By Todd Dvorak

A.P. writer

BOISE, Idaho—Larry Craig was already considering retirement from a long career of serving Idaho in Congress, repeatedly telling loyal Republicans he’d share his plans later this month on whether he would seek another Senate term.

The 62-year-old conservative never got that chance.

Craig’s career came to an abrupt and in many ways disgraceful end five days after reports of his arrest in June by a plainclothes officer investigating lewd behavior in an airport men’s room.

After days of embarrassing media coverage, condemnation from colleagues and a glaring lack of support from the White House, Craig’s abrupt and unceremonious exit Sept. 1 was sealed as much by his own mistakes as by a Republican Party with little stomach for another dose of scandal.

“He has to take some of the responsibility,” said Jim Weatherby, a professor emeritus at Boise State University who has known Craig since they were students in the 1960s at the University of Idaho in Moscow.

“But I don’t think he deserved the harsh treatment from national Republicans who pushed him off the stage for their own political purposes,” he said. “It’s all just so shocking how quickly he fell.”

In Boise, Craig apologized for a tabloid-style story that put Idaho in the unfamiliar glow of the national spotlight. Flanked by his wife, family and Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, Craig said he no longer wanted to be a distraction to the state and nation and would resign at the end of the month. It was a far different tone from his only other public appearance about the matter, when he defiantly resisted calls to step aside and explained that he overreacted in pleading guilty to the misdemeanor.

“Few people have had the privilege and the pleasure to represent Idaho for as many years as I have,” Craig said against the distant backdrop of the Idaho Statehouse, where his political career began in the state senate at age 29.

“I hope you do not regret the confidence you have placed in me over all of these years,” he said.

Public forgiveness and Craig’s future in life after politics remains to be seen.

But few can argue about the imprint Craig left on Idaho and the party.

His conservative streak mirrored much of the state, enabling him to coast to his last Senate victory in 2002 with 65 percent of the vote. He used his clout on the Senate Appropriations Committee to deliver federal money for Idaho ranchers, farmers and rural communities and secure millions of dollars for the Idaho National Laboratories in eastern Idaho.

Despite the resume and reputation as an honest and earnest lawmaker, Craig was never able to avoid the nagging questions and rumors about his sexuality. And his outspoken opposition to gay-rights and same-sex-marriage amendments simply fanned the flames that ignited when reports surfaced of his arrest and subsequent guilty plea from a Minneapolis airport men’s room sex sting operation. Craig declared three times he was not gay, assertions some say fueled even more unwelcome scrutiny of his private life.

“I think (the guilty plea) is what really paralyzed him in terms of making an effective response to all of this,” Weatherby said. “This arrest and his pleading guilty seemed to give credence to all of the rumors.”

The swift and harsh response from former colleagues on Capitol Hill didn’t help, either. President Bush refused chances to lend support. Senate Republican leaders, including GOP presidential contender John McCain, decried the incident, using terms such as “disgusting” and “unforgivable.”

The message from the Beltway was clear: His exit couldn’t come soon enough.

But that hasty abandonment came before many Idaho Republicans had a chance to fully grasp the implications of Craig’s predicament. From the start, the response unfolded at two very different speeds, leaving Craig’s vast support network in county and regional GOP committees with little say about the fate of their senior senator.

“It was really the reaction of the Republican leadership in the Senate that struck me,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at Richmond University and a lawyer who lived in Montana for 23 years.

“In essence, everything was taken out of the hands of the local people who elected him,” he said. “I think people in Idaho could very well feel resentful toward Washington and the leadership there. People in the West like to control their own destiny…and they may at the ballot box in 2008.”

Yet in the end, Craig denied himself the chance to leave on his own terms, forced from the political stage with a mix of gratitude and regret.

“I choose to serve because I love Idaho. What is best for Idaho has always been the focus of my efforts, and it is no different today,” Craig said. “I apologize for what I have caused. I am deeply sorry.”