Craig is Reconsidering Retirement

This is not good news for the GOP:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Sen. Larry Craig is reconsidering his decision to resign after his arrest in a Minnesota airport sex sting and may still fight for his Senate seat, his spokesman said Tuesday evening.

"It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore, that the only thing he could do was resign," Sidney Smith, Craig's spokesman in Idaho's capital, told The Associated Press.

"We're still preparing as if Senator Craig will resign Sept. 30, but the outcome of the legal case in Minnesota and the ethics investigation will have an impact on whether we're able to stay in the fight—and stay in the Senate," Smith said.

Craig, a Republican who has represented Idaho in Congress for 27 years, announced Saturday that he intends to resign from the Senate on Sept. 30. But since then, he's hired a prominent lawyer to investigate the possibility of reversing his plea, his spokesman said.

Had Sen. Craig not had a history of previous allegations of bad behavior, it clearly would have been a mistake to plead guilty to anything given the circumstances that were presented in the complaint. Putting your roller bag in front of the stall door - which is about the only place it could go, tapping your feet and reaching your hand under the wall by themselves are certainly not crimes, though they may indicate criminal activity is about to happen. Had most men I know found themselves accused of soliciting sex based on those circumstances, that cop would have found himself going to fist city. Craig's response to the situation sounded more like a guilty guy trying to get out of trouble rather than an innocent man protesting the charge.



Hiring Michael Vick's lawyer (Billy Martin) to try and undo the criminal case is probably a lost cause. It' s my understanding that the guilty plea cannot be withdrawn. Remaining in the Senate while he tries to sort this out will only keep an open wound festering and will give the Dems nothing but a huge target to shoot at. Sen. Craig forfeited his fight to save his name and reputation when he pled guilty, and now he needs to just go away.

UPDATE: It looks like Craig's plan to reconsider his retirement has been in the works since before his Saturday announcement. A phone call to the wrong number has tipped his hand:

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig says he might reconsider his decision to resign if he clears his name in his arrest for disorderly conduct in a restroom sex scandal.

That’s why Craig chose his words carefully during his resignation speech Saturday in Boise, according to a voice mail message he mistakenly left on a stranger’s phone. In the message obtained by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, Craig tells a man named “Billy” that his choice of language is deliberate because it leaves the door open for him to stay in office.

Craig made the call just minutes before his speech.

“We have reshaped my statement a little bit to say it is my intent to resign on Sept. 30,” Craig said. “I think it is important for you to make as bold a statement as you are comfortable with this afternoon, and I would hope you could make it in front of the cameras. I think it would help drive the story that I’m willing to fight, that I’ve got quality people out there fighting in my defense, and that this thing could take a new turn or a new shape, it has that potential.”

The recording was offered for sale to the Idaho Statesman, which turned it down because the newspaper’s ethics policy precludes it from paying for information from sources. A Roll Call editor said that publication wouldn’t pay either, but managed to obtain the recording without charge.

The voice is indeed Craig’s, spokesman Dan Whiting said. Whiting would not say who “Billy” is. Later that day, Craig announced that he had hired high-profile criminal defense lawyer Billy Martin, whom Craig hired to help him unravel the guilty plea Craig filed last month.

Whiting confirmed in an e-mail that his boss “intends to resign on Sept. 30th. However, he is fighting these charges, and should he be cleared before then, he may, and I emphasize may, not resign.”