The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) had printed up invitations to its Sept. 12 black-tie gala and awards dinner well before Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) called an Aug. 28 press conference to explain why he pleaded guilty to charges related to soliciting sex in an airport bathroom.

It was too late to remove Craig’s name from the short list of honorees under the grand title “A Salute to Champions,” but JACL National Executive Director Floyd Mori said the organization would not have done so anyway.

“Our only question was whether or not he would be able to come,” Mori said Monday.

Mori said he was disappointed to learn from Craig’s staff that he would not be back in Washington for the event, but he added that the dinner’s organizers had no intention of joining the long list of Washington types who have snubbed Craig in recent weeks.

“He’s not going to be attending, but we will recognize the work he has done,” Mori said.

The master of ceremonies for the event, by the way, is George Takei, a gay activist best known for his role as Mr. Sulu in “Star Trek.”

We couldn’t help but wonder on Sept. 7 if the multiple scandals and investigations in the Republican Party had just become too much for Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) as he hobbled his way to the Senate floor, dragging one leg and grimacing as he went.

The budget hawk dodged our questions about his health, joking that another senator was responsible for his weakened condition.

“I picked on the wrong earmark,” DeMint joked. “I guess they are tired of me.”

Indeed, it turns out that DeMint’s limp was the work of a colleague — and a fellow Republican, no less.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Ensign (R-Nev.), who should have more incentive than anyone in Washington to keep GOP senators healthy, injured DeMint in a tennis game last week, according to a Senate aide.

The two senators play each other frequently, but our biased source claims that DeMint almost always wins, and not just against Ensign.

Now DeMint’s tennis domination has been thrown into doubt — a point Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) eagerly made with a casual swipe at another tennis-playing Republican senator from Minnesota.

“Now he’s the only guy who Norm Coleman can beat,” Burr cracked.

Seemingly for the sole reason of amusing campaign reporters, the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) announced Sept. 10 that he will deliver a speech in Clinton, Iowa, on Sept. 12.

Might we suggest that he also swing by Edwards, Iowa, about 150 miles northwest? Then, perhaps, a road trip is in order to drop by Dodd, Ind.

And no, we checked, and there is no Bidentown to be found, although we hear that Joe, N.C., is lovely this time of year.

Senate Republican leaders wasted no time in letting Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) know that he did not have their support as he tried to insist last month that he did nothing wrong in a Minnesota bathroom, but it turns out it could have been worse.

Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.), suggested that members of his leadership team wanted to make a more extreme statement than their quickfire e-mail to the press saying that they had asked for an ethics investigation of Craig, minutes before his first press conference on the matter.

“There were things that I wouldn’t go along with,” Lott said. “I’m certainly not going to start demanding things before we know what happened.”

Lott said he has not forgotten that Craig supported him when other Republicans turned on him years ago, and he has kept in contact with him since news broke that Craig had pleaded guilty in August to disorderly conduct after the arresting officer alleged that the senator used signals to solicit sexual contact in the Minneapolis airport bathroom.

“I’ve talked to him a couple of times, not as a colleague or as a part of leadership, but as a friend. I haven’t tried to give him advice or tell him what to do — that’s not why I called,” Lott said.

Genuine bipartisanship emerged in spades last week, when the staff of Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) hosted a Sept. 7 happy hour for the office of Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) to celebrate Johnson’s return to the chamber after eight months of recovery from a near-fatal brain hemorrhage.

With neither senator in tow, Thune’s aides provided beer, wine, champagne and a few munchies for their one-time archenemies and rivals for South Dakota’s love.

Not only did Thune come within striking distance of unseating Johnson in a bruising campaign in 2002, but he then succeeded in unseating one of Johnson’s dearest friends, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), two years later.

That made things, well, awkward when Thune became the newest member of the delegation.

So, now we know what it takes to find some comity in the Senate. 

Klaus Marre contributed to this page.