Five days after the first report was circulated, Craig stood alongside his wife, Suzanne, at a press conference in Boise on Sept. 1, 2007, to deny that he solicited sex with another man and proclaiming, “Let me be clear, I am not gay. I never have been gay.” At the time Craig vowed to resign from the Senate by Sept. 30. He would break that promise just four weeks later when he defiantly declared his intention to finish out his term and get his guilty plea overturned. Craig’s reversal triggered consternation within the Senate Republican Conference. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman John Ensign (Nev.) were among those who publicly had endorsed Craig’s initial decision to step down. McConnell described Craig’s actions as “unforgivable.” Craig eventually was stripped of his committee assignments, effectively taking from him the seniority he had accrued during his 16 years in the Senate. Instead of stepping down, Craig pressed on with his fight to have his guilty plea overturned. His efforts were rebuffed by a judge Hennepin County, Minn., prompting Craig in October to take his case to the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Meanwhile, the Senate Ethics Committee admonished Craig in a February letter that faulted him for his behavior at the airport and criticized him for attempting to recant his guilty plea. In the court of public opinion, as well, Craig has been unable to restore his reputation. Late-night humorists continue to use his name as a punch line, and Craig has been dogged by accounts in The Idaho Statesman and other media outlets about his alleged history of gay encounters. The former rancher fashioned himself as a traditional fiscal and social conservative. A farm-state lawmaker, Craig sat on the Energy and Natural Resources and Environment and Public Works committees and the agriculture appropriations subcommittee. In 2002, Craig won reelection with 65 percent of the vote, the largest margin of his Senate career.
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