{"id":12925,"date":"2007-09-18T16:55:47","date_gmt":"2007-09-18T20:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/12925.html"},"modified":"2007-09-18T16:55:47","modified_gmt":"2007-09-18T20:55:47","slug":"larry-craig-returns-to-dc-gains-gop-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/larry-craig-returns-to-dc-gains-gop-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Craig returns to DC — gains GOP support?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) pretended to be a regular ol’ senator, issuing a statement in response to Gen. David Petraeus’ testimony. This week, the senator who’s allegedly just 12 days from resigning his seat, returned to Capitol Hill<\/a> for the first time since his men’s room scandal broke.<\/p>\n

The Republican senator had a brief exchange with CNN’s Ted Barrett at a Capitol entrance:<\/p>\n

Barrett: “What brings you back to the Capitol today?”
\nCraig: “Go to work.”
\nBarrett: “Are you intending to vote today, sir?”
\nCraig: “That’s my plan.”
\nBarrett: “Why decide to come back today?”
\nCraig: “Because I’m a serving United States Senator from Idaho.”<\/p>\n

Craig then stepped into the senators’ dining room on the first floor of the Capitol. On the way he passed a visibly surprised Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, who gave Craig a big welcome back handshake.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Should Craig’s return to DC be considered a hint that he’s planning to stick around? The senator said his appearance is “not at all” indicative of a change in plans. “I’m here to work with my staff and my office and to work with my legal team,” Craig said.<\/p>\n

Apparently, Craig also attended a party luncheon with his Senate Republican colleagues, at which he apologized “for any embarrassment<\/a>.” For a change, there were some evidence that he’s picked up some GOP support.
\n<\/p>\n

According to the source, Craig did not address at the lunch whether he plans to stay in Washington beyond September 30 — the date on which he had previously said he would resign.<\/p>\n

Asked after the lunch by CNN if he is considering staying in the Senate, Craig said, “We’re working on that now.”<\/p>\n

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, who has previously come to Craig’s defense…indicated Senate Republicans may be willing to support Craig if he decides to stay in the Senate.<\/p>\n

“There’s been a lot of favorable talk about Larry in the cloak room,” Craig told CNN. “And I think the initial shock has worn off.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a surprise move, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who has not come to Craig’s defense thus far, offered some support to Craig today, saying, “I don’t think there was any underlying crime…. [I think] a good lawyer could win that case.”<\/p>\n

Is it even remotely possible that Senate Republicans are starting to come around on Craig? It seems impossible to believe — remember, Mitch McConnell described Craig’s incident as “unforgivable” — but it’s something to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) pretended to be a regular ol’ senator, issuing a statement in response to Gen. David Petraeus’ testimony. This week, the senator who’s allegedly just 12 days from resigning his seat, returned to Capitol Hill for the first time since his men’s room scandal broke. The Republican senator had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}