Today a judge denied Sen. Larry Craig's request to withdraw his guilty plea in his Minneapolis airport men's room incident, saying Craig had entered into the plea "accurately, voluntarily and intelligently." Well, two out of three ain't bad.

Contrary to most expectations, Craig took the opportunity to announce he's going nowhere and intends to serve out the remainder of his term as a US Senator.

"I will continue to serve Idaho in the United States Senate, and there are several reasons for that. As I continued to work for Idaho over the past three weeks here in the Senate, I have seen that it is possible for me to work here effectively.

"Over the course of my three terms in the Senate and five terms in the House, I have accumulated seniority and important committee assignments that are valuable to Idaho, not the least of which are my seats on the Appropriations Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee. A replacement would be highly unlikely to obtain these posts."

This is the best case scenario for Democratic challenger Larry LaRocco since it prevents Idaho Governor Otter from being able to appoint a replacement who would then go on to be the putative incumbent in the race next year. Instead, there will be a costly and divisive GOP primary, which may be quite crowded since, as mcjoan notes, 29 people had submitted their names to the governor for consideration to replace Craig. And who knows...Craig's decisions have been so unpredictable in the wake of his arrest, he may even decide to run for re-election.

I can't help but laugh at how Craig's defiance has got to be driving the GOP leadership crazy. Remember in the wake of his arrest, the leadership "moved swiftly" to oust him from the senate and GOP hacks like Tom DeLay went on TV to boast that when Republicans get in trouble, the leadership takes care of the situation, whereas when Democrats do, they get re-elected and are granted committee posts. Crooks And Liars has DeLay saying just that on Hardball in August. A strange line coming from Tom DeLay to be sure, but appropriate that it's one more thing he's said that's turned out to be B.S.

Give Larry LaRocco some love.

Update [2007-10-4 18:36:35 by Todd Beeton]: From CQ, NRSC chair John Ensign renews his call for Craig to resign.

Ensign, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, made clear that GOP leaders consider that the wrong decision. “He had his day in court, the judge ruled against him, and I’m calling on Sen. Craig now to keep his word,” Ensign said in a statement. And he issued a thinly veiled threat, noting that Craig’s conduct has been referred to the Senate Ethics Committee for investigation.

“I think it would be a mistake to put the Senate through an Ethics investigation process that could potentially lead to public hearings,” Ensign said. “It’s embarrassing for the Senate. It’s embarrassing for our party. It’s going to be obviously, I think, potentially very embarrassing, further embarrassing, for his family. I think that he should do the right thing and keep his word.”