Commentary: Craig should just go away

Jack Cafferty is a commentator for CNN's "The Situation Room." His new book "It's Getting Ugly out There" will be published next week.

NEW YORK -- Senator Larry Craig, he of "Pottygate" fame says he's still leaving the door slightly open to staying in office beyond September 30th, the day he said last week that he would resign from the US Senate.

That's sort of like your mother-in-law suddenly announcing, "I'm having such a wonderful time at your house I may stay another two weeks."

Craig wants to see if he can get his guilty plea in a sex sting operation in a men's toilet in the Minneapolis airport overturned. And he's got a lawyer who thinks the Senate ethics committee should not bother looking into Craig's behavior because it's a misdemeanor.

Craig's lawyers say his behavior in this matter is "wholly unrelated" to his official duties. What ?!! You mean it's not part of a U.S. senator's official duties to play footsie with an undercover police officer in a toilet stall in a public restroom? I had no idea. I don't know who is worse, the lawyers or the senator.

It's no wonder that according to last month's Gallup poll, Congress has the lowest approval rating of any time since Gallup started tracking it in 1974. Senator Craig has demeaned himself, his family, and his office. According to the police report, he was attempting to engage in lewd behavior with the undercover cop in that men's room in Minneapolis. When confronted with the charges, he agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. But he then kept the whole thing secret from everyone.

Why, Senator? If you didn't do anything wrong, why keep it all secret?

This is a grown man who has spent 27 years in the United States Congress. He is heard on the tape of the interrogation telling the arresting officer that the reason the cop saw his hand appear beneath the stall divider in the men's room was he was picking up some paper from the floor. Who does that? Who picks up paper from the floor of a public toilet in an airport? Apparently at least one United States senator does. Except the cop said Craig didn't have any paper in his hand at the time of his arrest.

This whole thing is beyond disgusting. It's time for you to go away, Senator Craig, and spare us all the embarrassment of watching you trying to explain away the unexplainable.

But in keeping with the arrogance that has come to symbolize many members of Congress, Craig has hired a high powered crisis management team including Billy Martin, the lawyer for Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in his dog fighting case. There is no crisis Senator Craig. You don't belong in the United States senate. You have forfeited your right to represent good and decent people anywhere.

Please, just go away.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer. E-mail to a friend