WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2007
Sen. Craig: I Was Wrong To Keep This Quiet
Idaho Republican Insists He Did No Wrong, And, Is Not Gay; Ethics Panel Asked To Investigate
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Play CBS Video Video Sen. Craig: I'm Not Gay
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig told a news conference that he shouldn't have pleaded guilty to charges of public lewdness and denied again that he is gay. Sharyl Attkisson reports.
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Video First Look: Larry Craig
Sharyl Attkisson previews tonight's "Evening News" story on Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who is trying to clear his name after pleading guilty earlier this month to charges of lewd conduct.
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Idaho's Republican Senator Larry Craig speaks to the media on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007, in Boise, Idaho. (AP)
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Sen. Larry Craig, a three-term Republican who has represented Idaho in Congress for more than a quarter-century, is up for re-election next year. He has not said if he will run for a fourth term in 2008 and was expected to announce his plans this fall. (AP)
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Photos released by the Metropolitan Airports Commission Police Department show Sen. Larry Craig, R-ID., taken at the time of his arrest June 11, 2007 at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. (AP/via M. A. C Police Department)
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Interactive Political Scandals Politics can be a strange and dirty business. Check out some of the biggest missteps and mishaps in recent history.
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"I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport," he said at a news conference with his wife, Suzanne, at his side.
Craig's defiant news conference came as Senate Republican leaders in Washington called for an ethics committee review into his involvement in a police sting operation this summer in the airport men's room.
Craig is the first sitting U.S. Senator in recent memory to have his own mug shot, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.
"In the meantime, the leadership is examining other aspects of the case to see if additional action is required," Sen. Mitch McConnell and other top GOP lawmakers said in a written statement obtained by The Associated Press.
Earlier, the private group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics filed a complaint with the ethics committee seeking an investigation into whether Craig violated Senate rules by engaging in disorderly conduct.
Republican leaders also are "examining other aspects of the case to see if additional action is required," Sen. Mitch McConnell and other top GOP lawmakers said in a written statement obtained by The Associated Press.
They released the statement shortly before Craig's scheduled appearance before television cameras in Boise, his first public comment since confirming his guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.
Craig entered his plea several weeks after an undercover police officer in the Minneapolis arrested him and filed a complaint that said the three-term senator had engaged in actions "often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct."
Police Report On Bathroom Arrest of Sen. Larry Craig
The bathroom incident in the Minneapolis airport occurred on June 11. Craig signed his plea papers on Aug. 1, and word of the events surfaced on Monday. The senator issued a statement Monday night that said, "In hindsight, I should have pled not guilty."
The statement by McConnell and other members of the GOP leadership was brief - and contained no words of support for their veteran colleague.
"This is a serious matter. Due to the reported and disputed circumstances, and the legal resolution of this serious case, we will recommend that Senator Craig's incident be reported to the Senate Ethics Committee for its review," they said.
The statement did not specify what other actions might be under consideration.
The married Craig, 62, has faced rumors about his sexuality since the 1980s, but allegations that he has engaged in gay sex have never been substantiated. Craig has denied the assertions, which he calls ridiculous.
Back in 1982, CBS News broke stories on a Congressional page sex scandal. The story didn't implicate Craig, or any other member of Congress by name, but Craig was the only one to issue an immediate denial, reports Attkisson .
Twenty-five years later he's in the same boat. Tuesday he said his only transgression was keeping the arrest to himself.
The arrest changes that dynamic, said Jasper LiCalzi, a political science professor at Albertson College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho. He cited the House page scandal that drove Florida Rep. Mark Foley from office.
"There's a chance that he'll resign over this," LiCalzi said. "With the pressure on the Republican Party, he could be pressured to resign. If they think this is going to be something that's the same as Mark Foley - the sort of 'drip, drip, drip, there's more information that's going to come out' - they may try to push him out."
Already Craig has stepped down from a prominent role with Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. He had been one of Romney's top Senate supporters, serving as a Senate liaison for the campaign since February.
"He did not want to be a distraction and we accept his decision," said Matt Rhoades, a Romney campaign spokesman.
According to a Hennepin County, Minn., court docket, Craig pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge on Aug. 8, with the court dismissing a charge of gross misdemeanor interference to privacy.
The court docket said Craig paid $575 in fines and fees and was put on unsupervised probation for a year. A sentence of 10 days in the county workhouse was stayed.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 889 Comments'' ... putting women in mens armys did not turn men into gardenets, it turned women into rapists of husbands and children ... putting children into armys does not turn women and men into gardenets, it turns children into parent rapists ... if men are to treat children with respect, then men are to start acting like children ... and are to start treating two year olds like two year olds ... ''
'' ... all the front pages would have been covered in photos of local children dancing get well feed world songs rallied around the sick beds drifting the farm trails, except a terrorist warned against it ... ''
You mean other than Senator Craig himself pleading guilty to the charges? Seriously, who in their right mind would plead guilty to this in hopes that (as Senator Craig put it) "it would go away"?
godsays wrote: It is amazing how the liberal Democrats are vilifying Senator Craig...."
Right, McCain, Coleman and Hoekstra and the White House have all denounced the Senator, and all good liberal democrats....
There is no proof that Senator Craig did anything wrong whatsoever.
It is amazing how the liberal Democrats are vilifying Senator Craig for something most of them do everyday."
Posted by godsays at 01:28 PM : Aug 29, 2007
Let''s see, Senator Craig''s "liberal Democratic moment", something that liberal Democrats "do everyday", but of which there is no proof that Senator Craig did anything wrong whatsover?
Are these lying heathens so buried in their own filthy hypocritic waste, to think their thoroughly assine efforts to try and deceive through bizarre and ridiculous denial is actually showing any respect to God as their witness?
There is no proof that Senator Craig did anything wrong whatsoever.
It is amazing how the liberal Democrats are vilifying Senator Craig for something most of them do everyday.
Posted by IOWEIGN at 11:46 AM : Aug 29, 2007
+ report abuse
So YOU think its alright to call everyone who you do not agree with "liberal''s", throw mud at them because they don''t want to change the Constitution to be against *** and find out what this guy did? What in the world does the phrase "Family Values" mean to nazi''s anyway? You people are as phoney as a 2 dollar bill!! Sieg Heil Bush!!
Posted by finalmessiah at 12:00 PM : Aug 29, 2007
He was acting like some sort of prevert and he viloated our right to privacy, yours and mine, when we go to a public bathroom. You do not understand my rights to use the bathroom without toe tapping? ROLFLMAO This piece of Nazi Trash, have you EVER listened to him when he gets on his soap box? I still remember what he did and said about Clinton and I hope the Hypocrite roast in H-E-L-L. When the person casting the stone is as guilty as the one recieving the stoning, justice isn''t done. Sieg Heil Bush!!
Posted by glossypan
So you''re ok with your senator peering into your stall, seats himself in the stall next to you and makes sexual advances to you while you''re trying to take a krap in a public restroom in an airport?
Sick.
hehehe, weren''''t you the one trying to take us off this Larry topic. lmao....
Hehehehe, weren''t you all doing the same thing?
Posted by finalmessiah at 12:00 PM : Aug 29, 2007
Umm, only got busted in a ***-sting in a Minnesota airport bathroom, attempting to solicit gay *** from an undercover cop. Other than that, nothing really.
Do you want me to show you all the corruption from the right wingers the list is way bigger than the dem side???????/
Posted by rharrin1 at 10:54 AM : Aug 29, 2007
I like to think of myself as an Independent but lately have voted (D). I think everyone should stop a think for a moment - corruption and illegal behaviour IS party blind - Just because someone is an ***, don''t rush out and prove you can be one too !!
Posted by roger_inkart at 11:18 AM : Aug 29, 2007
I''m hoping, but Bush and his Cronnies will and can still steal votes like before. America is coming to their senses but is it too late. With everything that''s been happening I just feel it''s a little to late, the right will just keep stealing votes to be in office
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