{"id":13006,"date":"2007-09-25T16:45:27","date_gmt":"2007-09-25T20:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/13006.html"},"modified":"2007-09-25T16:45:27","modified_gmt":"2007-09-25T20:45:27","slug":"coy-craig-considers-course-correction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/coy-craig-considers-course-correction\/","title":{"rendered":"Coy Craig considers course correction?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Sept. 25, meaning that Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) will officially give up his Senate seat in just five days, right? I wouldn’t bet on it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig declined to say Tuesday whether he would resign his seat as planned if his guilty plea stemming from a Minneapolis bathroom sex sting is not overturned this week.<\/p>\n

“We are waiting for the legal determinations and I have nothing more to say,” Craig told reporters Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The senator would not comment on what he would do if the court case were not decided by Sunday, the original date of his planned resignation from the Senate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A county judge in Minnesota will hear Craig’s case tomorrow morning, though it’s unclear when we’ll hear a final ruling. Craig will not attend the court hearing, preferring instead to act like a normal senator on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

Not that he’s necessarily welcome. Reporters asked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell about Craig’s uncertain future, and The Hill said McConnell “appeared visibly unnerved” by the question, before saying, “I really don’t have anything to add on that issue to what I said a couple of weeks ago.”<\/p>\n

The prosecutor in Minneapolis, meanwhile, has plenty to say.
\n
\nGreg Sargent noted<\/a> that prosecutor Christopher Renz submitted his filing yesterday, and made a pretty compelling case that it’s far too late for Craig to go back now. Renz detailed his discussions with the senator:<\/p>\n

* In response to Craig’s questions as to what would happen if he pled guilty, the prosecutor explained that his guilty plea would be a matter of public record.<\/p>\n

* The prosecutor noted drolly that Craig told him that “he was in a difficult situation as a result of the nature of the charges and his position as a United States Senator.”<\/p>\n

* The prosecutor noted that in all conversations, Craig “seemed calm, intellegent and methodical in his questions. At no time during the conversations, did the Defendant appear to have a tone or sense of urgency, panic, or overt emotion.”<\/p>\n

Perhaps best of all, Craig wrote a handwritten note to the prosecutor profusely thanking him for his help.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, that’s not a good sign for Craig at all.<\/p>\n

I, however, have a new, unexplored idea: presidential pardon. Why doesn’t Bush simply intervene, condemn the prosecution as “judicial activism,” and help out a conservative Republican senator who’s voted with the president’s policies every possible change for nearly seven years?<\/p>\n

Bush values loyalty, doesn’t he?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Sept. 25, meaning that Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) will officially give up his Senate seat in just five days, right? I wouldn’t bet on it. Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig declined to say Tuesday whether he would resign his seat as planned if his guilty plea stemming from a Minneapolis bathroom sex sting is […]<\/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-13006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13006","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=13006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}