Senator Craig admonished by ethics council.

[marrymeflyfree]

Ethics Panel Rebukes Craig Over Sex Sting
By MATTHEW DALY, AP
Posted: 2008-02-13 22:52:30
Filed Under: Politics News
WASHINGTON (Feb. 13) - The Senate Ethics Committee said Wednesday that Idaho Sen. Larry Craig acted improperly in connection with a men's room sex sting last year and had brought discredit on the Senate.

In a letter to the Republican senator, the ethics panel said Craig's attempt to withdraw his guilty plea after his arrest at a Minneapolis airport was an effort to evade legal consequences of his own actions.

A spokesman for Craig had no immediate comment.

The six members of the committee — three Democrats and three Republicans — told Craig they believed he "committed the offense to which you pled guilty" and that "you entered your plea knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently."

The panel said Craig only tried to remove his guilty plea after his attempts to avoid public disclosure had failed.

"Your claims to the court ... to the effect that your guilty plea resulted from improper pressure or coercion, or that you did not, as a legal matter, know what you were doing when you pled guilty do not appear credible," the letter said.

The panel also said Craig should have received permission from the ethics panel before using campaign funds to pay his legal bills. Craig, who is not running for re-election, has spent more than $213,000 in campaign money for legal expense and public relations work in the wake of his arrest and conviction last summer.

The committee said it had reached no conclusion about whether use of campaign funds was proper, but it said "it is clear that you never sought the committee's approval, as required," to use the money for legal expenses.

Any future use of campaign money for legal bills will be seen as "demonstrating your continuing disregard of ethics requirements," the ethics committee wrote in its three-page letter.

The panel also admonished Craig for showing the arresting officer a business card that identified him as a U.S. senator. Craig has been reported to have told the officer at the time, "What do you think about that?"

The committee wrote, "You knew or should have known that a reasonable person in the position of the arresting officer could view your action and statement as an improper attempt by you to use your position and status ... to receive special and favorable treatment."

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the ethics panel, declined to comment. A spokeswoman said the panel's letter of admonition cannot be appealed.

The ethics panel took no further action against Craig.

Craig, a three-term Republican, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in August after he was accused of soliciting sex in a bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in June.

After the matter became public, Craig tried to withdraw his plea. A judge in Minnesota refused, saying Craig's plea "was accurate, voluntary and intelligent, and ... supported by the evidence." Craig has appealed that ruling to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Senate Republicans demanded the ethics investigation after news broke of Craig's conviction last August. Craig first promised to resign Sept. 30, then reversed his decision. He now says he will stay in office until his term expires in January.

Craig has said an undercover police officer misinterpreted his foot and hand movements as signals that he wanted sex.

Craig, who lost several GOP leadership positions on Senate committees and subcommittees in the wake of the scandal, has been working with Boxer and other members of the Senate's environment committee on a global warming bill and other matters.

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

Craig, who lost several GOP leadership positions on Senate committees and subcommittees in the wake of the scandal, has been working with Boxer and other members of the Senate's environment committee on a global warming bill and other matters.

Damn, Global Warming is freaking EVERYWHERE!!! It just not possible to write a newspaper article without a Global warming angle, esp after what happened to Nessie.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scott ... -20317853/

[LarryCraig]

It's true. The Senate panel gave me a spanking. They said that I was a bad boy. A naughty boy. Even a nasty, bad, naughty boy. I don't know how many time I've told my colleagues that I'm a fairly wide guy. I tedn to spread my legs when I sit down. And I've never waved my hand under a stall for sex. I had to pick up a piece of paper from the other guy's stall.

Why doesn't anybody believe me?

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

I tedn to spread my legs when I sit down.

You tedn to spread your legs?

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

I tedn to spread my legs when I sit down.

You tedn to spread your legs?

Or do you Ted to spread your legs?

Are you thinking about Teddy Kennedy again?

[Estonut]

There's one thing about the whole bathroom incident that I've never seen discussed. Senator Craig claims that his foot inadvertently must have entered the space of the neighboring stall due to his "wide stance."

To me, the Senator looks like he's neither large nor obese. I would guess his waist size to be no more than 36", or so. Subtracting a few inches for the thickness of each ankle and dividing by two means that the WIDEST his stance could possibly be is 16", unless he removed his pants altogether, which would be very odd and has never been reported, to my knowledge.

Has anyone else thought about this?

[ulysses5019]

Hmmm...maybe he had a"wide load" to deliver......