Washington – Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, vowed to serve out the remainder of his term Thursday despite losing his bid to withdraw his guilty plea for disorderly conduct in an airport men’s restroom.
Craig, who had earlier vowed to resign if unable to withdraw his plea, said he was considering appealing Thursday’s decision by a Minnesota judge. The judge ruled that some of the senator’s legal arguments were “illogical.”
“As I continued to work for Idaho over the past three weeks here in the Senate, I have seen that it is possible for me to work here effectively,” Craig said in a statement. “I will continue my effort to clear my name in the Senate Ethics Committee – something that is not possible if I am not serving in the Senate.”
The reversal stunned his colleagues, particularly Republican leaders who hoped to put the politically embarrassing episode behind them. Craig had initially said he would resign Sept. 30, then said he would stay on as his legal case continued. His announcement Thursday to stay in office through the 2008 election but not run for re-election left GOP senators furious.
“I believe the best thing for him to do is keep his word,” said Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota said, “I thought the original decision was the right thing to do.”
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who led the political assault on Craig in late August by calling for an ethics committee investigation, declined to comment.
“That matter is before the ethics committee,” he said. “It will be dealt with, I assume, by Sen. Craig and the ethics committee.”
Republicans are powerless to enforce any other internal punishment until the ethics panel completes its inquiry.
In his ruling Thursday, Hennepin County District Court Judge Charles Porter rejected Craig’s request to withdraw his plea, writing in a 27-page ruling that Craig had pleaded guilty because he wanted to plead guilty.
“The defendant chose to not appear (in court) and to enter his plea by mail just so he could avoid any such (publicity), of record, inquiry into his conduct,” Porter wrote, underlining the last portion of his sentence for emphasis. “He kept many of the facts out of the record in so doing. He cannot now complain that he should not have been allowed to take advantage of an approved method to enter a misdemeanor plea.”
Craig said he was “extremely disappointed with the ruling” and his lawyers would “explore my additional legal options.”
Craig’s announcement to stay in office was the latest turn in a nearly six-week saga, beginning with the revelation on Aug. 27 that earlier that month he had quietly pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct charge stemming from his June 11 arrest in a sting operation at a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
