Okay, I know I said I wasn't going to post much this weekend but that was before I read this. The following is a slightly-condensed version of this item I just noticed…
(CNN)–The ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee says Idaho Senator Larry Craig should seek to withdraw his guilty plea, and possibly his resignation from the Senate. "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."
"Listen you can go to court and withdraw a guilty plea, of course disorderly conduct is not moral turpitude," Specter said. If he went to trial "he wouldn't be convicted of anything. And if he went to court, was acquitted, all of this hullabaloo would have no basis."
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."
Specter is probably right that Craig could get the guilty plea withdrawn and the charges dropped. What he couldn't do is get all of America and particularly the voters in his state to believe he wasn't prowling for gay sex in that lavatory. His colleagues in the Senate have pretty much shown that they believe it by the rapidity with which they threw the senator from Idaho under the bus. At best, some people might just believe he got nabbed too early in the process and that slick lawyering had gotten the case dismissed. No one in this country confuses "the cops didn't prosecute" with "there was nothing to the allegation," especially with regard to the wealthy and powerful.
And of course, if it could ever be proven that Craig was completely innocent, then he'd still be a guy who was stupid enough (and/or afraid enough of having his sexuality examined in a courtroom) to plead guilty to a bogus sex crime arrest because he thought it would all go away. A lot of folks would still find that a perfectly fine reason for him not to be in the Senate.
So no, the hullabaloo would still have a lot of basis.
But the part I love is Patrick Leahy egging Craig on to remain in the Senate and fight the charges. If I were a prominent Democratic leader, I'd sure love to see what that would do to Republican solidarity and whatever anti-gay efforts the party might undertake. There's a reason the members of his party want him outta there a.s.a.p. and it isn't just because they're afraid to use the men's room when he's around.