Senate Ethics Committee Slams Larry Craig

The Senate Ethics Committee admonished Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, on Wednesday for his behavior in the restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The committee agreed with the arresting officer, the Hennepin County District Court, the media, several men who claim to have had sex with Craig, and everyone else -- aside from Craig and his friends at the American Land Rights Association -- that Craig did what he pleaded guilty to doing.

The committee also admonished Craig for using his campaign funds to pay his legal bills, which, since the charges were not related to his office, was a violation of Senate rules and, as the letter by the committee alluded, was also possibly a violation of Federal Election Commission laws. In addition, the committee said that Craig attempted to use his position to skirt the law by showing the arresting officer his business card.

The following is a portion of the three-page letter sent to Craig by the committee:

Through your accurate, voluntary and intelligent guilty plea, you were convicted in August 2007 of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, occurring on June 11, 2007, in a men's public restroom at the Northstar Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The committee accepts as proven your guilty plea and all matters set forth in your guilty plea, including your statements therein: that you reviewed the arrest report and/or complaint relating to the charges against you; that on June 11, 2007, at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport restroom you engaged in conduct which you "knew or should have known tended to arouse alarm or resentment [in] others which conduct was physical (versus verbal) in nature"; that at the time of your plea you made no claim that you were innocent of the charges to which you entered a guilty plea; and that you entered your guilty plea freely and voluntarily.

An appeal to a court decision denying Craig's request to have his guilty plea withdrawn is pending in the Minnesota court system. Craig says that he will retire his seat in 2008 but will not step down.