White House won't back sex scandal senator
SYDNEY (AFP) — The White House on Wednesday strongly suggested that US Senator Larry Craig should not reverse his decision to resign after pleading guilty in an airport bathroom sex sting.
Spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to confirm media reports that Craig might be reconsidering his plan to leave his seat but stood by an earlier statement welcoming his decision to quit.
"I saw that report that his spokesperson said that. I don't think that our views have changed but, of course, this is the Senator's decision and the Senator's seat," she told reporters.
Craig plans to resign on September 30 but "he is fighting these charges and should he be cleared before then, he may -- I emphasize may -- not resign," CNN news quoted the Idaho senator's spokesman Dan Whiting as saying.
Craig, who represented the western state of Idaho for 27 years on Capitol Hill, announced on Saturday he was resigning after being caught in a sting by an undercover policeman at the airport in Minneapolis in June.
The officer said Craig had used a series of gestures to invite a sexual encounter.
The resignation announcement was encouraged by national Republican leaders, worried that the scandal would taint all candidates belonging to the socially conservative party in the 2008 election cycle.
Their party has been plagued by a series of sex and corruption scandals over the past year.
Despite having pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor misconduct charge for which he was fined and received a year's probation, Craig said he was not gay and had made the plea in order to hush the matter up.
He has since hired lawyers to try and cancel the guilty plea, CNN said.
