Craig testimonial for Romney back on view

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign is learning a lesson today about the online world: Once something is out there, it's nigh impossible to take it back.

After news broke Monday of Senator Larry Craig's guilty plea to disorderly conduct charges following an arrest in an airport bathroom, Romney's camp announced that Craig had stepped down as his US Senate co-chairman.

It also blocked public access to a video featuring Craig on the campaign's YouTube channel.

"Once information about his stepping down from the campaign was imminent, we removed his prior testimonial from our site," Matt Rhoades, the campaign's communications director, said in an email to the Globe.

But today, liberal bloggers and others resurrected the testimonial from online limbo, and it is easily accessible to the public again on YouTube.

The video is a brief on-the-street interview with Craig in which he praises Romney's leadership in turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Craig also says he supports Romney "first and foremost" because he has "very strong family values."

"That's something I grew up with and believe in," Craig says, also praising Romney's conservative values when it comes to the role of government.