Craig backers not happy with Romney

By Sasha Issenberg, Globe Staff

Is Mitt Romney starting to feel the backlash over his quick dumping of Senator Larry Craig, one of his most prominent Capitol Hill supporters and co-chairman of his presidential campaign in the unimportant late-primary state of Idaho?

Now it's not just liberals who are calling Romney out, but Republican loyalists, too, for rushing to label Craig's actions
"disgusting," to compare him to Bill Clinton, and to relieve him of his campaign post all before Craig spoke publicly on the subject last month.

In Newsweek magazine, George Will devoted a column to accusing Romney of "seizing yet another opportunity to stroke social conservatives." Will said there is the "suspicion that there is something synthetic and excessively calculating about every move in his increasingly embarrassing courtship of those who are called 'values voters.' "

It's an argument that's getting picked up elsewhere. On the letters page of the Idaho Statesman, the newspaper that had confronted Craig about his sexuality even before his arrest in a Minneapolis airport bathroom during an undercover sex sting, Craig sympathizers have echoed Will's charges of opportunism against Romney.

Katherine Zuckerman of Boise questioned the former governor's "loyalty," writing, "As long as Larry Craig's influence could benefit his aspirations, Mitt Romney was only too happy to be linked with Sen. Craig."

Teri Blackburn, also of Boise, was even tougher: "By the way, Mr. Romney, you have enough respect for someone to let
them help run your campaign but you leave them high and dry at the first hint of a little trouble. Sounds a little squeaky clean to me, and I have no respect for you since this is the third time I have seen you pull this stunt. Hats off to the people who have said, 'Let's wait to see what all the facts are before we make any type of judgment.' "

Craig, meanwhile, plans to resign from the Senate but is trying to withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct charges.