Presidential-Race.net

Cited from the post of John Dickerson at Slate, posted Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007, at 5:50 PM ET

After hearing about Larry Craig’s arrest, Mitt Romney ran from his former Idaho campaign chairman as if he’d been in the next stall. "Once again, we’ve found people in Washington have not lived up to the level of respect and dignity that we would expect for somebody that gets elected to a position of high influence," the former Massachusetts governor told Larry Kudlow on Tuesday. "He’s no longer associated with my campaign, as you can imagine."

What a political colleague – with friends like this who needs enemies (or the press)?

At least most of Craig’s Senate colleagues demurred, saying they wanted to see all the facts before commenting. They might have been acting out of loyalty or might have wanted to avoid the topic of bathroom sex altogether. Not Romney, who showed no such reticence and linked Craig—who denies he did anything improper—to Bill Clinton and Mark Foley, and the larger culture of corruption in Washington. As soon as the Craig story broke, the Romney campaign restricted access to Craig’s video endorsement on YouTube, in which the Idaho Senator praises Romney for his "very strong family values." Romney’s spokesman said they yanked the video because they didn’t want Craig’s troubles to become a "distraction." But when Romney later sermonized against Craig to make a sweeping judgment about Washington, he was hardly avoiding the subject.

Candidates treat endorsers-gone-bad the way Soviet leaders handled purged rivals: erase them from photos and never speak of them again. John McCain did this when the Florida co-chairman of his campaign was also arrested for soliciting sex in a bathroom. So did Rudy Giuliani when his South Carolina chairman was indicted for distributing coke.

The full story can be read in its entirety by selecting this link.

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