Craig to Stay In the Senate 'For Now'

Sen. Larry E. Craig said this week that he will remain in office "for now" while a judge considers whether the Idaho Republican can withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct for the now-infamous incident at the men's room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

That will extend his tenure beyond Craig's self-imposed Sunday deadline to step down if his case is not resolved.

If the Minnesota judge allows Craig to change his plea, the senator would then face a trial. A Senate ethics committee inquiry also would proceed.

With that in mind, Craig may recall an ethics lesson from his first term.

At the time, Sen. Robert Packwood (R-Ore.) announced he was leaving office on Sept. 7, 1995, after an ethics investigation into sexual harassment charges had dragged on for a long while. Packwood said he was leaving "not with malice but with love." The moment so touched Craig that he and Packwood reportedly shook hands, embraced, and then Craig "began sobbing and quickly strode into the GOP cloakroom, his hands covering his face."

The Packwood scandal was a primer for Craig. He was appointed to the ethics committee in 1993. The committee wrestled with whether to subpoena Packwood's diaries; Craig initially voted to do so but later changed his mind. On the Senate floor on Nov. 1, 1993, while discussing the implications of such a subpoena, Craig made the following point about senatorial ethics:

"While we must be of concern, we cannot be so selective as to suggest that we, and we alone, have the right to determine the destiny of the serving of a U.S. Senator in this body. We can only determine what are the ground rules for his or her conduct during their time of service here. We have argued for over two centuries, and very exclusively, that the right of the Member to serve rests only with the citizens he serves or she serves and not with this body."

-- Rachel Dry