Huckabee says Craig should go for good of party

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff

Larry E. Craig should step down as Idaho's senior US senator to spare the GOP and his state from further embarrassment, Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee said today.

Craig's troubles -- which began with the revelation earlier this week that the married senator pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after an undercover police officer arrested him for "lewd'' behavior in a men's restroom -- won't create problems for the party as a whole unless the GOP applies a double standard to itself, Huckabee told reporters in a conference call.

"If, as individual Republicans, we sort of shrug our shoulders and say, 'No big deal,' ... we've got a problem," the former Arkansas governor said. Republicans don't accept it if Democrats do something that's against the law, so the GOP cannot dismiss it "when people in our party are engaging in such kinds of behavior.''

While Republican officials say Craig could resign as soon as today, Arizona Senator John McCain is the only other presidential candidate to have called on Craig to do so. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has condemned Craig, who resigned as Romney's presidential campaign co-chairman in the US Senate and in Idaho.

Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, has strong credentials with the conservative wing of his party, but has been dwarfed in the polls by Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and McCain.

But recently, Huckabee has seen some encouraging signs for his candidacy, and said yesterday he is expanding his staff and organization to run a more aggressive national campaign. Huckabee said his online fundraising has quadrupled since the Iowa straw poll, in which Huckabee finished a surprising second after Romney.

Huckabee also picked up the endorsement this week of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. It was the first time in the union's 119-year history that it handed out endorsements to both a Democrat and a Republican.

"It shows there's at least one Republican who can really speak to and capture the votes the Republicans have missed,'' Huckabee said.