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Larry Craig just won’t go away

By Phil Barron ⋅ September 5, 2007 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ Post a comment

For many years, once-senator and erstwhile presidential hopeful Gary Hart has been - in my view, at least - the exemplar of thoroughly unsound personal judgment by a politician. Yes, Hart has a lot of notable competition for the position, but can anything really compare with a public challenge to a hostile and suspicious press when you’re busy committing adultery?

Follow me around. I don’t care. I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’ll be very bored.

The rest, of course is political history, a milestone on the long road of breathtakingly stupid and self-destructive moves by a holder of high office. A standard had been set that should have lasted for a hundred years. Now, however, a new challenger has appeared: Idaho’s toe-tapping Larry Craig, the guy who apparently just won’t go away.

Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho may reconsider his resignation if he is cleared of a disorderly conduct charge to which he pleaded guilty last month, his spokesman said Tuesday.

“He’s fighting this. He is innocent, and he believes that there’s a good chance that he eventually will have this charge overturned and that the Ethics Committee won’t act against him,” Dan Whiting, a spokesman for the Idaho Republican, told KTVB-TV in Boise.

Arlen Spector notwithstanding, Craig’s fellow Republicans are not exactly rushing to cheer this reversal of intent:

“The people of Idaho and the rest of the country were led to believe Senator Craig would resign,” one Republican leadership aide said. “To go back on that intent means that he will probably lose any goodwill he has built up among his colleagues. Like a fish out of water, he is gasping for his last breath of political air.” [...]

White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino said she does not believe the administration has changed its position that his decision to resign was the right one for himself, his family and his constituents.

Democrats, on the other hand, are likely chortling over their morning coffee. For them, Larry Craig will be a gift that keeps on giving as long as he remains on the GOP stage.

It remains to be seen if Craig can really topple Hart from the top of the political blunder heap. You have to like his chances, though, as Craig’s odd odyssey has been one misjudgment after another.

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