Found for us by the Texas news ninja, Betsy!
Nick Juliano
Published: Thursday August 30, 2007
CREW wants Vitter, Stevens to be demoted as well
Sen. Larry Craig had not even publicly addressed charges he tried to solicit sex in a public men’s room before members of his own party began to vehemently criticize his alleged conduct.
Less that 24 hours after he expressed regret for pleading guilty to disorderly conduct after an undercover cop said the Idaho Republican propositioned him, Craig was ousted from his committee posts in a decision Senate leaders said was “in the best interest” of the chamber. Meanwhile, it has been 52 days since Craig’s GOP colleague David Vitter acknowledged the “serious sin” of soliciting a call girl, yet the Louisiana senator has not budged from his committee posts.
Where Craig faced condemnation, Vitter received words of encouragement from colleagues — or at the very least, silence.
Sen. Ted Stevens’s prominent position in the Senate also seems safe, despite the Alaska Republican’s own taint of scandal. The FBI raided Stevens’s home last month in connection with a political corruption scandal in his home state. Substantial renovations of the home were carried out by contractors hired by oil-services company Veco Corp., whose executives have been accused of bribing state lawmakers.
“A disorderly conduct plea requires a member to give up his committee assignment, but a full-fledged bribery investigation does not,” observed Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Apparently, in the view of the Republican conference there is almost nothing more serious than a member attempting to engage in gay sex.” MORE
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