US senator quits after sex scandal

WASHINGTON – Republican US Senator Larry Craig, who represented the western state of Idaho for 27 years on Capitol Hill, announced that he was resigning following his arrest for allegedly soliciting sex with an undercover policeman in an airport bathroom.

The announcement on Saturday was encouraged by national Republican leaders, worried that the scandal would taint all candidates belonging to the socially conservative party in the 2008 election cycle. “It is with sadness and deep regret that I announce that it is my intent to resign from the Senate effective September 30,” Craig said at a news conference in Boise, the state capital of western state of Idaho.An ardent opponent of gay marriage and an outspoken critic of sexual improprieties by other politicians, Craig, 62, said he was ‘deeply sorry’, addressing his apology to the people of Idaho and to his own family.Flanked by his wife, two of his children and the state governor, Craig said he would resign to remove an ‘unwanted and unfair distraction’ from the Senate.Idaho’s Republican Governor Butch Otter did not say who he plans to appoint to complete Craig’s senatorial term, which ends in January 2009.The seat will be up for grabs in the November 2008 elections.Craig’s departure does not change the balance of power in the Senate, where Democrats currently hold a narrow 51-49 majority over Republicans.Revelations about the Idaho senator’s arrest was more bad news for the Republicans, plagued by a series of scandals.In 2004, veteran Republican congressman Ed Schrock, who was married and had one child, declined to seek reelection after tapes surfaced allegedly showing him soliciting sex on a telephone service used by homosexual men to arrange meetings.Nampa-AFP”It is with sadness and deep regret that I announce that it is my intent to resign from the Senate effective September 30,” Craig said at a news conference in Boise, the state capital of western state of Idaho.An ardent opponent of gay marriage and an outspoken critic of sexual improprieties by other politicians, Craig, 62, said he was ‘deeply sorry’, addressing his apology to the people of Idaho and to his own family.Flanked by his wife, two of his children and the state governor, Craig said he would resign to remove an ‘unwanted and unfair distraction’ from the Senate.Idaho’s Republican Governor Butch Otter did not say who he plans to appoint to complete Craig’s senatorial term, which ends in January 2009.The seat will be up for grabs in the November 2008 elections.Craig’s departure does not change the balance of power in the Senate, where Democrats currently hold a narrow 51-49 majority over Republicans.Revelations about the Idaho senator’s arrest was more bad news for the Republicans, plagued by a series of scandals.In 2004, veteran Republican congressman Ed Schrock, who was married and had one child, declined to seek reelection after tapes surfaced allegedly showing him soliciting sex on a telephone service used by homosexual men to arrange meetings.Nampa-AFP