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Opinion: More Senate woes for Republicans

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Facing the likely imminent resignation of one scandal-plagued senator from Idaho, Senate Republicans got the not-too-surprising news today that one of their most senior and respected members was retiring.

John Warner of Virginia, who will have served 30 years, said he would leave his seat upon completing his current term in January 2009. Richard Simon has the full story elsewhere on this site.

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The 80-year-old former Navy secretary and World War II and Korean War veteran is highly respected for his military expertise and recently called on President Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

Politically, Warner’s retirement adds to the GOP nightmare in 2008, facing Democratic congressional majorities and an unpopular war and president in a presidential election year. Warner’s departure gives Democrats another chance at increasing their slim current 51-49 Senate majority. Popular former Democratic Gov. Mark Warner and Republican Rep. Tom Davis and former Gov. Jim Gilmore, who recently bowed out of the presidential race, are likely to contend to join Democrat Jim Webb as Virginians in the Senate.

Already the GOP must defend 22 Senate seats in 2008, while the Democrats will defend only 12. Republican Wayne Allard of Colorado, where Democrats have been gaining strength, has also announced his retirement.

To compound those challenges, a number of Republican senators have been involved ...

in scandals. Ted Stevens of Alaska had his house searched by FBI investigators recently. David Vitter of Louisiana showed up in the black book of a Washington madam and publicly apologized for ‘a very serious sin.’ And Idaho’s Larry Craig is under mounting pressure to forfeit his seat. (UPDATE: Late Friday a Craig spokesman said the senator would announce his plans on Saturday.)

The Craig case, as by now virtually everyone seems to know and smirk about, involves an arrest in a Minneapolis airport men’s room in June for lewd conduct. He later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct but denied wrongdoing.

A day after the arrest revelation in the Roll Call newspaper, the 62-year-old Craig, his wife at his side, denied at a Boise news conference that he was gay and said his actions were misconstrued by the undercover airport police officer. A police audiotape released yesterday, though showing Craig denying any misconduct and the belligerent officer accusing the senator of lying, only added fuel to the controversy and snickering.

With the exception of Idaho’s GOP Gov. C.L. ‘Butch’ Otter, a longtime friend, fellow Republicans rapidly distanced themselves from Craig. This included presidential candidate Mitt Romney, whose campaign Craig was supporting. Several, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona, called for his immediate resignation; others, especially those who also face reelection challenges next year, strongly hinted that Craig’s departure would be a good thing.

‘If I was in a position like that,’ said Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who heads the Republican Senate campaign committee, ‘that’s what I would do. He’s going to have to answer that for himself.’

GOP Senate leadership also got Craig’s resignation from all committee assignments and sought an ethics committee investigation, though his misdemeanor offense may not violate Senate rules.

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Political sources in Idaho, where Craig has received very little public support, say talks have been held between Craig and Otter, the goal being to name a replacement Republican as soon as possible to get past the scandal and allow a Republican to hold the seat next year in the strongly GOP state. Although Rep. Mike Simpson has been mentioned as a possible replacement, the most likely new nominee would be Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, who served as acting governor for several months last year when Dirk Kempthorne was named Interior secretary.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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