Craig Considers Remaining In Senate During Legal Battle

That afternoon, renowned criminal defense lawyer Billy Martin revealed in a statement that he had been retained to work on Craig's behalf. Whiting declined to identify whom the senator was addressing in the voice mail.

The next day, on the talk show "Fox News Sunday," Specter publicly advised Craig to fight the guilty plea in court.

"He left himself some daylight . . . when he said that he intends to resign," Specter said. "I'd like Larry Craig to go back to court, seek to withdraw his plea and fight the case. . . . I think he could be vindicated."

Political support on Capitol Hill for Idaho's senior senator imploded last week after revelations that he had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct in a men's restroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The charging document said that Craig used a signal often used to solicit sex.

Craig did not tell his family, friends, staff or colleagues about the June 11 arrest or his Aug. 8 plea, asserting last week that he thought pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge would make the matter go away quietly.

That plea, however, prompted McConnell and his GOP leadership team to call for an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee. Craig has retained Stanley Brand, a prominent ethics lawyer, to handle that. The committee has made no statement about Craig's case.

Craig did not return to the Senate yesterday as it got back to work after the August recess, and McConnell dismissed yesterday the prospect of his remaining in the chamber. "We will have a new senator from Idaho in the next month or so, and we're going to move on," he said.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee said last night that it would offer no support to Craig in a 2008 run for re-election.

Committee Chairman Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) "believes that Senator Craig made the right decision for himself and his party in resigning," said spokeswoman Rebecca Fisher.