Romney links Craig with Bill Clinton

Mitt Romney, trying to distance himself from a depraved Larry Craig, a fellow Republican who had endorsed him, compared the scandal to those occurring during Bill Clinton's Presidency:

In his interview on CNBC's Kudlow & Company (which will air later this afternoon), Mitt Romney had some sharp words for Sen. Larry Craig, who had endorsed the former Massachusetts governor's presidential campaign and was his Idaho chairman. "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. Very disappointing. He's no longer associated with my campaign, as you can imagine... I'm sorry to see that he has fallen short."

And Romney also included this jab at Bill Clinton as he continued to talk about Craig: "I think it reminds us of Mark Foley and Bill Clinton. I think it reminds us of the fact that people who are elected to public office continue to disappoint, and they somehow think that if they vote the right way on issues of significance or they can speak a good game, that we'll just forgive and forget. And the truth of the matter is, the most important thing we expect from elected--an elected official is a level of dignity and character that we can point to for our kids and our grandkids, and say, `Hey, someday I hope you grow up and you're someone like that person.' And we've seen disappointment in the White House, we've seen it in the Senate, we've seen it in Congress. And frankly, it's disgusting."

As for Craig, his protests of innocence don't seem to be impressing anyone:

In a highly unusual move, the entire Senate Republican leadership team issued a statement minutes before Craig's press conference complaining that none of them were told of Craig's legal troubles until yesterday. Craig issued a statement Monday confirming his arrest and guilty plea, which were first reproted in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. The GOP senators asked the Ethics Committee to investigate the matter, vowing to consider other punitive sanctions.

"This is a serious matter," Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and three other elected GOP leaders said in their joint statement. "Due to the reported and disputed circumstances, and the legal resolution of this serious case, we will recommend that Senator Craig's incident be reported to the Senate Ethics Committee for its review. In the meantime, leadership is examining other aspects of the case to determine if additional action is required."