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Senate officially scolds Craig

by Bob Roehr

WASHINGTON, DC-
The righteous indignation expressed by many Senators over a toe-tapping incident at a Minneapolis airport last year has culminated in a scolding for Sen. Larry Craig.
The Select Committee on Ethics issued a three-page "public letter of admonition" on Feb. 13. It effectively ends the posturing by that body on the affair.
"The Committee accepts as proven your guilty plea" it said, skipping over the substance and the sexually laden context of the charges themselves.
Nor did it address the issue of whether the disorderly conduct statute under which Craig was charged is itself unconstitutional. That is the crux of the argument in a amici brief filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in the ongoing appeals process. The ACLU says that the court cannot accept a guilty plea to a charge that is unconstitutional.
The Committee said Craig should not have flashed a business card to the arresting officer that identified him as a U.S. Senator, perhaps in the hope that he would receive "special and favorable treatment." It did not comment on exemptions for itself that Congress routinely writes into laws affecting the rest of the country.
The letter acknowledged that citizen Craig may have the legal right to attempt to withdraw his guilty plea, but "it is a course that a United States Senator should not take." It pointed out that Craig had pledged to uphold the Constitution and laws to the US, but it dodged the issue of what to do if that law is a violation of the Constitution.
The Committee also took Craig to task for using $213,000 in campaign funds to pay for legal and public relations expenses associated with the appeal and attempting to clear his name.
"It appears that some portion of these expenses may not be deemed to have been incurred in connection with your official duties." It argued that Craig should have sought permission from the Committee or the Federal Elections Commission on use of those funds. And it left the door open on possible future investigations of this point, though it seems unlikely to do so.
The "admonition" is short of a reprimand, censure, or expulsion, all part of the arcane and escalating series of penalties that the Senate might impose. Unlike the other options, it requires no further action by the Senate.
Sen. Craig's office issued a brief statement saying that he was "disappointed and strongly disagree[d] with the conclusion" reached by the Committee. He vowed to continue serving the remaining year of his term of office.

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