Craig support dwindles

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s support among his GOP colleagues around the country began eroding Wednesday as he was asked to give up leadership posts on key Senate committees.

Meanwhile, two Republican senators – presidential contender John McCain of Arizona and Norm Coleman of Minnesota – called on Craig to resign, as did two GOP House members, Reps. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan and Jeff Miller of Florida.

“My opinion is that when you plead guilty to a crime, you shouldn’t serve,” McCain told CNN. “That’s not a moral stand. That’s not a holier-than-thou. It’s just a factual situation.”

In his home state, however, many Republicans were calling for patience, at least until an ethics review of Craig’s disorderly conduct conviction stemming from a police sting in an airport bathroom is completed. Others were saying nothing about the incident but offering personal support to Craig and his family or recalling his past work for Idaho issues and projects.

Craig’s fellow Idaho senator, Mike Crapo, said he welcomed a call by Senate GOP leadership for an ethics committee review.

“He supports the ethics investigation as being a good way to find a timely resolution of the issue,” said Crapo’s press secretary, Lindsay Nothern.

Craig was arrested in June in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport after an undercover vice detective said he made inappropriate gestures that suggested he wanted to engage in sex in a restroom stall. Craig told the officer his actions – which involved tapping his foot and moving it next to the detective’s foot in the adjoining stall, then reaching under the stall’s partition – were misinterpreted. On Aug. 8, however, he pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly conduct while another charge of “interfering with privacy” was dropped.

On Tuesday Craig insisted he had done nothing wrong and “overreacted” by pleading guilty without consulting an attorney or informing his family. He insisted he isn’t gay but felt pressured by an Idaho Statesman investigation into whether he was and tried to keep the incident quiet.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, and other top Republican officials announced Wednesday that Craig had agreed to their request to give up his committee leadership posts while that review takes place, a move that some political observers compared to being “benched.”

He stepped down as the ranking Republican on the Veterans Affairs Committee, a panel of which he was the chairman when Republicans held the majority in the Senate. He also gave up the top GOP spot on the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior and Energy – which decides how billions of dollars in federal money is spent – and the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests.

The three-term senator managed to work his way to the top of these panels through the Senate’s seniority system. He remains on the committees, able to propose legislation, attend hearings and vote on bills.

Northwest Nazarene University political scientist Steve Shaw said Craig’s leadership positions carry both symbolic and substantive weight.

“This is fairly substantial,” Shaw said. “In essence, they’ve put him on the bench, if you will – he’s kind of been moved out of the limelight.”

The move means Craig won’t be at the microphone or on camera when important debates happen, Shaw said. He’ll also lose the clout that comes from speaking for the minority on the panels. The ranking minority member also is in line for chairmanship if the party balance in the Senate shifts.

“It’s a major thing. Normally these committees are fairly sacrosanct, and once you occupy a certain position, you don’t get kicked off that committee or lose your status unless you do so voluntarily,” Shaw said. “It’s pretty rare to have this happen. It’s a pretty serious matter.”

Many Idaho Republican politicians were either keeping silent Wednesday or supporting Craig as a friend. As Idaho’s senior senator, Craig is one of Idaho’s longest-serving politicians, a member of Congress since 1980, and before that he served six years in the Idaho State Senate.

Several North Idaho legislators said they welcome the Senate Ethics Committee investigation.

“I encourage that – I mean, we have responsibilities to our constituents to be ethical, and I think any circumstance like that, you really should have an investigation,” said Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, who called the incident “a terrible mess.”

“This saddens me. We’re all human, I understand that, but that just isn’t right,” Anderson said.

Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, said he thought the review was needed for the Senate to maintain credibility.

“Asking for an ethics investigation is not an indictment,” Jorgenson said. “I think Larry Craig’s done an awful lot for the state of Idaho and to have this happen – I feel bad for his family and for him, and I feel bad for the people of Idaho.”

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter had refrained from commenting until Wednesday, when he spoke out in support of Craig.

“I have known Larry and Suzanne Craig for almost 40 years,” Otter said, noting he’d worked with Craig in Boise and Washington, D.C.

“As a public servant who has made mistakes in my private life, I am mindful that you don’t really know who your friends are until you stumble,” Otter said.

“I want Larry and Suzanne to know that Lori and I stand by them.”

Otter’s career was blemished by a 1992 DUI and a win in a bar’s “tight-fittin’ jeans” contest when he was the state’s lieutenant governor. He came back from that low to later serve in Congress and be elected governor.

“I urge everyone to give our senator a fair hearing,” Otter said. “He is an honorable man, and I am confident that Larry Craig will do what is best for him, his family and the state of Idaho.”

J. Kirk Sullivan, chairman of the Idaho Republican Party, also spoke out in support of Craig. Sullivan said, “I think he knows that he made a snap judgment in Minneapolis. I think he knows it, and I think he is in a position to correct it.”

“Nobody’s proven anything,” Sullivan said, adding he believes Craig can still be an effective senator for Idaho because others in Congress have survived scandals and continued their careers.

Shaw noted, however, that many others have seen their political careers damaged or ended by such scandals.

State Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, said, “I’ve always had a lot of respect for Sen. Craig. I don’t think that this changes my opinion. He’s done a lot of really good things for Idaho, and I’ve always found him to be very helpful to me and my constituency, and I hope people will give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Rep. Mary Lou Shepherd, D-Prichard, said the situation disappoints her.

“I have had so much good help when I’ve needed it by going to Larry Craig’s Coeur d’Alene office,” Shepherd said. “He has been helpful when I’ve lobbied him in Washington, D.C., about fisheries and about forestry.”

But state Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, wondered if that could last: “I think it’s really a personal issue that the senator has, (but) obviously it’s become a political issue, and we have calls up here for him to resign. I think his political effectiveness is compromised.”