It appears that Larry Craig is not definitively out1 as Idaho’s US Senator.
It appears, according to a voice mail left at the wrong number, that his intent to resign is just that, intent, and not a promise.
He’s hired a high priced lawyer, and he will be fighting to overturn his guilty plea for disorderly conduct.
While my initial reaction is, “pass the popcorn”, this can actually be rather significant.
Seeing as how this will going on at the same time that the Pentagon’s “war room” is ramping up it’s likely to suck2 all the oxygen out of the media room, and so this media offensive is likely to get little notice, and hence little traction.
The voice mail mentions that he has support of Arlen Spector, which rather surprizes me, as the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania always bent over backwards3 to support the Republican agenda when push comes to shove4.
It’s possible that Spector had a polite statement of support that was misinterpreted, or possibly he’s trying to queer the deal in order to extract some sort of payback against the Republican Senate leadership by queering5 their efforts on the Iraq war, but I am unaware of any specific bad blood between him and Mitch McConnell.
It will be interesting seeing if the Republicans actually demand an ethics investigation to get to the bottom6 of this.
1Pun not intended.
2Really, I mean it, pun not intended.
3Oh, for Pets’s sake!!!! Pun not intended.
4Oh…I just give up, I’m punning.
5Well, that was liberating.
6OK, I admit it. I have a problem. My name is Matthew Saroff, and I am a punster.