Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) “resigned tonight as Senate co-chairman for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, within hours after news broke of Craig’s guilty plea to disorderly conduct after an incident in a men’s bathroom.” Conservative blogger and radio host Hugh Hewitt called on Craig to resign from the Senate. “Craig’s behavior is so reckless and repulsive that an immediate exit is required,” Hewitt wrote.

UPDATE: The Romney campaign had earlier redacted a video clip of Craig praising Romney. See it here.

Raw Story does a review of the conservative blogosphere’s reaction to the Gonzales resignation and finds “there is precious little love lost for the departing AG.” RedState writes, “I am not sorry to see AGAG go.” Andy McCarthy at the National Review writes the “resignation was overdue,” and Captain’s Quarters adds that Gonzales’ attorney scandal “has been a royal embarrassment.”

Rep. Jon Porter (R-NV) on his distaste for blogs:

Asked if he supports a federal shield law for the press, he said he did. However, the problem is how to protect legitimate reporters when there are web logs, “blogs,” whose authors can defame and lie with impunity because they can be anonymous and don’t have to worry about the facts.

“I would like to strengthen the legitimate news sources. I’m very concerned about blogs and even some radio. They can hide behind a shield law but they are not legitimate news sources,” the congressman said.

During his first of eight stops in town he spoke to the Laughlin Rotary Club and pointed out the danger of blogs.

Porter said during the course of a day he reads an average of four newspapers.

Hilarious as it is to learn that Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) got arrested in June in Minneapolis for “lewd conduct,” I’m actually pretty puzzled by the legal issues in play here:

“At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area,” the report states.

Craig then proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times, and Karsnia noted in his report that “I could … see Craig had a gold ring on his ring finger as his hand was on my side of the stall divider.”

Karsnia then held his police identification down by the floor so that Craig could see it.

Now, common sense indicates that the officer in question is correct and Craig’s foot-tapping was a cruising signal, but surely tapping one’s foot isn’t a crime in Minnesota. Whatever Craig intended to do here, he doesn’t seem, in fact, to have done anything lewd. I suppose that Craig, wanting to keep this whole thing hushed up, wouldn’t have wanted to fight the charges, but it’s still hard to see how he could have imagined that it wouldn’t come out sooner or later.

Here’s a history of gay life in Idaho.

Roll Call reports today that Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport for “lewd conduct” in a men’s public restroom. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to “misdemeanor disorderly conduct. He “paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation.” The arresting officer’s report explains:

My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall. From my seated position, I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig seated to the left of me. [...]

At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area.

UPDATE: Larry Craig called Bill Clinton “a bad boy, a naughty boy” in 1999.