Idahoans are sick of Sen. Larry Craig. They want him to resign, but he won't.
Instead, he's going to drag his tawdry men's room misdemeanor charge, to which he pleaded guilty, into the U.S. Senate—ostensibly to clear his name.
He will waste the Senate's time in a benighted quest that will besmirch the very state and the people he says he represents.
It's tough being an Idahoan, and Craig isn't making it any easier.
The state has suffered political wackos before. U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth once feared black government helicopters were snooping in the state and claimed that salmon were not endangered because she could find salmon in cans at the market. Current U.S. Rep. Bill Sali recently claimed that a Hindu prayer and the presence of a Muslim in Congress threaten the nation's survival.
For years, the presence of an Aryan Nations compound in the Panhandle required Idahoans to fight the impression that the state was populated by racists and bigots. And as if it didn't have enough problems, the state's tourist industry had to fight an image expensively fostered by agriculture that Idaho was nothing more than a drive-through full of dusty potato fields.
Now, Idaho will have to explain why Sen. Larry Craig is wasting the time of senators who ought to be figuring out how to get the country out of Iraq, stabilize energy supplies and fix Social Security, health care and global warming.
If Craig gets a hearing in front of the Senate Ethics Committee, it will be fodder for more well-deserved ridicule by national commentators and comedians.
Unfortunately for Idaho, there is no good defense for stupidity.
