guilty plea

Sen. Larry Craig filed court papers Monday seeking to withdraw his guilty plea in an airport sex sting, arguing that he entered the plea under stress caused by media inquiries into his sexuality.

U.S. senator Larry Craig of Idaho defiantly vowed Thursday to serve out his term in office despite losing a court attempt to rescind his guilty plea in a men's room sex sting.

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.

The first step in Sen. Larry Craig's attempt to wipe away his guilty plea in an airport sex sting has nothing to do with whether an undercover policeman misunderstood Craig's actions in a bathroom stall. Instead, Wednesday's hearing in Minneapolis is all about whether Craig's attorneys can convince Judge Charles Porter that the Idaho senator's plea was a mistake.

The U.S. Senate Ethics Committee says Idaho senator Larry Craig acted improperly in connection with a men's room sex sting last year and had brought discredit on the Senate. In a letter to the Republican senator, the ethics panel said Craig's attempt to withdraw his guilty plea after his arrest at an airport in Minnesota was an effort to evade legal consequences of his actions. Craig's actions constitute ''improper conduct which has reflected discreditably on the Senate,'' the letter said.

In an effort to help Sen. Larry Craig, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that people who have sex in public bathrooms have an expectation of privacy. Craig, a U.S. senator from Idaho, is asking the Minnesota court of appeals to let him withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct stemming from a bathroom sex sting at the Minneapolis airport. The ACLU filed a brief Tuesday supporting Craig. It cited a Minnesota supreme court ruling 38 years ago that found that people who have sex in closed stalls in public restrooms ''have a reasonable expectation of privacy.''

Facing untimely resignations, an unpopular war and a troubling 2008 election landscape, Senate Republicans did not need another headache this week. But they got one anyway when Sen. Larry Craig vowed Thursday to serve out the last 15 months of his term, despite a court ruling that left intact his guilty plea in a sex sting operation in an airport men's room. The Republican's decision gives his party colleagues two unpleasant choices. They can resume pressuring him to leave, and risk being seen as disloyal politicians who go harder on alleged homosexual misdeeds than on heterosexual wrongdoings.