As the old sports saying goes "It ain't over until it is over." As of right now, the Senate career of Sen. Larry Craig is scheduled to be over on September 30 as Craig has announced his plans to resign in the aftermath of his arrest after a "sex sting" in a Minneapolis airport bathroom. Now, it appears that the end of Craig's career is not a foregone conclusion as Craig is considering changing his mind and staying on board with the Senate. Additionally, Craig has retained a high profile attorney who will seek to have Craig's disorderly conduct conviction re-opened and possible reversed.

According to the Associated Press, Craig was lobbied by fellow Senator Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) to not resign and fight the media pressure that has surrounded him. Considering that Craig was not caught "red handed" committing a lewd act, but accused of possibly soliciting an undercover police officer using hand signal code words. There has been some belief that the arrest was purely a misunderstanding and that Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct as a way of keeping the situation quiet. Obviously, it was not kept quiet and was never going to be kept quiet.

As such, Craig's decision to plead guilty to a lesser charge without the advice of counsel was misguided, although the end result would have probably been the same no matter what he did. Ultimately, this appears to be morphing into the scandal/non-scandal that won't go away.

Senator Larry Craig of Idaho has made the decision to resign his position and the effective date of resignation will be September 30th.

Whether it is a case of a corrupt politician getting what he deserved or the case of a naïve politician trying to do what was best under a stressful situation, the end result was going to be the same no matter what. Craig's career was, for all intents and purposes, over the moment he was booked for actions in a Minneapolis airport bathroom that an undercover police officer deemed lewd behavior.

According to The Politico, Craig's future in the Senate was further doomed when President Bush made the decision not to provide any support to the embattled senator and, to make matters worse, top GOP senators such as Norm Coleman, Mitch McConnell and John McCain all publicly chastised him. With such obvious lack of support, it became clear that Craig needed to resign and he did just that. Instead of becoming the longest "reigning" senator from the state of Idaho, Craig will now go down in the history books as the senator from Idaho who resigned from a sex scandal that never included any actual sex. His replacement to be named by the governor is expected to be Lt. Gov. Jim Risch.

Abraham Lincoln has a big memorial statue and Sen. Larry Craig gets... a bathroom stall. Well, Abraham Lincoln was a president, so it is understandable.

Yes, the infamous Minneapolis bathroom stall has now become a tourist attraction of sorts. According to the AP, travelers from all over the world who pass through the airport ask to be directed to the infamous stall where the notorious "hand signal" that led to Craig's disturbing the peace misdemeanor conviction occurred. The conviction also led to a lot of embarrassment for the Republicans and cast more dark clouds over the Senate as a whole as it reaffirmed in many people's eyes the negative stereotype of elected officials being self absorbed elitists. Of course, this is not of many elected officials – or even Craig for that matter – but for many, perception is reality.

While the entire Craig episode has been reduced to a comedic vehicle for pundits, the truth of the matter is that with the nation at war, a looming mortgage crisis, climate change, etc, the public needs (and demands) strong and solid leadership. The emergence of the "Craig bathroom attraction" highlights what has become endemic to the woes of the very unpopular Congress and its foibles as public disapproval grows.

The Log Cabin Republicans, a gay GOP group, have criticized Sen. Larry Craig of Minnesota for his recent behavior -- as well as ex-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for his response to the Craig scandal.

Patrick Sammon, president of the LCR, explained why the group wanted Craig to resign: "Innocent people don't plead guilty," he said. "The time to contest these allegations is before and not after."

Yet Sammon simultaneously slammed Romney for the latter's cancellation of his ties to Craig. Romney, Time Magazine reported, "was the first of the Republican presidential candidates to denounce (Craig's) indiscretion in an airport men's room. 'It's disgusting,' Romney said of the man who used to be his Senate liaison."

This displeased Sammon, who said that it displays "the danger of legislating morality, and hypocrisy is revealed ... Mitt Romney is basing his whole campaign on quote-unquote 'family values,' so it's an embarrassment for Mitt Romney and he tried to get away from him as fast as he can."

Sometimes it must be hard to be a gay Republican. Party pundit Ann Coulter casually drops the F-word at public gatherings. Party leadership would call for higher taxes faster than it would for same-sex marriage. Yet I credit LCR with taking a thoughtful and comprehensive position on the Craig scandal.

Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and current presidential aspirant, may have unwittingly given Larry Craig a vote of confidence for staying in the Senate.

Responding to a question about his private life during last week's GOP debate, Giuliani said, "I certainly haven't lived a perfect life. I am not running as the perfect candidate for president of the United States. I'm running as a human being who has been very successful as a leader and had definable results in a situation in which people thought it was impossible to accomplish these things."

If we delete the presidential reference and substitute one for the Senate, could not the substance of that statement apply to Craig? If so, Giuliani has given grist for hungry rivals. For his words contrast with what was said earlier in the debate.

"We should be bolder about standing up for family," Kansas' Sen. Sam Brownback said. "Family's important for us, and it's important for America ."

"When our guys have problems like this, they leave," Rep. Duncan Hunter of Texas said. "They leave the Senate or they leave the House. When the Democrats have problems like this, they often make them chairmen of their respective committees."

The "family values" opening is available for any Republican ruthless enough to use it. Paging Mitt Romney...

As if the Larry Craig affair wasn't surreal enough, now he's gone out and stated in a press conference: "I am not gay. I never have been gay." He might have just as well called the dogs out on himself.

I don't care if he's gay. I do care if he does stupid things like cruise public men's rooms looking for anonymous sex. It's a scandal, and blackmail, just waiting to happen. And after the Mark Foley kerfuffle, it's even stupider than it usually is.

There have been questions about Craig's sexuality for many, many years. It started after his first divorce, when he was investigated by the FBI for possible involvement in the abuse of male Congressional pages (remember Gary Studds). The latest incident happened last year, when a gay activist blogger claimed that he had relations with Craig in, of all places, a public men's room!

In this day and age, it was foolish for Craig to think that he could plead out the current case to a lesser charge, and no-one would find out about it. Not if you're a Republican, at least. I'm surprised that it's taken so long to come out (no pun int...oh, never mind).

For many years, unacceptable sexual activity has been the norm in Washington, D.C. That all changed with the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Closets were opened and improper activity was quickly punished. The accused was immediately shunned. The concept of fair trial was gone. The opposing party attacked to gain an advantage. The member party, secured the rope and hung the accused without a trial.

As a Catholic, I saw this happen in my church. For years, priests who abused children were allowed to continue to serve in the community. They were promoted and allowed to harm more children. Then, the crap hit the fan. Things changed. Some might say for the better. However, under the new plan, innocent priests who were accused were immediately punished and removed from their job. They lost a career and financial support. Some of these priests have been proven to be innocent. However, nobody seems to care as long as the problem is resolved. However, shouldn't we care about the innocent priest who served the community and was unjustly accused?

Senator Larry Craig was not guilty of a crime. He should keep his seat. The press, the Democrats and the Republicans must start thinking about the individual. Our country was built of the concept of a fair trial. It is nice to see that the Washington Post has come out to say that Craig did not commit a crime. Instead, he pleaded guilty with the promise his actions would be kept secret. They were not.

The future is not looking very bright for embattled GOP Senator Larry Craig. In light of the fallout of his recent legal troubles, Craig has stepped down from a number of important committee positions and now top GOP members of the Senate are calling on Craig to resign. Considering one of the voices calling for the resignation is the high profile Senator John McCain, the future for Senator Craig looks bleak indeed.

According to an AP report, in addition to Senator McCain, Senator Norm Coleman, along with Rep. Peter Hoekstra are also calling for Craig to resign. With such heat building on Craig his resignation looks like it will only be a matter of time.

What makes this entire situation perplexing is that while Craig did plead guilty to disorderly conduct in association with a lewd act, it is unknown whether or not he was actually attempting to commit a lewd act. Regardless, the entire situation has proven incredibly embarrassing for the GOP and has the potential to have a severely negative impact on the functioning of the senate in general. As such, perhaps it would be best if Craig stepped aside so as to avoid a spectacle from becoming worse.

OK, is it just me, or does anybody else see a pattern here? As Nixguy reported earlier, Idaho Senator Larry Craig (R) was arrested a little while back, and plead guilty to a charge of "disorderly conduct" in a Minneapolis airport men's room. In the process of being booked, Craig, like Florida Representative Bob Allen (R), tried to get special treatment by telling police who he was.

No, Craig didn't try to pull the old "I offered the officer money to provide him with oral sex because I was afraid of him because he was a scary black man" defense that Allen made famous, but he does claim there was a misunderstanding. Evidently, Craig didn't get that when he was pleading guilty, he was, in fact, admitting guilt, or something like that. The complaints of lewd behavior from the other men in the bathroom, well, it was all just a crazy mix-up.

Also strangely familiar is the senator's Ted Haggard-esque public hatred of all things homosexual. Americablog has dug up Craig's votes and found that the senator voted for a constitutional ban on gay marriage, against adding sexual orientation to the hate crimes act and prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation, and for prohibiting same sex marriage. You see, Craig prefers the furtive, encounter with a stranger, men's room variety of homosexuality. None of the commitment or rights, just the kinky sex. How's that for family values?

And like Louisiana's David Vitter (R), he of D.C. escort services fame, Craig was one of those who pounded the GOP drum against Bill Clinton's sexual behavior, calling the former president, among other things, a "naughty boy." And no, in case you're wondering, this was certainly not the first time that Craig has had such an encounter in a public bathroom. From today's Idaho Statesman:

Sen. Larry Craig, who in May told the Idaho Statesmen he had never engaged in homosexual acts, was arrested less than a month later by an undercover police officer who said Craig made a sexual advance toward him in an airport men's room. The arrest at a Minnesota airport prompted Craig to plead guilty to disorderly conduct earlier this month. His June 11 encounter with the officer was similar to an incident in a men's room in a Washington, D.C., rail station described by a Washington-area man to the Idaho Statesman. In that case, the man said he and Craig had sexual contact.

Oh to be gay, closeted, and Republican. Evidently, it's a heavy burden to carry.

Now this is an interesting story. Apparently, Senator Larry Craig is having second thoughts about resigning from the Senate. Here, as of tonight, is his spokesman, Sidney Smith:

"It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore, that the only thing he could do was resign. We're still preparing as if Senator Craig will resign September 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."

Indeed, Craig should have his day in court. Why should he resign when David Vitter, who, unlike Craig, actually acknowledged an ethical lapse, remains in the Senate? Sure, Craig did plead guilty to disturbing the peace, but he claims it was mistake. People do make them from time to time. As Craig's children claimed today, perhaps the senator was simply reaching for a piece of toilet paper at the wrong time. Maybe he really does affect a wide stance to keep his pants from hitting the ground. Maybe he didn't tell his wife or children or Senate colleagues about his guilty plea because he knew how shameful it would sound.

Craig's new lawyer, the same man who represents Michael Vick, will surely put the record straight, so to speak. To hell with Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Norm Coleman, Mitt Romney, and all those in the GOP who want Craig to quietly disappear. The man should stand and present his case.

Amazing. And you'd thought you'd seen it all, America.

As news hits us this morning that the Republican National Committee may publicly call for Senator Larry Craig to resign "voluntarily," I think that it would be helpful to spell out the reasons why Craig should go ASAP. And aside from the original "act," none of the reasons pertain to sexual orientation -- nor would they go away if Craig was successful in taking back his plea.

1. The incident itself. Cruising for anonymous sex in a public restroom is a recipe for disaster, be it gay or heterosexual sex. In addition to being personally reckless in regards to health issues, it's an invitation for blackmail.
2. The arrest. Craig informed no-one in GOP leadership of his arrest;
3. His plea. Craig informed no-one in GOP leadership of his plea;
4. His sentence. Craig informed no-one in GOP leadership of his sentence;
5. His probation. Craig received one-year's probation, and told no-one.

Each of the reasons above call into question Craig's judgment. As I've said before, I don't care if he's gay or not. As for his being a hypocrite, he was never one of the leading "family values" politicians, although I do feel terrible for his wife. As for his stance on gay rights, I think that it's perfectly acceptable to be gay and to not support gay marriage. As for gay rights, gays already have them -- the same rights that the rest of us have. To be gay and not to support special rights and laws for gays, above and beyond what everyone else has, is perfectly acceptable to the average American. Just not to the special interest groups.

The main problem I see with Craig is that he didn't inform anyone of what was going on in a criminal matter that he pled guilty to and was sentenced to probation for. Not telling leadership in the Senate is inexcusable. That alone would be justification for calls for his resignation. On a side note - I find it hard to believe that an incident like this could have remained secret for as long as it did. Reflecting on the Mark Foley mess, I can't help but think that someone, somewhere, also knew about this Craig debacle, but figured that the GOP leadership is still brainless - so the facts on the case would have been sat on until it could be released at a later time to do more damage to the GOP's 2008 election chances.

In what was an inevitable situation, Mitt Romney and Sen. Larry Craig have "split up" their alliance in the aftermath of the public revelation that Craig had pleaded guilty to charges of "disorderly conduct" after allegedly committing sexual "solicitation." Craig had previously formed a growing partnership with Romney and was his primary backer in the Senate. Not any more.

Craig has lobbied uncommitted senators on behalf of his candidate, helped organize meetings between Romney and colleagues of his and joined other members in recording pro-Romney video clips for the former governor's website. Craig resigned his post today, said Romney communications director Matt Rhoades. "Senator Craig has stepped down from his role with the campaign," Rhoades said. "He did not want to be a distraction and we accept his decision." (Source: Politico)

While it is unfair that Romney may suffer embarrassment due to his association with a man whose actions he had no control over, the fact remains that's the way it goes in the world of politics. More than likely, this will be a non-factor in Romney's primary campaign, but there will be great potential ramifications for Craig's 2008 re-election campaign. Having already angered the base with his pro-cloture vote during the amnesty debate this may cause even greater damage to his chances.

Having long since championed "traditional family values" such an arrest will surely lead to pundits and political opponents to scream "hypocrisy" as well as providing an opportunity to hammer home the notion that the Republican Party is ripe with corruption. This, of course, could lead to even more Republican losses in the Senate overall.

Senator Larry Craig was arrested in June for lewd conduct in a Minnesota airport mens room. I'm afraid it's about as bad as it sounds. Roll Call has it:

Craig's arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.

A spokesman for Craig described the incident as a "he said/he said misunderstanding," and said the office would release a fuller statement later Monday afternoon.

After he was arrested, Craig, who is married, was taken to the Airport Police Operations Center to be interviewed about the lewd conduct incident, according to the police report. At one point during the interview, Craig handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a U.S. Senator and said, "What do you think about that?" the report states.

Well, if I was the policeman, I'd be saying, "I think you're in deep, deep trouble." Which of course the senator now is.

Hugh Hewitt is calling for Craig's resignation and let me second that. There's room enough in the Senate for good men who do not pull this kind of crap. Let's find one of those. Maybe you can pull this off if you are a Democrat. Republicans, not so much.

Senator Arlen Specter:

"I'd like to see Larry Craig go back to court, seek to withdraw his guilty plea and fight the case," Senator Arlen Specter said on 'Fox News Sunday'. Drawing on his earlier experience as District Attorney of Philadelphia, Specter said, "On the evidence Senator Craig wouldn't be convicted of anything. And he's got his life on the line and 27 years in the House and Senate, and I'd like to see him fight the case because I think he could be vindicated."

Senator Patrick Leahy:

Speaking on the same show, Senator Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Specter raised a good point. "From a legal point of view he makes a very good point," Leahy said. "Now from a political point of view I don't pretend to know what Idaho politics are or how they might be, but Senator Specter has laid out as strong a legal case as I've heard."

This is Example A of what Patrick is talking about earlier. Isn't it odd that most of the regret over Craig is being offered by Democrats and liberals?

Leahy was teeing off comments by Senator Arlen Specter, and yes, this particular incident he could fight, yes, the legal methods used to arrest Craig are questionable. But lets keep in mind the bigger picture here. The Republicans need to remake their image regarding corruption. You can't do that and have Craig in the party. Sorry.

CNN is reporting that sources say it's a done deal, no time frame is given. If Larry Craig is to resign, do it today on the Friday before Labor Day when people have a long weekend on their minds.

Idaho has a GOP governor so this may work out well if he appoints a young, energetic Conservative who can establish himself before the next election. Craig is dead in the water regardless of how any investigation turns out and he will be an albatross for the rest of his term. Idaho is never really "in play" anyway but if this were to linger on for too long, it could be.

Update (1410): Or maybe not. ABC is saying his aids are denying he'll retire. That's bad news for the GOP if he's hanging around. Stay tuned.