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GOP Defends Stand In Craig Situation

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By LARRY MARGASAK, The Associated Press

Published: September 3, 2007

WASHINGTON - A Republican leader on Sunday denied a double standard in pushing Sen. Larry Craig to resign after a sex sting guilty plea, while remaining silent over GOP Sen. David Vitter's involvement with an escort service.

A senior Democrat said a double standard is exactly what occurred.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., the Senate Republican campaign chairman, said Craig 'admitted guilt. That is a big difference between being accused of something and actually admitting guilt.'

'David Vitter never did that. Larry Craig did,' Ensign said on ABC's 'This Week' program.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed a contrary view on 'Fox News Sunday.'

'One, I say there's a double standard,' Leahy said. 'Secondly, I don't think they'll ask him Vitter to resign because, of course, he'd be replaced by a Democrat. It's easier to ask Larry Craig to resign because he'd be replaced by a Republican.'

Idaho has a Republican governor who will appoint a successor to Craig. Louisiana's governor is a Democrat.

Craig, of Idaho, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a men's restroom and announced Saturday he will leave the Senate at the end of the month. He was caught in a sex sting at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in June and, despite his guilty plea, now says he did nothing wrong.

Vitter, of Louisiana, has not been charged with a crime, although he acknowledged his Washington telephone number was among those called several years ago by an escort service.

Prosecutors say the escort service was a prostitution ring and have accused the woman who led it of racketeering.

Craig's conduct was 'embarrassing not only to himself and his family but to the United States Senate,' Ensign said. Before Craig's announcement, Ensign had strongly suggested that he resign.

Another Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said on 'Fox News Sunday' that Craig should try to vindicate himself.

'I'd like to see Larry Craig seek to withdraw the guilty plea and fight the case,' said Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. 'I'd like to see him fight the case because I think he could be vindicated.'

Despite Craig's decision to leave the Senate, Democratic Senate campaign chief Charles Schumer of New York sought to keep the corruption issue alive. He accused Republicans of failing to support ethics reform when they were in the majority.

'What the American people are looking for is not a blame game, but who is trying to clean it up,' Schumer said on 'This Week.' 'For six years, there was no ethics reform.'

The New York senator defended Democratic actions in a new fundraising scandal. A party fundraiser, Norman Hsu, had been a fugitive since failing to appear for a 1992 sentencing.

'We've already given money back,' Schumer said. 'Nobody knew he was a fugitive. When we found out something is wrong, we returned the money.'

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