Printer Friendly Page
UPDATE: REPUBLICAN PARTY LEADERS OUST SEN.
LARRY
CRAIG FROM COMMITTEE POSTS -- Craig's political
career
appears to be collapsing as fellow Republicans
called
for his resignation and party leaders ousted
him from his committee leadership posts.
Previous story here...with backlinks...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/
nf07/nfAUG07/nf083007-1.htm
For more on Sen. Larry Craig, use the VA
Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org
/sessearch.php?q=larry
+craig&op=ph
We have two stories.
The first story tells us that Republicans
stripped Craig of leadership roles on all of his Committees, but he
would be allowed to stay on those Committees.
The second story expands on this and tells us
that Craig then resigned from all the Committees.
First story here...
http://www.nytimes.com/
2007/08/29/washington/30cnd-craig.html?
_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Story below:
-------------------------
Party Leaders Oust Idaho Senator From
Leadership Posts
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON — The political career of Senator Larry Craig of Idaho
appeared to be collapsing today as fellow Republicans called for his
resignation and party leaders ousted him from his committee leadership
posts amid the fallout over his arrest and guilty plea in connection
with an incident in an airport restroom.
A statement by the Senate Republican leadership said Mr. Craig “has
agreed to comply” with a request to step down as the top Republican on
the Veterans Affairs Committee, the Appropriations subcommittee on the
Interior and the Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee on public
lands and forests.
“This is not a decision we take lightly, but we believe this is in the
best interest of the Senate until this situation is resolved by the
Ethics Committee,” the statement said. It was issued by Senators Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky, the party leader; Trent Lott of Mississippi, the
whip; Jon Kyl of Arizona, the conference chairman, and other prominent
Republicans.
Mr. Craig will still retain membership on the committees, but he will
have no more power than a freshman senator, even though he is nearing
the end of his third term and was himself in the party leadership not so
long ago.
Meanwhile, Senators John McCain of Arizona and Norm Coleman of Minnesota
and Representative Pete Hoekstra called on their fellow Republican to
resign.
“My position is that when you plead guilty to a crime, you shouldn’t
serve,” Mr. McCain said in an interview on CNN. “That’s not a moral
stand. That’s not holier-than-thou. It’s just a factual situation.”
Mr. Coleman issued a statement saying that Mr. Craig had pleaded guilty
to “a crime involving conduct unbecoming a senator. He should resign.”
And Mr. Hoekstra, who was apparently the first Republican in Congress to
call for Mr. Craig’s resignation, said the senator should quit because
he “represents the Republican Party.”
“It’s not a judgment on gay rights or anything like that,” Mr. Hoekstra
said in an interview with The Associated Press. “This is about
leadership and setting a standard that the American people and your
colleagues in the Republican Party can feel good about.”
Mr. Craig was arrested on June 11 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul
International Airport by an undercover police officer investigating
sexual activity in a men’s room. He denied any sexual intent and on Aug.
8 pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. A second charge, of interference
with privacy, was dismissed. The senator was fined more than $500, given
a suspended 10-day jail sentence and placed on unsupervised probation
for a year.
On Tuesday, Mr. Craig said he regretted having pleaded guilty and had
done so because his judgment had been clouded by a “witch hunt” being
carried out by Idaho newspaper reporters looking into his personal life.
Today, Mr. Hoekstra called that explanation “not credible.”
-------------------------
Second story here...
http://thehill.com/
leading-the-news/craig-resigns-from-c
ommittee-posts-2007-08-29.html
Story below:
-------------------------
Craig resigns from committee posts
By Elana Schor
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) stepped down from his committees on Wednesday
at the request of GOP leaders as calls for his resignation continued to
multiply.
Craig will relinquish the senior GOP posts on the Veterans Affairs
Committee, the Appropriations subcommittee in charge of the Interior
Department, and the Energy Committee’s panel on public lands. The ethics
committee, whose senior Republican is GOP Vice Chairman John Cornyn
(Texas), is likely to soon begin a preliminary inquiry into Craig’s June
arrest for disorderly conduct stemming from solicitation of lewd
behavior.
According to a GOP aide, the decision to have Craig step down was agreed
on during a conference call among GOP leaders including Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). McConnell called Craig to inform him
before the public announcement, and Craig agreed to comply with the
request.
“This is not a decision we take lightly, but we believe this is in the
best interest of the Senate until this situation is resolved by the
Ethics Committee,” five of the chamber’s senior Republicans said in a
statement.
Senior Republicans had already hinted of that decision in a statement
late Tuesday that “leadership is examining other aspects of the case to
determine if additional action is required.”
Craig apologized late Tuesday for his arrest and subsequent guilty plea,
a saga that began when the conservative senator made overtures to an
undercover policeman investigating homosexual encounters in a
Minneapolis airport bathroom.
Replacements for Craig on the Appropriations and Energy panels will be
made on the committee level. As for naming a new senior Republican on
Veterans Affairs, procedure calls for leadership to make a
recommendation that would be voted on by the GOP Steering Committee.
The second-ranked Republican on Veterans Affairs is Sen. Arlen Specter
(Pa.), who is also senior on the Judiciary Committee. Sen. Richard Burr
(N.C.) is the veterans’ panel’s third-ranked Republican.
-------------------------
Larry Scott --
