I’ve been watching this nonsense with Larry Craig, with a somewhat jaundiced eye. Personally, my estimate is that he has approximately 48 hours to be a senator. Perhaps decision will occur over the weekend to be effective on Monday, but I tend to doubt it.
Part of his problem, at this point, is that he won’t shut up to save his butt. Which is precisely the function, by the way, that shutting up would perform, had he given it a chance to work. It did not.
I wouldn’t be able to say too much as regards his integrity, but if you really wanted to save his job, he could have taken the path of Gary Condit, Gary Hart, Ted Kennedy, (ANd for that matter, Patrick Kennedy, too) Bill Clinton, Gavin Newsom and Jim McGreevey, Gary Studds, Barney Frank, and so many others that David and I have blogged about here.
Oh, wait, he did that. The people I’ve listed here didn’t shut up, either. Of course, the louder they streamed, the louder the democratic party as a whole screamed, too. Of course, it was labeled as “understanding”.
Hmmm.
Perhaps the what is being illustrated here is the difference between the Republican party as a whole, and the Democrats;
When the Democrats that I’ve listed above, were caught in their particular misdeeds, instead of being kicked out, they were reelected. indeed, to get removed from office once elected while being a democrat, one would have to do one of two things; they would have to do a Michael Vick on a handful of puppies and kittens, or they would have to have a reputation for going against the democrat lockstep, as James Trafficant did. Or, Joe Lieberman.
Getting the picture, yet?
Addendum: James Joyner comments [1]