Can Sen. Larry Craig blunder his way into any more moronic decisions to blemish his office and oath and humiliate U.S. Senate colleagues and the people of Idaho?
Stay tuned. Months remain before Craig's term runs out.
As a quick refresher: Sen. Craig was arrested in June last year in a Minneapolis airport bathroom and charged with disorderly conduct, allegedly for sexual overtures to an undercover male police officer.
In the opening act of what has become Craig's operatic tragicomedy for the next year, he at first pleaded guilty to the charge, announced he'd resign, then announced he wouldn't resign and further declared he'd fight the charge to which he had pleaded guilty.
Thereupon began the windfall of gags by late night TV comedians.
In the course of this drama, Craig blew $213,000 on legal fees and public relations from funds donated by campaign supporters. This, the Senate Ethics Committee concluded after an investigation, constituted "improper conduct" that reflected "discreditably" on the U.S. Senate, not to mention the trust with voters he abused and broke in the process.
Now that those funds have been plundered, Craig is audaciously asking donors to chip in more to a new legal defense fund so he can continue his fight to withdraw his guilty plea. If he takes the fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, he'll need even more gullible donors.
Craig claims he didn't know what he was doing when he pleaded guilty. Perhaps. He surely acts now like a man whose judgment is totally adrift.
