To the dismay of
fellow Republicans, Sen. Larry Craig launched a
determined drive to save his seat on Wednesday, vowing to
stay in office if allowed to withdraw his guilty plea
in a men's room sex sting.
Craig's campaign
suffered an instant setback, however, when the ethics
committee refused to set aside a complaint lodged against
him. ''Pending Sen. Craig's resignation, the committee
will continue to review this matter,'' the committee's
senior senators wrote.
The decision to
deploy his legal team marked a reversal of his pledge to
resign on September 30 and raised the possibility of a
protracted legal and political struggle, much of it
playing out in public, with gay sex at its core.
''I thought he
made the correct decision, the difficult but correct
decision to resign'' over the weekend, said Senate
Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky after he
and Craig spoke by telephone. ''That would still be my
view today.''
Craig made no
public statements during the day, although he met privately
in Boise with Idaho governor C.L. Otter, who has the
authority to fill any vacancy in the state's Senate
delegation.
''We are
proceeding based on the assumption that there is going to be
a transition at the end of the month,'' said Jon
Hanian, Otter's spokesman. ''The senator's staff is
going to work with ours to that end.''
But McConnell
heard something different when he talked with his longtime
Senate colleague. He said Craig had told him he now intended
to remain in Congress if he is permitted to withdraw
his guilty plea by September 30. ''If he is unable to
have that disposed of prior to September 30, it is his
intention to resign from the Senate as he expressed last
Saturday,'' he said.
The GOP leader
spoke hours after Craig's attorney, Stanley Brand, asked
the ethics committee not to investigate a complaint because
events were ''wholly unrelated'' to official duties.
Committee action
eventually would lead the Senate down a path of dealing
with ''a host of minor misdemeanors and transgressions,''
Brand added in a letter that was hand-delivered.
In a written
reply several hours later, the panel's chairman and senior
Republican wrote that Senate rules give the committee
authority to investigate lawmakers who engage in
''improper conduct, which may reflect upon the
Senate.''
''The committee
has reached no conclusions regarding the matter,'' wrote
senators Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, and John
Cornyn, a Texas Republican. ''Pending Sen. Craig's
resignation, the committee will continue to review
this matter.''
A second attorney
for Craig, Tom Kelly, was in Minnesota, evidently
preparing to file papers seeking to have the senator's
guilty plea withdrawn.
Lawyers not
involved in the case have said Craig faces a difficult
challenge, pointing to Minnesota Rules of Criminal Procedure
requiring that a defendant show a ''manifest
injustice'' to withdraw a guilty plea.
In Craig's case,
he voluntarily signed a plea agreement that included a
provision stating that the court would not accept such a
confession of guilt from anyone who believed himself
innocent.
The legal fine
points aside, Craig's turnabout was the subject of a
lengthy closed-door discussion among Senate Republicans
during the day. One participant said McConnell's
concerted effort to prod Craig to quit Congress drew
widespread support. Only a few members of the rank and file
expressed concern that the leadership was acting in haste,
added this lawmaker, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because the meeting was private.
There was other
evidence of the discomfort his case has caused fellow
conservatives.
A dozen
conservative activists attending a press conference on one
of President Bush's judicial nominees declined to
answer questions about Craig, including whether they
wished to see him resign or remain in office.
They included
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council;
David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union;
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax
Reform; and Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women
for America.
White House chief
of staff Joshua Bolten said on PBS's NewsHour With
Jim Lehrer that he thinks Craig will conclude that
his announcement that he intends to resign ''remains
the right decision.''
For his part,
McConnell turned away questions about Craig's situation.
Asked whether fellow Republicans could embrace Craig if he
disposed of the case and returned to Washington, the
GOP leader said he would not answer hypothetical
questions.
Asked if Craig
had been disingenuous when he told him on Friday he
intended to resign, McConnell declined to say.
And when asked
whether Republican senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania
had been helpful in resolving the controversy, McConnell
said, ''You'll have to talk to Senator Specter about
his views.''
Specter said
Sunday he would like to see Craig ''seek to withdraw the
guilty plea, and fight the case.'' Specter, a former
prosecutor, said he believes the Idaho lawmaker could
be vindicated.
He declined to
elaborate further when asked during the day.
Craig drew one
expression of support, from fellow Idaho Republican
senator Mike Crapo.
''I support
whatever Larry does,'' said Crapo. ''Everybody has a right
to try to vindicate themselves.''
Several officials
have said Crapo played a key role in last week's
events, serving as an intermediary of sorts between his home
state colleague and Republicans in Washington eager to
see Craig resign.
The Republican
leadership moved aggressively when word of Craig's guilty
plea first surfaced, asking the ethics committee to
investigate, then prevailing on him to step down from
his committee and subcommittee leadership positions.
While Craig is
only the latest in a series of Republican senators to
become drawn into controversy, he is the only one to have
drawn widespread calls for his resignation. McConnell
and other critics have denied that their decision to
prod him to leave stemmed from the allegation that he
had solicited gay sex. They said Craig's case was the
only one in which a guilty plea had been entered. (David
Espo, AP)
