As expected Sen. Craig resigns

M.Opaliski · #11 09-04-2007, 10:31 PM

Stop the Presses, Sen. Craig may not resign afterall ...

Excerpts -

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Sen. Larry Craig is reconsidering his decision to resign after his arrest in a Minnesota airport sex sting and may still fight for his Senate seat, his spokesman said Tuesday evening.

"It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore, that the only thing he could do was resign," Sidney Smith, Craig's spokesman in Idaho's capital, told The Associated Press.

"We're still preparing as if Senator Craig will resign Sept. 30, but the outcome of the legal case in Minnesota and the ethics investigation will have an impact on whether we're able to stay in the fight—and stay in the Senate," Smith said.

Craig, a Republican who has represented Idaho in Congress for 27 years, announced Saturday that he intends to resign from the Senate on Sept. 30. But since then, he's hired a prominent lawyer to investigate the possibility of reversing his plea, his spokesman said.

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A telephone call Craig received last week from Sen. Arlen Specter, R- Pa., urging him to consider fighting for his seat is affecting Craig's decision to reconsider his resignation, Smith said.

"It was a little more cut and dried a few days ago," Smith said. "There weren't many options. He was basically going to have to step aside. Now, there's a little more to it."

On Tuesday, Specter, senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested Craig's GOP colleagues who pressured him last week to resign should re-examine the facts surrounding his arrest June 11.

"The more people take a look at the situation, there may well be second thoughts," said Specter, a former prosecutor. If Craig had not pleaded guilty in August to a reduced charge and instead demanded a trial, "I believe he would have been exonerated," Specter said.

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Billy Martin, one of Craig's lawyers, said the senator's arrest in an undercover police operation in men's room of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport "raises very serious constitutional questions."

The full story at Breitbart

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Not to suggest that this drama hasn't been, but this could get very interesting. And, although I am no fan of Sen. Arlen "Magic Bullet" Specter, he is a high ranking GOPer and his opinion carries a lot of weight on the Republican side of the isle. If Craig moves forward in an aggressive way to clear the guilty plea, which he appears poised to do, and if he is successful in taking the original charges to trial, which he appears to want to do, well hell, then Gov. CL "Butch-Tight Jeans" Otter may not get to make that appointment that he has to be salivating over after all.

Don't close the stall door on this one just yet ...

Kid Lester · #12 09-04-2007, 10:51 PM

I sincerely doubt that Craig wants an ethics investigation.

My opinion is no better than anybody else's, but based on the way he seemed to know the protocols of airport bathroom sex, I'm guessing that where there's smoke, there's fire.

I think Mr. Craig is gonna tiptoe on out the door ASAP.

Or, he can challenge his guilty plea and have the arresting officer testify to the country as to what exactly Mr. Craig was arrested for.

M.Opaliski · #13 09-04-2007, 11:34 PM

As if the Country doesn't already know ...

Hell, one of his sons was on Good Morning America talking about it.

And, if by chance a finder of fact returns a not guilty verdict what will there be for the Ethics Committee to investigate, an acquittal ?

rstonecousley · #14 09-04-2007, 11:48 PM

The more Craig drags this out, the worse he's making himself look, the more credibility he loses, and the less likely he is to garner any sympathy in Idaho or the rest of the country.

Just so I get this "straight" Larry, first you allegedly solicit sex and, when arrested, try to buy your way out by flashing a business card. Then, when charged, you plead guilty to "make it go away." When that's brought to light, you decide you want to now go back and change your plea?! And finally, when practically the entire Republican party asks you to step aside, and you agree, you decide after the fact that maybe that wasn't such a bright idea? Does that about sum it up?

Even if it turns out that all this was just a big misunderstanding, Craig looks like a bumbling, backpedaling idiot. Which, I guess, is what a lot of members of Congress look like.

Sh*t! He might not be goin' back to Boise after all.

Kid Lester · #15 09-04-2007, 11:59 PM

I for one have not heard or seen the arresting officer in this case. If he's been on TV discussing this case, I've missed it.

It's one thing to read a police report, it's another thing to have a credible police officer speaking to the camera. God forbid he looks good on TV. The press will be relentless (and it has been kid gloves so far, even as bad as it's been.)

I really don't see how a finder of fact could a) throw out a guilty plea from a clearly rational person and b) after tossing the guilty plea, conclude that there is insufficient evidence to even proceed to trial.

That cop is going to testify on Court TV and probably before the ethics committee. There is no way Craig wants that.

Unless he is absolutely just a victim of circumstance. Which would explain why he copped a plea?

The longer this goes on, the worse it will get for Craig and the Republican Party. It will get sleazier and sleazier. It is a quick slide down into the abyss.

There is zero chance of Craig saving his job, IMO.

The Republican leadership wants him out, and I think he wants to just disappear for a while.

M.Opaliski · #16 09-05-2007, 12:04 AM

Guess we'll see what happens ...

rstonecousley · #17 09-05-2007, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kid Lester

I for one have not heard or seen the arresting officer in this case. If he's been on TV discussing this case, I've missed it.

He's purposely avoiding the media, actually. I read the following story on CNN yesterday:

Cop who arrested Sen. Craig known for discretion

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (AP) -- Sgt. Dave Karsnia shielded the men he arrested in the airport bathroom from embarrassment.

Embattled Sen. Larry Craig denies wrongdoing but is under increasing pressure to resign.

After he flashed a badge, he would point silently to the exit.

When one man said his wife was waiting at a gate, Karsnia called for a citation book to spare the man a trip to the airport police station.

And when his bathroom stings netted a U.S. senator from Idaho, he even promised him, "I don't call media."

That promise -- which Karsnia seems to have kept -- didn't do Sen. Larry Craig much good.

Craig's arrest was surely the biggest of Karsnia's career, but it was only one of more than a dozen he made in the Minneapolis airport's restrooms this summer.

Just 29, his record has been that of a rising young officer. He joined the Minneapolis Airport Police in 2000 as a community services officer, just out of college. Three years later, he was named the department's Officer of the Year, and in 2005 he was promoted to sergeant. Last year, he finished his master's degree.

The last time Karsnia was in the media spotlight, it was because of his efforts to get speeding electric carts carrying passengers and luggage at the airport to slow down. The issue came to light last year when a young boy was run over and dragged by a cart and suffered a second-degree carpet burn.

Karsnia was in charge of cart enforcement at the time. That got him on ABC's "Good Morning America" earlier this year.

He's not talking anymore. On Tuesday, he was friendly and businesslike in returning a call but declined an interview, saying, "My chief would kill me." The Metropolitan Airports Commission has declined to make Karsnia or the police chief available for interviews.

In his arrest reports, which were released by the police department, Karsnia typically detailed motioning suspects to a private spot where he could explain the arrest. Often, he asked the men for suggestions for solving the lewd conduct problem at the airport. (One suggested lower stall dividers and more police presence.)

He chatted with one of them, a Canadian, about the upcoming Canada Day holiday. Karsnia noted in his report that the man was polite and cooperative.
His audiotaped interview with Craig, also released by the department, started in a similar vein. But Karsnia grew more heated in the interview's final minutes as Craig continued to deny that he had done anything to signal he was looking for sex.

Accusing Craig of failing to tell the truth, Karsnia told the senator: "I guess I'm just saying I'm just disappointed in you, sir. I just really am. I expect this from the guy we get out of the 'hood. I mean people vote for you. Unbelievable." Transcript

Later, he added: "Embarrassing. Embarrassing. No wonder why we're going down the tubes," and closed the interview.

Karsnia grew up in International Falls, on the Canadian border, where he received a 2-year degree at a community college. He got a bachelor's degree in 2000 in law enforcement at St. Mary's University in Winona. Last year, he earned a master's degree in criminal justice, leadership and education at Concordia University in St. Paul.

One of his law enforcement professors, Matt Vetter, learned Thursday that Karsnia was the officer who arrested Craig.

"In some ways it doesn't surprise me that it was him, because he didn't let too many things get by him," said Vetter, who is now retired. "When things were awry, or things needed to get done, you could always count on him to get things done."

SOURCE