Craig might not resign after all

BOISE, Idaho — Four days ago, Sen. Larry Craig stood with family members as he announced his resignation after his arrest in a Minnesota airport sex sting. But on Tuesday, his spokesman said the Idaho Republican is reconsidering and may still fight for his Senate seat.

"It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore, that the only thing he could do was resign," Sidney Smith, Craig's spokesman in Idaho's capital, told The Associated Press.

"We're still preparing as if Senator Craig will resign Sept. 30, but the outcome of the legal case in Minnesota and the ethics investigation will have an impact on whether we're able to stay in the fight — and stay in the Senate," Smith said.

Craig, a leading voice on issues affecting the West and a consistent opponent of gay-rights legislation, has represented Idaho in Congress for 27 years.

Tuesday's news wasn't the first twist in the unusual case. After Craig was arrested June 11 in an undercover police operation in a men's room at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, he pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct. He was ordered to pay $575 in fines and fees and given one year's probation.

But he later denied making a sexual advance to the undercover officer. He said he regretted the guilty plea and had retained a lawyer to review it.

Billy Martin, one of Craig's lawyers, said the senator's arrest "raises very serious constitutional questions."

To overturn the plea, Minnesota courts would want proof that he wasn't informed of some fundamental right, something that legal experts have said would be difficult to prove.

Craig contended throughout last week he had done nothing wrong and said his only mistake was pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge.

GOP leaders asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate his arrest.

Meanwhile, Republican Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has not named Craig's successor. Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, also a Republican, had been considered the front-runner for the job after Craig announced he would resign.

Craig has hired a high-powered crisis-management team that includes:

• Communications adviser Judy Smith, who handled publicity for Monica Lewinsky and, more recently, for U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, the Louisiana Democrat now the subject of a corruption probe.

• Washington attorney Stan Brand, a former general counsel to the U.S. House, who represented Major League Baseball in the congressional investigation into steroid use.

• Minneapolis attorney Tom Kelly.

• His attorney Martin, who also represents Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in his dogfighting case.

Brand will handle any Senate ethics committee investigation of Craig, while Kelly will assist with the legal case in Minnesota.

Craig was a no-show Tuesday as Congress reconvened after a summer break.

A telephone call Craig received last week from Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., urging him to consider fighting for his seat is affecting Craig's decision to reconsider his resignation, Smith said.

On Tuesday, Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested Craig's GOP colleagues who pressured him last week to resign should re-examine the facts surrounding his arrest.

"The more people take a look at the situation, there may well be second thoughts," said Specter, a former prosecutor. If Craig had not pleaded guilty and instead demanded a trial, "I believe he would have been exonerated," Specter said.

Craig came under a steady drumbeat of criticism from Republicans in the days before he announced that, for the good of the people of Idaho, he would step down Sept. 30.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called Craig's actions "unforgivable" and Republican Senate colleagues John McCain of Arizona and Norm Coleman of Minnesota said Craig should resign.

All three of Craig's children said Tuesday they believe their father's assertions that he is not gay and did nothing to warrant his arrest.

Jay Craig, 33, told The Associated Press that he, his brother Michael Craig, 38, and sister Shae Howell, 36, spoke candidly with their father about the arrest.

"Our conclusion was there was no wrongdoing there," Jay Craig said. "We understood the direction he was taking [by pleading guilty] and there was nothing illegal that happened there that would even convince somebody what he was doing was illegal. He was a victim of circumstance, in the wrong place at the wrong time when this sting operation was going on."

Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report.