Craig appeals ruling

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) took another step Monday to reverse a Minneapolis court decision stemming from his involvement in a bathroom sex sting that has disrupted his 26-year congressional career.

{mosads}In court papers filed Monday, Craig asked an appeals court in Hennepin County, Minn., to reverse a judge’s decision earlier this month to let stand Craig’s August guilty plea. It was made following his arrest for allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover police officer at a Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport restroom.

The court filing, coupled with Craig’s launch of a public relations offensive to clear his name, are the latest signs that Republicans will have a tough time moving away from the scandal.

After returning to Capitol Hill last month, Craig has been silent on the arrest and his ensuing guilty plea to disorderly conduct, which he did not disclose until it was reported in the press in August. Some of Craig’s Republican colleagues have called on him to keep his initial pledge to resign immediately from office. Instead, following the judge’s Oct. 4 ruling, he said he would stay on through the end of his current term, which expires after the 2008 election, and vowed to fight the battle in court.

So far this week, Craig has given two interviews, telling a television station in Boise, Idaho, “It is my right to do what I’m doing.”

In an interview set to air Tuesday on NBC, the senator lashes back at some of his Republican colleagues, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who he said “threw me under the bus,” after the former Massachusetts governor called Craig’s actions “disgraceful.”