29 Aug 2007 // Washington, DC - Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, expressed surprise that Sen. Larry Craig has been forced to relinquish his committee assignments in light of this week's revelations that he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in connection with an attempted sexual encounter with an undercover officer in a Minneapolis airport restroom.
"Senator Ted Stevens maintains his position on the Appropriations Committee despite being the subject of a major criminal investigation, including an FBI raid on his Alaska home and Senator David Vitter maintains his assignments despite admitting to the crime of soliciting a prostitute."
Sloan noted that in response to CREW's calls for Sen. Stevens to step down from his position on the Senate Appropriations Committee where he has jurisdiction over the Department of Justice's budget, Senate Minority Leader Mitchell McConnell demurred, defending Sen. Stevens. Sloan continued, "A disorderly conduct plea requires a member to give up his committee assignment, but a full-fledged bribery investigation does not. Apparently, in the view of the Republican conference there is almost nothing more serious than a member attempting to engage in gay sex."
"For consistency’s sake, Senators Stevens and Vitter should both ...   more »

28 Aug 2007 // After the Senate Republicans called for an investigation into Senator Larry Craig’s conduct, Melanie Sloan made the following statement:
“While I am pleased that Senate Republicans are joining CREW’s call for an investigation into Senator Craig’s conduct, their failure to ask for an ethics investigation of the similarly outrageous conduct by Sen. David Vitter is puzzling. While Sen. Craig pleaded guilty to a crime involving soliciting sex, but is now denying his guilt, Sen. Vitter has not been charged but has admitted to the crime of soliciting for prostitution. Thus, both men have admitted to committing misdemeanor crimes that reflect poorly upon the Senate and both should be treated equally. The only possible interpretation of the Republicans’ differing reaction to the two cases is that Sen. Craig’s case involves gay sex. Apparently soliciting for heterosexual sex does not offend the “family values” platform in the way that soliciting for gay sex does.”

STATEMENT FROM CREW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ON SENATE REPUBLICANS’ CALL FOR AN INVESTIGATION | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Idaho Senator Larry Craig
by David Taffet on Mon 27 Aug 2007 10:28 PM PDT
News was released today that Idaho Senator Larry Craig was arrested on June 11 by a plainclothes police officer investigating complaints of lewd behavior in a Minneapolis airport men’s room.

The Republican senator pleaded guilty earlier this month to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. He paid $575 in fines and fees and was put on unsupervised probation for a year. A sentence of 10 days in the county workhouse was stayed.

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