After receiving encouragement from Arlen Specter, Larry Craig is apparently making noise about staying in the Senate, but I think the rest of the Republican caucus is going to be somewhat less receptive. As James Carville pointed out on Meet the Press, it is striking how few Republicans defended Craig:
What I found extraordinary about this is nobody came out and defended this guy. I mean, nobody said, “He’s a good man, done a bad thing.” “Here’s a decent guy who’s obviously been struggling with a problem.” “Here’s somebody who”—I mean, nobody. No Republican, no, no, no, no operative, no journalist. Nobody said, “Well, Larry Craig’s got nothing.” And I mean, they didn’t throw him under the bus, they hit him with the bus. I mean, he’s like, boom! Flattened him.
Here are a few examples from the wire story on Craig:
Craig came under a steady drumbeat of criticism from Republicans in the days before he announced that for the good of the people of Idaho, he would step down Sept. 30.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called Craig's actions "unforgivable" after the White House termed the situation disappointing. Republican Senate colleagues John McCain of Arizona and Norm Coleman of Minnesota said Craig should resign.
With Republicans defending nearly twice as many seats as Democrats in Nevada Sen. John Ensign, chairman of the Senate GOP's election effort, said he would resign if was in Craig's circumstances but stopped short of saying the Idahoan should give up his seat. Craig's third six-year term in the Senate expires in January 2009.
You can't back up the bus on this one. Indeed, I'd imagine Republicans would consider backing a primary challenger to Craig, who could put Idaho in play if he refuses to step down.
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