Colleagues urge Craig to resign

WASHINGTON -- Political support for Senator Larry Craig of Idaho eroded by the hour yesterday as fellow Republicans in Congress called for him to resign and party leaders pushed him unceremoniously from senior committee posts.

The White House also expressed disappointment in the 62-year-old lawmaker, who pleaded guilty earlier this month to a charge stemming from an undercover police operation in an airport men's room.

Craig "represents the Republican Party," said Representative Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the first in a steadily lengthening list of GOP members of Congress to urge his resignation.

The senator's spokesman declined to comment. "They have a right to express themselves," said Sidney Smith. He said he had heard no discussion of a possible resignation.

Craig said Tuesday that he had committed no wrongdoing and should not have pleaded guilty. He said he had only recently retained a lawyer to advise him in the case.

Senators John McCain of Arizona and Norm Coleman of Minnesota joined Hoekstra in urging Craig to step down, as did Representative Jeff Miller of Florida.

McCain spoke out in an interview with CNN. "My opinion is that when you plead guilty to a crime, you shouldn't serve. That's not a moral stand. That's not a holier-than-thou. It's just a factual situation."

Coleman said in a written statement, "Senator Craig pled guilty to a crime involving conduct unbecoming a senator."

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who quickly dumped Craig as his presidential campaign's cochairman in the US Senate and Idaho, did not join in the calls for him to resign.

"Governor Romney has made his views known on this subject, and we have nothing to add at this point," Romney's campaign spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, said in an e-mail.

On Tuesday, Romney sharply criticized Craig's behavior, calling it "disgusting" and comparing it to past Washington sex scandals involving former representative Mark Foley of Florida and former president Bill Clinton.

For a second consecutive day, GOP Senate leaders stepped in, issuing a statement that said Craig had "agreed to comply with leadership's request" to temporarily give up his posts on important committees.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said, "We are disappointed in the matter." He said he hoped the Ethics Committee would do its work swiftly, "as that would be in the best interests of the Senate and the people of Idaho."

Craig was arrested on June 11 in a Minneapolis airport men's room after an undercover officer observed conduct that he said was "often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct."

He subsequently pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and signed papers that included a notation that the court would not accept a guilty plea from anyone claiming to be innocent.

In his public appearance on Tuesday, Craig said he had "overreacted and made a poor decision" after his arrest. "While I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct in the Minneapolis airport or anywhere else, I chose to plead guilty to a lesser charge in hopes of making it go away," he said.

"I am not gay. I never have been gay," Craig said Tuesday.

Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, a Democrat, said that Craig was a hypocrite on gay rights issues, but that he didn't think the GOP senator should resign.

"This is the hypocrisy -- it's to deny legal equality to gay people, but then to engage in gay behavior," said Frank, who is gay.