Posted on 08/31/2007 3:31:07 PM PDT by dragnet2
Edited on 08/31/2007 3:48:58 PM PDT by Lead Moderator. [history]
BOISE, Idaho - Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig will announce Saturday he 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 hold a news conference at 10:30 a.m. MDT and say that he will resign effective Sept. 30, three 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.
Craig has been out of public view since Tuesday, but Republican sources in Idaho said he spent Friday making calls to top party officials, including the governor, gauging their support.
There has been virtually none publicly.
Asked Friday at the White House if the senator should resign, President Bush said nothing and walked off stage.
No big surprise, but they just announced this as breaking news.
Irrespective of the double standard, Craig should resign. The amoral and immoral Democrats re-elect such individuals...but we should send them home. The answer to the double standard is not to adopt the low, immoral, amoral standard, for then all becomes corrupt.
I pray for Craig and his family, that he will overcome his troubles and be able to hold his family together...but I no longer want him representing me. In truth, after his avid support for shamnesty, he had already lost that political support in any case.
Pretty sad really.
They just broke this news about 4 minutes ago over AM radio.
Just announced on Fox News.
Good move, Senator.
We just saw that. No surprise here. I think there was no choice in the matter for him.
Pretty amazing stuff and strange times.
There’s simply nothing I can think of to add to your post, except my endorsement.
Well put.
Guess he and his lawyers have had sufficient time to make completely certain that his pension is safe. Sorry, but after a while, you just have to become thoroughly cynical about these political types.
Well, I guess it all came to a head. :)
I figured he'd do this just prior to or during the holiday weekend.
Either way, it is best for him to resign for all involved. Himself, his family, the state and the nation.
Great news.
Now, when will William Jefferson, D-LA, and Barney Frank offer their resignations?
So why wait for tomorrow?
I could not agree more Jeff.
When reading the reports you provided, and later listening to the investigative interview audio, I was stunned at his responses.
As an Idahoan, I (like most others) was aware of the rumors and inuendo. I always wrote it off as liberal rumors aimed at discrediting what was for years a very conservative Senator. But with this episode coming on the heals of his recent interview with the stateman over exactly the same type of allegations from restrooms in DC...and his guilty plea to charges stemming from those type of acts in Minneapolis, and his admittance that he did not tell his wife, his lawyer, or his staff about this occurance, well, that sealed it for me on that count.
In addition, the last 3-4 years his stance on illegal aliens and other issues. Well, he had already lost my support and that of a lot of others.
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