I took a lot of heat for my first post on the Senator Larry Craig issue where I noted that a guilty plea is not proof of guilt, but many times in the cases of a misdemeanor charge simply a way to avoid a courtroom hearing. Many people admit to traffic charges without fighting them even when thery think they are in the right (and many times when they are in the right). Well it seems we will now have the legal determination of Craig’s guilt – finally – as the Senator has decided to not simply enter the plea for convenience but make the system prove its case. The system will, in all likilihood, fail to prove the case against Criag because there is nothing in the evidence to prove beyond any reasonable doubt there was a solicitation.

But what has become the real disaster of this story was the raging purists inside the GOP again. The quick-draw back stabbing of a fellow Republican who should have been heard, not silenced. And even now the GOP and the many of the talking heads on that side of the aisle have not learned to stop digging their holes once they make a big mistake:

Senate GOP leaders renewed their effort to force an absent Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) to resign on Wednesday, but that political pressure appeared to leave Craig unfazed and some Republicans fearing that the embattled conservative could hang on until 2008.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman John Ensign (R-Nev.) both urged Craig to continue with his announced plans to step down on Sept. 30, calling resignation the right thing to do.

Why should Craig step down? Because he is a thorn in the side of some Senators on policies is my guess. Look at the Democrats as they stood by a President who abused his office and lied about it under oath, and compare that blindly robotic support against the machinations of politicians who throw their allies under the bus when the going gets tough.

Neither behavior is professional or respectable. Being a puppet or being the kind of ally who runs away everytime someone says ‘Boo’ are not signs of leadership or strength. This is, perhaps, McConnell’s first mistake as minority leader. He has been great up to this point, but I still detect yet unseen forces at work here. In fact, I think I see where the far right is again attempting to destroy a fellow Republican because of policy differences:

Craig supported Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) during his 2002 struggle after controversial comments on segregation and backed Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) in his battle with conservative activists over the Judiciary Committee chairmanship. In 2004, Craig relinquished his seat on the committee so GOP leaders could add conservative Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

Emphasis mine. It is no secret the far right hated the Gang of 14, even though they produced the desired result of large numbers of conservative judges on the federal bench. But that was not good enough for too many, they wanted a constitutional bloodbath and gridlock. Many blame Specter for this and many other issues, so to get at Specter it would not surprise me if some thought Craig would be a good sacrificial lamb. How else to explain the GOP double standard?

Craig allies also are stung by what they see as the hypocrisy of the GOP leadership. For example, a former Craig staffer noted that Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) was met with applause when he attended the weekly GOP Senate lunch after he admitted to seeing a prostitute.

Yeah, there is more going on here than meets the eye (or the media can grasp). In fact, a little digging has me convinced Craig is a target of the far right purity putsche. I was not aware, but I am not surprised, that Craig backed the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers:

Idaho Senator Larry Craig commented today on the nomination of Harriet Miers to replace the outgoing Sandra Day O’Connor as a Supreme Court justice. Miers currently serves as Counsel to the President, a post she has held since February, 2005.

“Harriet Miers is an impressive legal talent with a reputation for hard work,” Craig said. “I look forward to learning more about her and her judicial philosophy, and I commend the President for bringing this nomination forward quickly.”

Want to guess where Craig stood on the Dubai Ports deal that inflamed the far right so much Anne Coulter could not help herself and use the “raghead” tag in her speach to go GOPAC?. He seems to have not been too thrilled with the nativist hysteria that swept the far right (and rightfully so in my opinion):

Another message sent by the collapse of the Dubai Ports deal is that the United States may not always be consistent in preaching the virtues of capitalism and a free market economy. While we encourage other nations to open their economies to more outside investment, we restrict foreign investment here. Practicing protectionism at home opens us up to accusations of hypocrisy abroad, and rightly so.

Finally, rejection of the ports deal sends a terrible message to our partners in the war on terror. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been a strong partner in this war. This country has provided forward basing for our military and intelligence services, valuable intelligence, and ironically, harbors for our naval vessels. The UAE has been a willing ally, but we have repaid them like an enemy.

So I guess we can all now easily predict what I found when I checked on Craig’s position on illegal immigration and the comprehensive Bill put forth by the Bush administration:

The AgJOBS bill would provide a two-step solution: For the short term, on a one-time-only basis, experienced, trusted workers with a significant work history in American agriculture would be allowed to stay here legally and earn adjustment to legal status. For the long term, the currently broken and cumbersome H-2A legal guest worker program would be overhauled and made more streamlined, practical, and secure.

More indications here:

“A year does make a difference,” insisted Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican.

Or so he hopes.

Joined by lawmakers from Florida and California and backed by hundreds of farm, labor and church groups, Craig is reintroducing a guest-worker plan that has been debated for years. As many as 1.5 million farm workers and their relatives now in this country illegally could gain legal status under the bill.

It is obvious why Craig is being dumped so fast – he is a Republican In Name Only. He is a RINO. He is a traitor like El Presidente Jorge Bush. He even supported the No Child Left Behind Act and the Medicare Drug Benefit. The far right is more than happy to push this man under the bus because, to them, he is little better than a democrat. At least that is the kind of dribble I would suspect is being whispered in the ever shrinking GOP caucuses.

I did not know Craig’s positions on these matters until I researched them this morning. But I could tell something was wrong from the way the GOP was desperate for the man to resign instead of clearing his name. It was too much like the Democrats’ current desires for us to resign Iraq instead of clear our good name their and succeed. But now it seems clear Craig’s problems are very much due to the far right and their purity war inside the GOP.