Craig Reconsiders Decision to Resign

Well why the heck not? After all, he pled guilty to disorderly conduct charges after being caught in a sex sting at the Minneapolis Airport - and he "reconsidered" his guilty plea after it became newsworthy. Seems like the only thing consistant about soon to be ex-senator Craig is that he "reconsiders" a lot of things.

I guess you could say he changed his position on the issue, but that opens up a whole new avenue of jokes :)

Here's the AP story ...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — One of Sen. Larry Craig's lawyers said Wednesday the Senate has no business looking into the conduct of one of its own following Craig's guilty plea in connection with an airport men's room sex sting.

An unbroken line of precedents dating back 220 years makes clear the Senate does not consider misdemeanor private conduct to be a fit subject of inquiry, Washington attorney Stan Brand asserted after aides to Craig said the senator is reconsidering his decision to resign.

"We ought to seek to have the committee dismiss this outright," Brand said of a Senate ethics panel's investigation. "The Republican leadership called for an ethics investigation that had nothing to do with his office," Brand said on NBC's "Today" show.

Craig says he may still fight for his Senate seat, a spokesman says — if the lawmaker can clear his name with the Senate ethics panel and a Minnesota court.

The Republican lawmaker, who has represented Idaho for 27 years, announced Saturday that he intended to resign.

"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 Sept. 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.

Craig, 62, pleaded guilty Aug. 1 to a reduced charge of misdemeanor disorderly conduct following his June 11 arrest at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. But he contended throughout last week he had done nothing wrong and said his only mistake was pleading guilty.

Smith said 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.

Dana Perino, White House deputy press secretary, said Wednesday she'd 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."

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 Brand.

Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper in Washington, reported in its editions Wednesday that it obtained a voice message from Craig left inadvertently to a wrong number less than an hour before his news conference Saturday.

"Yes, Billy, this is Larry Craig calling. You can reach me on my cell. Arlen Specter is now willing to come out in my defense, arguing that it appears by all that he knows that I've been railroaded ...," Craig is recorded as saying. "...We've reshaped my statement a little bit to say it is my intent to resign on September 30."

The call was apparently intended for Martin, an aide to the attorney said Wednesday. In it, Craig asked him to hold a news conference later Saturday and "make as bold a statement as you are comfortable with."

"I think it would help drive the story that I'm willing to fight, that I've got quality people out there fighting in my defense, and that this thing could take a new turn or a new shape — has that potential," Craig said.

Martin later Saturday issued a written statement on Craig's behalf but did not hold a news conference. His aide said Martin did not receive the senator's voice mail.

Roll Call said it obtained the voice message from the person whose number was apparently misdialed. The newspaper did not identify the recipient but said it was a Washington, D.C., resident who is not involved in politics.

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

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.

Before Craig announced his intent to resign at month's end, McConnell called Craig's actions "unforgivable" and Senate colleagues John McCain of Arizona and Norm Coleman of Minnesota said Craig should resign.

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