Craig's Guilty Plea Closes Case

The details of Senator Larry Craig's arrest are flowing like sewage in the old media. The debate is on about whether or not he should resign. Senator Craig feels besieged and rightfully so. I say rightfully because he pled guilty.

Of the ten thousand or so ways that one could frame the discussion based on the facts, the guilty plea stands in the center of the picture. Did he really want to just make the problem go away? That's irrelevant. He pled guilty.

That plea will probably haunt him for a long time, but he made it and he'll have to live with it. Part of living with it means to recognize that he let the team down. In a war, we don't have time for a Larry Craig sideshow and a hostile debate about a trivial matter in the party supporting the war. Yes, the Senator should know, right now Americans are in harm's way and his political future is a petty trifle compared to the danger they face.

And we should remember that we can always discard the Senator while helping the man. In fact, should he resign and do the right thing - meaning face what must be a horrible personal struggle shared by his wife, family and close friends - we should be quick to forgive the man. He has the opportunity to turn a potential legacy of shame into a rebirth of human decency and hope for others.

But the Senator should be gone. People are laying their lives on the line in support of their principles and freedom. This is not a time for a Washington D.C. Circus.