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GOP will let Craig keep his earmarks |
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By Alexander Bolton
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Posted: 11/01/07 07:54 PM [ET] |
Senate Republican leaders have backed off from pressuring Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) to resign his seat, giving the beleaguered lawmaker a glimpse of hope that he may last in Congress long enough to save his career.
Leaders have opted not to use the leverage they could exert on Craig by threatening to strip more than 20 spending projects he has sponsored by himself in various appropriations bills.
Craig has used these projects to argue that his continued presence in the Senate is valuable to Idaho constituents.
“Right now we are very much working to keep everything in place, and I’m pleased about the progress,” said Craig of the earmarks, which are worth millions of dollars. “I feel like I’m being effective and I’ll continue to work.”
Republican leaders put heavy pressure on Craig to resign at the end of August after news broke that he was caught in an undercover sex sting in a Minneapolis airport bathroom. Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.
Republican feared a replay of the public relations debacle that followed the sex-related allegations that swirled around former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) a few weeks before the 2006 midterm elections. Foley became embroiled in scandal after it surfaced that he sent sexually explicit electronic messages to a former House page.
Leaders warned Craig that he would face embarrassing public hearings delving into the circumstances of his arrest, and possibly his sexual orientation as well.
They also stripped him of his senior position on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, the Appropriations interior and environment subcommittee and an Environment and Public Works subcommittee.
But as the public attention on Craig has died down, so has the pressure from leaders.
At first, Craig announced that he intended to resign Sept. 30. He has since changed his mind.
He now says that he will stay in the Senate until his term expires at the end of 2008 and work on clearing his name in court. He has filed a motion with an appellate court to withdraw his guilty plea.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters in the wake of the reversal that Craig’s decision to resign was “the difficult but correct decision.”
Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), a McConnell ally, told The Washington Post that it would be a mistake for Craig to reconsider.
Craig’s relationship with his leadership, however, is much different today than it was in September.
“I have a good working relationship with them right now,” he said.
Leaders often punish or reward members of the rank and file by cutting or adding special projects they have requested for their home states in appropriations bills. GOP leaders have stopped short of using this stick against Craig, and appear to have dropped their plan to hound him out of the Senate altogether.
“He’ll be treated like all senators,” said Thad Cochran (Miss.), ranking Republican on Appropriations. Cochran added that he did not think Craig’s earmarks are under threat in any way.
Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott (Miss.), the second-ranking member of the GOP leadership, said that he is not putting any pressure on Craig to resign.
He also said there was no reason to target Craig’s spending projects, even though the Idaho lawmaker is pointing to them as evidence of his continuing effectiveness, an argument he is using to justify his continued service.
“As long as a person is in the Senate, he or she has an obligation to represent the [home] state on projects that are important,” Lott said. “He has a right to do that.”
Bennett said that the leadership had washed its hands of Craig’s fate.
“The leadership is going to leave it up to the Ethics Committee,” said Bennett.
McConnell asked the Senate Select Committee on Ethics to investigate Craig’s arrest shortly after it became public. Since then, little news of the probe’s progress has leaked from the secretive panel.
Craig’s name is attached to 84 earmarks in different annual spending bills. He is the sole sponsor of 22 projects, according to a database of appropriations earmarks compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Seven of those projects, worth more than $7 million, are in legislation crafted by the Appropriations interior subcommittee, where he served as the senior-ranking Republican until September.
Bennett, who is a member of that subcommittee, said there was no reason that Craig should not reap the fruits of his leadership on the panel.
“You’re assuming that earmarks are favors to individual senators,” said Bennett. “On the interior subcommittee we approve earmarks based on the merit of the program involved.
“Why punish the state of Idaho if they have a perfectly legitimate project which their senator has called to our attention?” Bennett said.
Beyond threatening Craig’s earmarks, there is little else Republican leaders can do to force his early retirement.
A GOP aide said that a lawmaker must resign a committee leadership position only if he is indicted for a felony. Craig’s crime did not rise to that level. Craig gave up his posts on Veterans’ Affairs, Appropriations and Environment and Public Works in response to a request from the leadership.
Republican leaders could call for the chamber to vote on Craig’s expulsion, but that would require a vote of 67 senators. The GOP aide said that a misdemeanor is not a grave enough transgression to reach such a high threshold. |
