Complaint filed with Senate

29 Aug 2007 // Disorderly conduct by a U.S. senator might also be improper conduct under the Senate’s code of ethics, a Washington, D.C., group said Tuesday.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Senate ethics committee, calling for an investigation of whether Sen. Larry Craig’s actions in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, and his subsequent guilty plea to a charge of disorderly conduct, violate the Senate’s Rules of Conduct.

Republican leaders also called for an ethics committee review of the incident, although they didn’t specifically accuse Idaho’s senior senator of violating any rules.
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“This is a serious matter,” a statement signed by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and others said, according to a report from the Associated Press. The statement neither supported nor criticized Craig, and GOP senators said they were examining “other aspects of the case to determine if additional action is required.”

The Senate Ethics Manual has prohibitions against unethical and improper conduct “even though such conduct may not necessarily have violated any written law,” CREW President Melanie Sloan wrote to ethics committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer of California and ranking Republican John Cornyn of Texas. But in this case, Craig has already pleaded guilty and been judged to have broken a criminal law in Minnesota.

“As a result, the Select Committee on Ethics should investigate the matter and consider whether Sen. Craig’s conduct violates the Senate rule prohibiting improper conduct which reflects upon the Senate,” she wrote.

Sloan said the Senate has disciplined other members for violating the prohibition against improper conduct that reflects upon the Senate, for such things as converting campaign funds to personal use or improper financial dealings. In 1995, Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., was expelled for repeated sexual misconduct, she noted. (In fact, Packwood resigned under threat of expulsion.)

But the ethics committee could also criticize or admonish Craig in lieu of a more serious punishment, she added.

“At the very least, the committee should issue a public statement criticizing the senator’s conduct,” Sloan wrote.