Larry Craig Latest: "Not Guilty!"

Another day, another attempt by Sen. Larry Craig toward career rehabilitation. The disgraced senator maintains he did not solicit sex in an Minneapolis airport bathroom and hopes to overturn the guilty plea in legal proceedings filed today. Craig senator says he panicked and wanted to avoid the publication of an ongoing investigation into decades-old charges about his sexuality. Vis a vis: The media made him do it.

Craig had denied to editors at the Idaho Statesman that he was gay just weeks before his June 11 arrest in the bathroom of the Minneapolis airport. The paper didn't run a story, but Craig thought his arrest would change that.

Craig's attorneys wrote that "faced with the pressure of an aggressive interrogation and the consequences of public embarrassment, Senator Craig panicked and chose to plead to a crime he did not commit."

Craig's affidavit said he decided on the day of his arrest to plead guilty to whatever charge was eventually filed against him.

More than a month and a half passed between Craig's June 11 arrest and August 1, "when he signed a guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge." The Idaho Statesman only ran the story after Craig's arrest was published in The Hill.

Withdrawing a guilty plea is rare and "prosecutors will oppose Craig's motion, said Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

Craig's legal counsel is Billy Martin, the ace Washington celebrity attorney who represented Monica Lewinsky. (Craig voted for Clinton's impeachment and called the President a "nasty, bad naughty boy." Video here.) "This will take as long as it takes. We are going to fight this all the way through,’’ Martin vowed on Today, adding, “we are prepared to go to trial,’’ if necessary.

An unpopular president and war, looming recession, Katrina, various sex scandals, and, now, the threat of Larry Craig remaining in the Senate and keeping this story in the headlines and driving south the price/earnings ratio of the Republican "brand." Closeted anti-gay, right wing politicians: The gift that keeps on giving.

Craig to File Reversal of Plea [AP]
Craig to Seek Reversal [Politico]

Dud You Read? ...
Larry Craig Latest: Wasn't Going to Run for Re-Election [R20]
Larry Craig Latest: Maybe I Won't Resign After All [R20]
Craig Resigns Senate Seat [R20]
RNC to Larry Craig: Resign or Else [R20]
NY Post Runs "Are You a Gay Senator?" Quiz [R20]
Idaho's Largest Paper Calls for Craig's Resignation [R20]