Craig withdraws intent to resign from Senate

And we thought it was all over last week. The minute that word got out that he had pleaded guilty to a charge that he was trolling for sex in a Minneapolis Airport men's room, the Republican Party in general came down on him with as many feet as they could find. Unlike Louisiana Sen. David Vitter who admitted on TV that he had paid prostitutes for sex and was in touch with the D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey, Sen. Craig had been arrested for sending classic signals in the men's room trolling for male sex.

The Republican reaction was perfectly clear.

Sex with prostitutes = "OK."

Homosexual sex in a public men's room = "Senator! Begone! And do not again darken our Senate building!"

The Republicans even performed the extremely unusual act of filing a Senate Ethics complaint against Larry Craig, a member of their own Party.

So last Saturday Sen. Craig announced his retirement from the Senate, to be effective September 30.

Or so we thought.

Apparently Sen. Craig only announce his intent to resign at the end of September, and as Sen. Specter points out on FOX News, an 'intent to resign' can be withdrawn.

Go see the video at Talking Points Memo for what Paul Harvey used to call "The rest of the Story." Josh Marshall has some really good Washington insider background data for you in the video.

Sen. Craig may have decided to unresign, but he is up for reelection in 2008 in Idaho. It will be interesting to see if he even enters the primary race for his own seat. Or if he does, how the Idaho Republican Party will treat him.

What can I say? I really enjoy watching Republicans boil one of their own in oil. It's more fun when the victim fights back, too.