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| Sen. David Vitter (R) of Louisiana admitted to a "serious sin" after his name was linked to a Washington escort service last
month. Lee Celano/Reuters/file |
Senate Republicans draw bright line with Craig scandal
The Idaho senator pleaded guilty, while other senators who are under investigation have not been charged with wrongdoing, said GOP leader Mitch McConnell.
from the September 7, 2007 edition
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Senator Craig's legal strategy comes down to this: He says that he exercised poor judgment when he pleaded guilty to charges connected with an investigation of sexual activity in a Minnesota airport men's room, and he is trying to withdraw that guilty plea. At the same time, he has asked the Senate ethics committee not to pursue ethics charges against him. Unless he is able to both withdraw the guilty plea and restore his committee assignments in the Senate, he will resign from the Senate on Sept. 30, spokesman Dan Whiting told the Associated Press on Thursday.
"These investigations would burden the Committee and subject members to consistent standards and burdensome proceedings which would not vindicate any legitimate Senate interest. They would also leave members vulnerable for almost any legal transgression no matter how minor or professionally irrelevant," wrote attorneys Stanley Brand and Andrew Herman in a Sept. 5 letter to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics.
Many senators interviewed for this story would not speak on the record about the Craig case beyond saying it was sad, unfortunate, and inexplicable. But the precedent the case potentially sets for Senate ethics investigations is clearly troubling to some senators and ethics watchdog groups.
"I don't begin to understand it," says Sen. Patrick Leahy (D) of Vermont, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. "But I hope I never get picked up for a speeding ticket. That's also a misdemeanor."
Some legal experts say that the bright line Senate Republicans are attempting to draw in this case has little legal basis.
"Craig has a legitimate point that, regardless of his guilty plea, the underlying crime is relatively minor. What Vitter admitted to is considered a potential felony," says Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School.
"The Senate is allowed to investigate any conduct that would bring disrepute to that body. But there are credible and detailed allegations of corruption by current members of the Senate that have gone without serious investigation," he adds. "This [Craig] case is certainly a departure from past practice."
But from a political standpoint, the issues at stake for Senate Republicans were clearer. No one wants to head into 2008 elections, as they did in 2006, with corruption cases and sex scandals fresh in public thought. The failure of House GOP leaders to deal quickly with a sex scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley (R) of Florida and congressional pages contributed to the Democratic takeover that year, and Senate Republicans didn't want to make the same mistake. On Wednesday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched an ad featuring Craig in a gallery of GOP "bad boys."
The combination of the Vitter revelation and the investigation of Stevens hurt Craig, says Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. "Republicans weren't going to discipline either of them because the legal process hadn't unfolded, but here was a case where there had been apparent legal closure. It's the example that makes the point that Republicans are willing to sanction people in their caucus who do illegal things."
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