"Wide Stance" To Announce Resignation on Saturday

No surprise here:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig will resign from the Senate amid a furor over his arrest and guilty plea in a police sex sting in an airport men's room, Republican officials said Friday.

Craig will announce at a news conference in Boise Saturday morning that he will resign effective Sept. 30, four state GOP officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The announcement follows by just five days the disclosure that he had pleaded guilty Aug. 1 to a reduced misdemeanor charge arising out of his arrest June 11 at the Minneapolis airport.

The three-term Republican senator had maintained that he did nothing wrong except for making the guilty plea without consulting a lawyer. But he found almost no support among Republicans in his home state or Washington.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter appeared Friday to have already settled on a successor: Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, according to several Republicans familiar with internal deliberations.

What was especially laughable was the attempt by the Idaho Democrats to pressure the Republican governor to appoint a "placekeeper" to the seat until '08 at which point the seat would be considered open and a Democrat might have a slim chance of winning. They proposed a couple of antique former Idaho pols who clearly wouldn't have run for a term next year, but he governor to his credit has chosen to ignore them.

The Lt. Governor is apparently well thought of in Idaho and also understands that airport restrooms are not substitutes for the Tunnel of Love. He has an excellent chance of keeping the seat in GOP hands next year.