Sympathy for Craig not easy to find

BOISE — Sen. Larry Craig went on vacation with his wife Wednesday, according to aides, as calls for his resignation intensified, Republican leaders stripped him of committee assignments and support in his home state appeared to be eroding.

One day after Craig dismissed his guilty plea on charges of disorderly conduct in an airport restroom as an overreaction to a mistaken arrest, and insisted he is not gay, even longtime supporters expressed disappointment.

"I voted for him before, but I wouldn't vote for him again because I don't believe him," said beautician Linda Anderson, 45.

In Washington, two Republican senators said Craig should resign. "My opinion is that when you plead guilty to a crime, you shouldn't serve," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told CNN. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., agreed, and announced he will give to a charity $2,500 in campaign funds his office had received from Craig.

Senate GOP leaders said Craig "agreed to comply with Leadership's request" that he step down as ranking Republican on the Veterans' Affairs Committee and two subcommittees while the ethics panel assesses his case.

A White House spokesman, Scott Stanzel, expressed disappointment "in the matter," and said he hopes the ethics committee will do its work swiftly, "as that would be in the best interests of the Senate and the people of Idaho."

Idaho voters have elected Craig in a landslide three times. But in the Boise area Wednesday — where, a day earlier, he had gone before TV cameras to declare, "I am not gay" — supporters suddenly were difficult to find.

"He should resign right now. Right now," said George Radford, 86, rapping his knuckles on the counter of the Sunrise Cafe in the nearby town of Meridian.

"Absolutely," Ed Holm said from the next stool. "Don't put his family through it."

Both men voted for Craig, but the course was clear.

"He pled guilty to a lesser charge because he knew he was guilty of the more serious charge," Radford said.

In the hours after Craig's defiant statement, CBS affiliate KIVI-TV solicited viewers' opinions on its Web site. By the early news it had not received a single expression of support.

"It's because it's a lying thing," said Karsten Roberts, nursing a drink at a punk-rock bar in downtown Boise.

Rumors about his sexual orientation have swirled about Craig for decades. "I moved here in 1982, and I heard them within a year," said Don Turner, 51, a pharmaceutical salesman.

Dean Mayes Jr., an insurance agent born and reared in Meridian, slowly shook his head when asked if a sitting senator could announce homosexuality and survive electorally. "I don't think so," Mayes said. "Pretty conservative state."

Yet Idaho voters in 1994 defeated an anti-gay initiative that would have prevented civil-rights protections for gays and banned books that depicted homosexuality favorably.

"Idaho has an intriguing history that way, and an intriguing set of politics," said Nicole LeFavour, a Democrat elected twice to the Idaho Assembly while openly a lesbian. "We have a very libertarian, kind of live-and-let-live streak out there."

LeFavour said Craig lost the opportunity for understanding when he repudiated his guilty plea before the cameras Tuesday.

With his wife beside him, Craig said his behavior in a Minneapolis airport restroom June 11 was misconstrued.

The police report said Craig eyed the undercover police officer through the crack in a bathroom-stall door, then sat in an adjacent stall and tapped his foot "as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct." He was arrested and charged with interference with privacy and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.

He pleaded guilty to the disorderly conduct charge this month and paid a $500 fine. Craig said he pleaded guilty because he was nervous about attention from The Idaho Statesman, the Boise newspaper that was investigating reports of his sexual preference.

"You know, I don't understand if he just touched somebody's foot why he pleaded guilty," said Anderson, the beautician. "We're a Republican state. We're Idaho. He's dishonored us."