One of Sen. Larry Craig’s lawyers, Stanley Brand, has said the Senate has no business looking into the conduct of one of its own following Craig’s guilty plea in connection with an airport men’s room sex sting.
An unbroken line of precedents dating back 220 years makes clear the Senate does not consider misdemeanor private conduct to be a fit subject of inquiry.
“We ought to seek to have the committee dismiss this outright,� Brand said of a Senate ethics panel’s investigation. “The Republican leadership called for an ethics investigation that had nothing to do with his office.�
So let me get this straight. Conduct having nothing to do with one’s official office and duties are not to be investigated or even looked at, even when the senator pleads guilty? So we as taxpayers have no right to know what our elected officials, who are on our payroll, are doing?
I thought that all the senators, regardless of party affiliation, voted on laws that affect all Americans, not just one party’s Americans. So, if this were a Democrat, would the Senate Ethics Committee have the duty to look into the acts of a senator? Just curious.
— Carolyn Crandall, Camarillo
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