WASHINGTON - US Senator Larry Craig, who resigned after being arrested for allegedly soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom, may reconsider that decision if cleared of the charge, media reported Tuesday.
Craig plans to resign on September 30 but "he is fighting these charges and should he be cleared before then, he may -- I emphasize may -- not resign," CNN news quoted the Idaho senator's spokesman Dan Whiting as saying.
Craig, who represented the western state of Idaho for 27 years on Capitol Hill, announced on Saturday he was resigning after being caught in a sting by an undercover policeman at the airport in Minneapolis in June. The officer said Craig had used a series of gestures to invite a sexual encounter.
The resignation announcement was encouraged by national Republican leaders, worried that the scandal would taint all candidates belonging to the socially conservative party in the 2008 election cycle. Their party has been plagued by a series of sex and corruption scandals over the past year.
Despite having pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor misconduct charge for which he was fined and received a year's probation, Craig said he was not gay and had made the plea in order to hush the matter up.
He has since hired lawyers to try and cancel the guilty plea, CNN said.
rlp/bm
09/05/2007 03:25 GMT