Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) reportedly received a “round of applause” from his GOP colleagues today at the weekly conference lunch, his “first meeting with them since the sex scandal that cost him his leadership position.” “All I can say for sure is that it [Ensign's speech] was very, very sincere, very heartfelt and very well received in our caucus,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), who was at the meeting. Ensign’s welcome is similar to the reaction Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) received, when “he was welcomed back to a closed Republican Senate luncheon with a loud standing ovation” after admitting his involvement with an escort service run by the DC Madam. However, Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) — who faced charges of “lewd” sexual conduct in a men’s public restroom — faced calls to resign.

Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) will not be allowed to withdraw his 2007 guilty plea to “disorderly conduct after he was arrested last year in a bathroom at Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport by an undercover policeman.” The court ruled that Craig’s rights had not been violated and that his guilty plea was “accurate, voluntary and intelligent.” Additionally, the “court upheld the government’s power to ban ‘sexual solicitations’ in a public restroom, rejecting Craig’s claim that the law violates freedom of expression.” Craig issued a statement of his displeasure in response.

In court papers filed today, a Minneapolis prosecutor urged the court to deny Sen. Larry Craig’s (R-NV) efforts to escape his guilty plea. Denying Craig’s motion “prevents further politicking and game playing on the part of the defendant in relation to his plea,” the prosecutor wrote. Craig clearly “had hoped that he could plead guilty and that the plea would not be discovered by the media or public,” he wrote. “The defendant’s current pursuit of withdrawal of his guilty plea is reactionary, calculated and political.”