With deadline looming, Craig to push off resignation

September 26, 2007

The on-again, off-again resignation plans of Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) are now off-again. With just four days until his self-imposed Sept. 30 deadline, the embattled Republican now appears ready to push his departure off beyond this week.

Sen. Larry Craig won’t resign from the Senate while awaiting a judge’s ruling on his effort to get a guilty plea withdrawn in a restroom sex sting, a source said Wednesday.

A judge in Minnesota was to hear arguments Wednesday afternoon in the case. […]

Craig had said he would resign from the Senate if he could not get the guilty plea overturned by September 30. But Craig on Tuesday said he won’t resign until “legal determinations” are made.

That was always the trick of the Sept. 30 deadline. Craig and his legal team sought to appeal the guilty plea, get a hearing, and a court ruling, all before the end of the month. It never really made sense — why resign before the outcome of legal proceedings? Why not wait until the judge decides one way or the other?

Craig and his lawyers apparently came to the same conclusion, at least as of today. Hennepin County Judge Charles Porter may take about two weeks to rule on Craig’s request, which presumably would give the Idaho senator that much longer to make the case to his GOP colleagues that he should stay.

It’s been quite a roller-coaster ride.

For those keeping score at home:

Craig wouldn’t resign…

Then he might…

Then he did…

Then he changed his mind…

Then he changed it back…

And now he’s back to not resigning again.

And what, by chance, happens if Craig actually succeeds in two weeks? In addition to the looming investigation from the Senate Ethics Committee (a probe that would end if he resigns), prosecutors could start all over.

If the judge rules in Craig’s favor, his legal troubles might not be over. Prosecutors could file charges again, in which case Craig could “go to trial or plead something else,” Meshbesher said.

A Republican source said Wednesday that Craig is telling close associates that if the judge allows his attorneys to reopen the case, Craig plans to stay in the Senate through the trial.

And if Craig loses in two weeks, as he’s expected to do, he can still appeal, which would mean even more delay.

The senator is supposed to issue some kind of formal statement later today. Stay tuned.

If Larry continues in office, want to bet that he’s going to sponsor harsh anti-gay measures to prove once and for all that he’s not gay?

  • Why should the outcome of this case determine whether he resigns or not? It’s not as if a plea reversal would puts the genie back in the bottle. The damage has to do with public relations, not law. Linking the case itself to the resignation is a totally falacious construct.

  • I think his situation is not a big deal anymore because being gay is not a big deal anymore. The whole thing only had power because he and his ilk ie republicans think it is so horrible to be gay. As many people have said here and elsewhere if he would accept himslef he wouldn’t have to have sex in airport bathrooms. Being gay in and of itself was/is not really the problem. The rest of the country has moved on. He’s gay? Big deal. I think it is good if it causes Mitch to get red faced and also it’s great that the scumbag rethugs can’t really thunde ron and on about how horrible gays are.

  • It’s not the issue that he’s gay. He’s lying to himself, his constituents and the news media. The legal aspect is that he committed a crime in soliciting bathroom sex and pled guilty and is now trying to backtrack.

  • Craig is such an idiot that no matter what happens he will be a well deserved laughingstock. The longer he hangs around the more ridicule he will get, and that is not good for the Gay Old Party.

  • New tagline! Larry Craig: He could go either way.

    I also move that we drop the term Flip-Flop and institute Craig as a verb: He craigs, I craiged, they craig.

  • Crawfish Craig sums it up. He makes a promise, then crawfishes…moves backward. He has no dignity, no pride, no prestige….he has lost his reputation, and is the laughing stock of the country. What must his family and the state of Idaho think?
    He is a total loser, not because he is gay, but because he persecuted gays from a position of considerable power in DC. He needs to go away and find another bathroom.

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