with so many "letters" you still have a lot of grammar lessons ahead of you.

By Craig Moore, 9-28-07

Irwin, you wrote: "...Dems are not the "holier-than-thou" party who want to impose their own unique brand of "family" values on everyone else in the country." You know it's kind of funny how people see things so differently. For example, when the D's pounded the drum "culture of corruption" ad infinitum ad naseum last election cycle and promised to clean up Washington over special interests, earmarks, and corruption. In my opinion, the "holier-than-thou" drumbeat of 'culture of corruption' is exactly the very condition you claim doesn't exist with D's. Norman Hsu is but the latest example that brings home that hyprocrisy. In terms of imposing a belief structure there are many other examples of D sponsored compulsory behavior that stem from a value base not shared by all others. You are correct that both D's and R's live in glass houses, but it strains credulity to claim one side or the other is less pregnant than the other. Just my opinion.

By Tom von Alten, 9-28-07

This story would have burned brightly but vaporized before anything hit the ground if only Larry Craig had accepted the fate his Republican fathers laid out for him. The week-long flogging on late night talk shows was inevitable, but it was Mr. Craig who made it month-long, and counting.

In terms of what percentage of the populace--in the whole country, not just our little state--that knows about this story, is following this story, and has an opinion about this story, it speaks volumes about what gets our attention. Sex sells like nothing else, and Mr. Craig found himself on the decidely wrong end of the phenomenon.

Craig's credibility, integrity, and informal power are in the crapper, his formal power is about on par with Bill Sali's, and in spite of all you extremists desperate to find a scapegoat to blame this on, it's all his fault.

It's Greek tragedy. Some of those have been in production for millennia, so don't expect this one to fade too quickly.

By mike, 9-28-07

I'm still trying to figure out the MFA thing, what it means, and whether it is some sort of coded signal relating to Craig's lifestyle, maybe something like the foot tapping thing. It can't be Master of Fine Arts; that just doesn't make any sense.

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Missing his Sunday deadline