Craig begins fight for seat

By DAVID ESPO

AP Special Correspondent

Lauren Victoria Burke / Associated Press - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. gestures while meeting with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday to discuss a conversation he had that morning with Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.

An ethics committee refused to dismiss a complaint against the senator, who wants his guilty plea withdrawn.

WASHINGTON -- To the dismay of fellow Republicans, Sen.

Larry Craig launched a determined drive to save his seat on Wednesday, vowing to stay in office if allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in a men's room sex sting.

Craig's campaign suffered an instant setback, however, when the ethics committee refused to set aside a complaint lodged against him.

"Pending Sen. Craig's resignation, the committee will continue

to review this matter," the committee's senior senators wrote.

The decision to deploy his legal team marked a reversal of his pledge to resign on Sept. 30, and raised the possibility of a protracted legal and political struggle, much of it playing out in public, with gay sex at its core.

"I thought he made the correct decision, the difficult but correct decision to resign" over the weekend, said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky after he and Craig spoke by telephone. "That would still be my view today."

Craig

Craig made no public statements during the day, although he met privately in Boise with Idaho Gov. C.L. Otter, who has the authority to fill any vacancy in the state's Senate delegation.

"We are proceeding based on the assumption that there is going to be a transition at the end of the month," said Jon Hanian, Otter's spokesman. "The senator's staff is going to work with ours to that end."

But McConnell heard something different when he talked with his longtime Senate colleague. He said Craig had told him he now intended to remain in Congress if he is permitted to withdraw his guilty plea by Sept. 30. "If he is unable to have that disposed of prior to Sept. 30, it is his intention to resign from the Senate as he expressed last Saturday," he said.

The GOP leader spoke hours after Craig's attorney, Stanley Brand, asked the ethics committee not to investigate a complaint because events were "wholly unrelated" to official duties.

Committee action eventually would lead the Senate down a path of dealing with "a host of minor misdemeanors and transgressions," Brand said in a letter that was hand-delivered.

In a written reply several hours later, the panel's chairman and senior Republican wrote that Senate rules give the committee authority to investigate lawmakers who engage in "improper conduct, which may reflect upon the Senate."

There was other evidence of the discomfort his case has caused fellow conservatives.

A dozen conservative activists attending a news conference on one of President Bush's judicial nominees declined to answer questions about Craig, including whether they wished to see him resign or remain in office.

They included Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; David Keene, president of The American Conservative Union; Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform; and Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America.