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Scandal-ridden US Senator reconsiders decision to resign

(AP)
Updated: 2007-09-05 16:36

BOISE, Idaho -- Sen. Larry Craig says he may still fight for his Senate
seat, a spokesman says?- if the lawmaker can clear his name with the
Senate Ethics Committee and a Minnesota court where he pleaded guilty
after his arrest in an airport men's room sex sting.

In a file photo US Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, announces his resignation
from the Senate at the old Boise Depot train station overlooking downtown
Boise, Idaho, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007.?[AP]

Since announcing Saturday he intended to resign on September 30, the
Republican lawmaker who has represented Idaho for 27 years has hired a
prominent lawyer to investigate the possibility of reversing his guilty
plea.

"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 on Tuesday.

"We're still preparing as if Senator Craig will resign September 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.

In Washington, D.C., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's spokesman
and the senatorial campaign committee had no immediate comment on Craig
reconsidering.

On August 1, Craig, 62, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor
disorderly conduct following his June 11 arrest at the Minneapolis-St.
Paul International Airport.

But Craig, who remained in Idaho on Tuesday as the Senate reconvened
following its summer break, contended throughout last week he had done
nothing wrong and said his only mistake was pleading guilty.

"It was a little more cut and dried a few days ago," Smith said. "There
weren't many options. He was basically going to have to step aside. Now,
there's a little more to it."

A telephone call Craig received last week from Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.,
urging him to consider fighting the guilty plea?- and for his seat?-
affected Craig's decision to reconsider his resignation, Smith said.

On Tuesday, Specter, senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee,
suggested Craig's GOP colleagues who pressured him last week to resign
should re-examine the facts surrounding his arrest.

"The more people take a look at the situation, there may well be second
thoughts," said Specter, a former prosecutor. If Craig had not pleaded
guilty to a reduced charge and instead demanded a trial, "I believe he
would have been exonerated," Specter said.

Craig has hired a high-powered crisis management team including Billy
Martin, the lawyer for Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in his
dogfighting case, and Washington attorney Stan Brand, a former general
counsel to the US House. Martin is looking into the Minnesota guilty
plea; Brand, who represented Major League Baseball in the congressional
investigation into steroid use, will handle any Senate Ethics Committee
probe.

Craig's third six-year term in the Senate expires in January 2009.

Before Craig announced his intent to resign at month's end, McConnell
called Craig's actions "unforgivable," while the White House termed the
situation disappointing. Republican Senate colleagues John McCain of
Arizona and Norm Coleman of Minnesota said Craig should resign.

Dana Perino, White House deputy press secretary, said she had heard news
reports that Craig was reconsidering his resignation.

"I don't think that our views have changed," she said, "but of course
this is the senator's decision, the senator's seat."

Republican Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has not named Craig's successor
and hasn't said when he will.

Craig has won support from his family, including his three children, whom
he adopted after marrying their mother, the former Suzanne Scott, in
1983. Jay Craig, 33, said he, his brother, Michael Craig, 38, and his
sister, Shae Howell, 36, spoke candidly with their father about what
happened in Minnesota.

"Our conclusion was there was no wrongdoing there," Jay Craig said. "He
was a victim of circumstance, in the wrong place at the wrong time when
this sting operation was going on."

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