Larry Craig Admonished

On Wednesday, the Senate Ethics Committee sent Senator Larry Craig a Letter of Admonishment for the foot-tapping incident. Or, more properly, for his actions after he was caught. They don't actually seem to care about the conduct that led up to the arrest.

Instead, Craig is admonished for flashing his business card in an attempt to receive special treatment and for trying to withdraw his guilty plea:

"It appears you are attempting to withdraw your plea in significant part because your initial calculation that you could avoid public disclosure of, and adverse public reaction to, this matter by pleading guilty proved wrong. . . . We consider your attempt to withdraw your guilty plea to be an attempt to evade the legal consequences of an action freely undertaken by you -- that is, pleading guilty.

Craig's other significant mis-step (y'see what I did there?) was to use $213,000 in campaign funds to pay for legal expenses and public relations related to the incident.

This is the lightest form of punishment available to the committee. The case is deemed to be closed. If you're interested, MSNBC has the letter itself here (PDF).

posted by Gabriel Malor at 04:03 AM

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