Truth, Justice, And Larry Craig's Way

So Sen. Larry Craig wants a do-over. A little pep-talk from his colleague Arlen Specter, and now he has an A-list attorney looking into whether he can take back his guilty plea from that bathroom sex sting. And he may not step down from Congress after all.

All that's fine, if it were only two months ago, and if he hadn't pleaded guilty. But what's done is done, and the distinguished, disgraced Republican from Idaho should know it.

Larry Craig's motivations are simply mind-boggling. They fly in the face of somebody who should understand how the criminal justice system works, namely the presumption of innocence. Craig has vehemently proclaimed he did nothing wrong. Why didn't he have the guts to proclaim it two months ago, when his case went before a judge?

If Craig believed he was better off gaming the system by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and thinking nobody would notice, he doesn't deserve to hold office. That strategy reeks of political spin-doctoring, something you would expect from a Washington slickster and not a statesman.

Even fellow Republicans are repulsed, according to The Politico:

"It simply defies reality," said a Senate GOP aide. "You can't make this up even if you are heavily medicated. The American people heard from Larry Craig that he would resign, and using the word 'intent' as a back door doesn't work with them."

Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether Craig was looking for action in a men's room or not. Instead of standing up, he rolled over at the crucial moment. He chose to obfuscate, sweep things under the rug, and cross his fingers. We send people to Washington to make tough decisions, and even though Sen. Craig would have still taken the pounding from critics, comics, and 24/7 news channels, at least going through a trial would have given him the chance to raise some reasonable doubts before both a jury and a national audience. I'm convinced he could have poked holes in the police case, if not gotten it dismissed. It could have been a powerful teaching moment.

Jackie Gleason, playing Sheriff Buford T. Justice in Smokey And The Bandit said, "What we have here is a total lack of respect for the law." Craig expected his case to evaporate like a sidewalk puddle, thinking it would get lost in the police blotter and nobody would care. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Now the only honorable thing for him to do is leave.