Citing unfair distraction, Craig to step down
Sen. Larry Craig yesterday announced he would resign, vowing to clear his name in a homosexual sex scandal but saying he feared becoming a distraction on Capitol Hill.
"I have little control over what people choose to believe, but clearing my name is important to me, and my family is so very important also," the Idaho Republican said in a speech laced with apologies and expressions of regret over the abrupt end of his 16-year Senate career.
"To pursue my legal options as I continue to serve Idaho would be an unwanted and unfair distraction of my job and for my Senate colleagues," he said. "These are serious times of war and of conflict. Times that deserve the Senate's and the full nation's attention."
It was not clear what legal options Mr. Craig has to reverse his guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct related to soliciting homosexual sex from a plainclothes policeman in a Minnesota airport restroom.
Mr. Craig announced later yesterday that he has retained Billy Martin, a Washington lawyer who represented Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in his dogfighting case, to pursue his legal options.
He has said his actions in the bathroom stall — where police say he put his foot against the foot of the officer in the next stall and signaled with his hand under the stall divider — were misconstrued by the officer.
Mr. Craig, 62, maintains his chief mistake was pleading guilty to an erroneous charge and has repeatedly insisted, "I am not gay."
His resignation, effective Sept. 30, helps Senate Republicans put the scandal behind them heading into the 2008 elections and helps ensure the party will retain Mr. Craig's seat from Idaho, a dependably Republican state.
I don't trust any of them!
oh and there are plenty of dems. on the list of bad judgement calls, plenty.
