Craig Story Updates
Craig Stripped of Committee Rank Status, Republicans Call For Resignation
By Jill Kuraitis, 8-29-07
Sen. Larry Craig has been stripped of his ranking Republican status in committees.
Here’s the statement from Republican leaders Senators Mitch McConnell, Trent Lott, Jon Kyl, Kay Bailey Hutchison, John Ensign: “Senator Larry Craig has agreed to comply with Leadership’s request that he temporarily step down as the top Republican on the Veteran Affairs Committee, Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, and 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.”
A group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a complaint with the Senate ethics committee. A spokesperson for the group said they are asking for an investigation into whether Craig violated Senate rules by engaging in disorderly conduct.
CNN has these quotes from prominent Republicans in Congress:
“I believe that he pleaded guilty, and he had the opportunity to plead innocent,” said presidential hopeful John McCain, of Arizona. “So, I think he should resign. My opinion is that when you plead guilty to a crime you shouldn’t serve.”
“Sen. Craig pled guilty to a crime involving conduct unbecoming a senator. He should resign,” said Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.
Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan added: “The voters of Idaho elected Sen. Craig to represent their state and will decide his future in 2008 should he fail to resign.“He’s disappointed the American people,” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Wednesday that Craig has “a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.”
“It’s certainly not a good thing,” said Huckabee. “And I think the guilty plea is what makes it a little bit dicey for him. If he believed it was an innocent misunderstanding, then I think most Americans would say that you fight it, you don’t just roll over and plead guilty.”
On August 8, Craig pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in Minnesota after being arrested by a plainclothes police officer who was investigating sexual activity in a men’s bathroom in the Minneapolis airport.
Look for more in this column, which will be updated regularly.
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Craig, as much as I have read, did not have his way with Capitol page boys in the elevators. That is so forgiveable as to have the Stellwagen Banks National Marine Sanctuary visitors center named for the late Democrat Rep. Gerry Studds. A Federal celebration of an admitted pediophile.
Craig is done. A rather pubic denial of what is not obvious to him, but is to the rest of the world, is a disqualification and rightly so. The Republican Party has a responsibility to enforce discipline. You plead guilty and you take your punishment. That the Democrats cannot discipline members of their party is the real shame of all this. There is no shame in the Democrat Party. Having Democrat Barney Frank plead Craig's case that he did not actually commit a crime that would be like taking a bribe to cast a favorable vote is the topper. Gay or straight, a crime is a crime, and legislators are held to a higher standard than any question about their sexual preference. That he said nothing about his guilty plea for two months makes it self evident that Craig has less than honest intentions.
I would much rather have an honest raging queen with a good mind and without a police record for a legislator than a sneak in dark self admitted secret solicitor. This country needs honesty in its leaders, yesterday, today and tomorrow.
On a related note, I can personally forgive a lapse of an otherwise true public servant who admits guilt, asks for absolution, and then changes his/her ways. Problem for the religious Republicans is that the person is perverted merely by the fact of who they are and not what they do. Once it was being black, Jewish, etc.; now it is being Gay. This isn't an ad hominem arguement. Merely an established historical fact about the Southern Republicans (formerly the Dixie Democrats). Same spots, same folks.
Yes. Salaciousness sells.
It seems to me that sex in a bathroom behind closed doors should not be a crime.
If there was aggression or violence or involved, then it would be morally incorrect. However, sex with consent and even anonymously should not be criminalized.
Larry Craig deserves derision (not necessarily banishment) for other reasons. For example, he eco-thuggishly defundied the Fish Passage Center in Washington State where a dedicated group of scientists count the number of salmon returning to the Columbia River each year. That was a politcially cynical revenge tactic against people who advocated the scientific evaluation of the possibility of removing dams on the Lower Snake River.
Please talk about victimless crime statutes and how they are enforced by the moral police.
Pat Von Behren
Pleasant Hill, Ca