XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.showbiz.gossip, alt.gossip.royalty   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: emma65476@yahoo.com   
      
   On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:08:45 -0700, AirRaid    
   wrote:   
      
      
   You need to apologize like Jerry Lewis did for using the F word.   
      
      
   >   
   >   
   >Craig Reconsiders Decision to Resign   
   >Sep 4 09:30 PM US/Eastern   
   >By JOHN MILLER   
   >   
   >   
   >		BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Sen. Larry Craig is reconsidering his decision   
   >to resign after his arrest in a Minnesota airport sex sting and may   
   >still fight for his Senate seat, his spokesman said Tuesday evening.   
   >   
   >"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.   
   >   
   >"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, a Republican who has represented Idaho in Congress for 27   
   >years, announced Saturday that he intends to resign from the Senate on   
   >Sept. 30. But since then, he's hired a prominent lawyer to investigate   
   >the possibility of reversing his plea, his spokesman said.   
   >   
   >Craig was a no-show Tuesday as Congress reconvened after a summer   
   >break and it wasn't clear whether he'll return at all since deciding   
   >to resign over his guilty plea in a sex sting this summer at the   
   >Minneapolis airport.   
   >   
   >Another spokesman, Dan Whiting in Washington, said Tuesday that Craig   
   >was expected to spend the week in Idaho as the Senate votes on   
   >spending bills for veterans and other programs. Whiting did not rule   
   >out Craig's returning to Washington before the end of the month.   
   >   
   >A telephone call Craig received last week from Sen. Arlen Specter, R-   
   >Pa., urging him to consider fighting for his seat is affecting Craig's   
   >decision to reconsider his resignation, Smith said.   
   >   
   >"It was a little more cut and dried a few days ago," Smith said.   
   >"There weren't many options. He was basically going to have to step   
   >aside. Now, there's a little more to it."   
   >   
   >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 June   
   >11.   
   >   
   >"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 in August to a reduced charge and instead demanded a   
   >trial, "I believe he would have been exonerated," Specter said.   
   >   
   >Craig gave up his senior positions on the Senate Veterans Affairs   
   >Committee and the Appropriations veterans subcommittee last week, at   
   >the request of Senate Republican leaders. The Senate began debating   
   >the veterans spending bill Tuesday.   
   >   
   >Craig came under a steady drumbeat of criticism from Republicans in   
   >the days before he announced that for the good of the people of Idaho,   
   >he would step down Sept. 30.   
   >   
   >Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called Craig's actions   
   >"unforgivable" after the White House termed the situation   
   >disappointing. Republican Senate colleagues John McCain of Arizona and   
   >Norm Coleman of Minnesota said Craig should resign.   
   >   
   >With Republicans defending nearly twice as many seats as Democrats in   
   >Nevada Sen. John Ensign, chairman of the Senate GOP's election effort,   
   >said he would resign if was in Craig's circumstances but stopped short   
   >of saying the Idahoan should give up his seat. Craig's third six-year   
   >term in the Senate expires in January 2009.   
   >   
   >Republican Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has not named Craig's   
   >successor and has not said when he will. Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, also a   
   >Republican, is considered the front-runner for the job.   
   >   
   >Billy Martin, one of Craig's lawyers, said the senator's arrest in an   
   >undercover police operation in men's room of Minneapolis-St. Paul   
   >International Airport "raises very serious constitutional questions."   
   >   
   >Martin, who represents Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in his   
   >dogfighting case, said Craig "has the right to pursue any and all   
   >legal remedies available as he begins the process of trying to clear   
   >his good name."   
   >   
   >Craig contended throughout last week he had done nothing wrong and   
   >said his only mistake was pleading guilty on Aug. 1 to a misdemeanor   
   >charge.   
   >   
   >Craig has hired a high-powered crisis management team that includes   
   >Martin; communications adviser Judy Smith; Washington attorney Stan   
   >Brand, a former general counsel to the U.S. House; and Minneapolis   
   >attorney Tom Kelly.   
   >   
   >Brand, who represented Major League Baseball in the congressional   
   >investigation into steroid use, will handle any Senate Ethics   
   >Committee investigation of Craig, while Kelly will assist the legal   
   >case in Minnesota.   
   >   
   >McConnell, R-Ky., disputed there was a double standard in how GOP   
   >leaders reacted to Craig's case and to the admission in July by Sen.   
   >David Vitter, R-La., that his telephone number showed up in 1999, 2000   
   >and 2001 phone bills of an escort service that federal authorities say   
   >was a prostitution ring.   
   >   
   >In Vitter's case, "there have been no charges made," McConnell said,   
   >adding that the alleged wrongdoing occurred before Vitter was a   
   >senator.   
   >   
   >Craig, by contrast, pleaded guilty to a crime, McConnell said. "The   
   >legal case was, in effect, over. At that point, the question was for   
   >the Republican leadership, what would be our reaction to it," he said.   
   >   
   >All three of Craig's adopted children said Tuesday they believe their   
   >father's assertions he is not gay and did nothing to warrant his   
   >arrest.   
   >   
   >Jay Craig, 33, told The Associated Press that he, his brother, Michael   
   >Craig, 38, and his sister, Shae Howell, 36, spoke candidly with their   
   >father about the June 11 arrest.   
   >   
   >"Our conclusion was there was no wrongdoing there," Jay Craig said.   
   >"We understood the direction he was taking (by pleading guilty) and   
   >there was nothing illegal that happened there that would even convince   
   >somebody what he was doing was illegal. He was a victim of   
   >circumstance, in the wrong place at the wrong time when this sting   
   >operation was going on."   
   >   
   >In a separate interview on Tuesday, with ABC's "Good Morning America,"   
   >Michael Craig used similar language about his father.   
   >   
   >Larry Craig adopted Michael and his two siblings after marrying their   
   >mother, the former Suzanne Scott, in 1983. Craig has worked in the   
   >Senate to promote adoption.   
   >   
   >   
   >http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RF0EGO0&show_article=1   
   >   
      
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