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Monday, Oct 15, 2007 11:45 AM UTC

Nah, they’ve just got a “wide stance”

Senate Republicans in a "defensive crouch" over Larry Craig?

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Topics: War Room, Roy Ashburn,

Headline in today’s Washington Examiner: “Senate Republicans in defensive crouch over Larry Craig.”

Craig returns to the Senate today, and the Examiner says Republicans are “groaning” at the prospect of having him around until the end of his term. Says one GOP aide: “Everyone just wants him to go away, and he won’t. It’s the most bizarre, awkward situation I’ve ever seen.”

Over the weekend, Craig told an Idaho TV station that his lawyers will today file an appeal of the court order in which a Minnesota judge refused to let the senator withdraw his guilty plea in the airport men’s room incident. Pushing back against those who think it’s time for him to go, Craig snipped: “It is my right to do what I’m doing. I’ve already provided for Idaho certainty that Idaho needed — I’m not running for re-election. I’m no longer in the way. I am pursuing my constitutional rights.”

If Craig sounds a little bitter about the push he’s getting from folks back in Idaho, it’s nothing compared to what he has to say about Mitt Romney. Craig was Romney’s campaign co-chair in Idaho until news of his arrest broke and Romney threw him out. Craig’s take on Romney now: “He not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again.”

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog. More Tim Grieve.

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