Congressional Republicans Find Footsie More Galling Than Corruption
According to the Associated Press, members of the Republican Party in Congress are dropping their allegiance to fellow Republican Senator Larry Craig faster than you can say “cooties” after they found out that Senator Craig had pleaded guilty to charges related to playing footsie with an undercover police officer in a men’s room. I mean, wrongdoing is wrongdoing, they said:
For a second consecutive day, GOP Senate leaders stepped in, issuing a statement that said Craig had “agreed to comply with leadership’s request” to temporarily give up his posts on important committees. He has been the top Republican on the Veterans Affairs Committee as well as on subcommittees for two other panels.
“This is not a decision we take lightly, but we believe this is in the best interest of the Senate until this situation is resolved by the ethics committee,” said the statement, issued in the name of Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the party leader, and others.
On Tuesday, the leaders jumped in ahead of Craig’s appearance before television cameras in Idaho to announce they had asked the ethics committee to look into the case.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said, “We are disappointed in the matter,” without specifying exactly what was causing the discomfort.
He said he hoped the ethics committee would do its work swiftly, “as that would be in the best interests of the Senate and the people of Idaho.”…
In an interview with The Associated Press, Hoekstra called Craig’s explanations “not credible.”
“I think it’s important for Republicans to step out right now and say, ‘No, this behavior is not going to be tolerated,”‘ he said.
[Rep. Peter] Hoekstra, a conservative from western Michigan, said he reached his decision on his own and had not consulted with party leaders.
“It’s not a judgment on gay rights or anything like that. This is about leadership and setting a standard that the American people and your colleagues in the Republican Party can feel good about.”
Oh, good. So it’s not because Larry Craig might be GAY. No, no, no!, it’s all because he did wrong. And apparently, the Republican standard of “wrong” is when you play footsie with someone.
This explains why the Republican Party decided that it would change the ethics rules so that Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay could keep his leadership post even after being indicted on ethics charges and corruption and junk. Clearly, playing footsie is much more serious than that sort of thing. A-yup.
