Craig resigns over sex scandal

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Idaho Senator Larry Craig resigned today after being arrested in an airport sex sting. He leaves at month’s end. Updated 2:47 p.m.
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The resignation came four days after the disclosure that Mr. Craig pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge arising out of his June 11 arrest during a lewd-conduct investigation at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The three-term Republican senator maintains he did nothing wrong except make the guilty plea without consulting a lawyer.

Although several Republicans familiar with internal deliberations said Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter favored Lt. Gov. Jim Risch as a replacement, both Otter aides and Mr. Risch said no decision had been made.

“I have not been promised the job of U.S. senator, nor has there even been a hint that the governor would appoint me to that position,” Mr. Risch told the AP. “At this point in time, that discussion is very premature.”

Mark Warbis, a spokesman for Mr. Otter, said the governor would not comment until he hears from Mr. Craig.

Mr. Craig had been out of public view since Tuesday, when he declared defiantly at a Boise press conference: “I am not gay. I have never been gay.” But Republican sources in Idaho said he spent yesterday making calls to top party officials, including the governor, gauging their support.

There has been virtually none publicly.

Asked yesterday at the White House whether the senator should resign, President Bush said nothing and walked off stage.

Republican officeholders and party leaders maintained a steady drumbeat of actions and words aimed at persuading Mr. Craig to vacate his Senate seat.

Republican lawmakers, hoping to get the embarrassment to the party quickly behind them, stripped Mr. Craig of leadership posts Wednesday, a day after they called for an investigation of his actions by the Senate ethics panel. Mr. Craig complied with the request.

With his wife, Suzanne, at his side, he said he had kept the incident from aides, friends and family and later pleaded guilty “in hopes of making it go away.”

Mr. Craig, 62, has represented Idaho in Congress for more than a quarter-century and was up for re-election next year.

Republican officeholders and party leaders wanted him to give up his seat in the Senate as soon as possible. Their preference, according to several officials, was for a successor to be selected and ready to take the oath of office when the Senate returns from its summer vacation next week.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Mr. Craig’s conduct “unforgivable” and acknowledged that many in the rank and file thought he should resign.

With a Republican candidate other than Mr. Craig, the party would stand a much better chance of keeping his seat in 2008. Idaho is one of the nation’s most reliably Republican states. The party controls the statehouse and all four seats in Congress, and Mr. Bush carried the state in 2004 with 68 percent of the vote.

Mr. Risch, the lieutenant governor, served for seven months as governor last year after former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne was named interior secretary. Mr. Risch had said earlier he was interested in Mr. Craig’s Senate seat if Mr. Craig did not seek re-election in 2008.

Rep. Mike Simpson had also been mentioned as a possible replacement for Mr. Craig, but the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because Mr. Craig has not resigned, said the governor would choose Mr. Risch.

On Thursday, the Minneapolis airport authorities released an audiotape of Mr. Craig’s interrogation minutes after he encountered a plainclothes officer in an adjacent stall in the airport restroom.

Mr. Craig and airport police Sgt. Dave Karsnia disagreed about virtually everything that had occurred — including whether there was a piece of paper on the floor of the stall and the meaning of the senator’s hand gestures.

Mr. Craig denied he had used foot and hand gestures to signal interest in a sexual encounter.

“I’m not gay. I don’t do these kinds of things,” he told the officer. “You shouldn’t be out to entrap people.”

Sgt. Karsnia accused Mr. Craig of lying and grew exasperated with his denials.

“Embarrassing, embarrassing. No wonder why we’re going down the tubes,” he said.

• AP writers Todd Dvorak in Boise and David Espo and Liz Sidoti in Washington contributed to this article.