It must be terribly frustrating for the Senate Republican leadership, knowing there's not much they can do to force embattled Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) to go away.

The party can take away his committee assignments, but that's already happened and it didn't have much of an effect. Officials can withhold re-election campaign funds next year, but in Craig's case, that probably won't matter. Republican leaders can pretend he doesn't exist, stop returning his calls, and no longer let him sit at the cool kids' table in the Senate dining room, but Craig seems immune to peer pressure at this point.

GOP leaders do have one tool left -- an ethics committee investigation -- and the party will apparently use it to make Craig absolutely miserable.

Worried that the disgraced lawmaker intends to remain in the Senate indefinitely, they are threatening to notch up the public humiliation by seeking an open ethics hearing on the restroom scandal that enveloped Craig last month.

The Senate hearing would examine the original charges in Craig's case, including the allegation of "interference with privacy," for peeping into the bathroom stall occupied by an undercover police officer. One senior Republican aide imagined "witnesses, documents, all in front of the klieg lights." The committee also could look for "a pattern of conduct" -- which means combing court records in other locales to discover whether Craig had prior arrests that haven't come to light.

What do you suppose the chances are Craig has faced related, still-unknown charges elsewhere?

Mcjoan has more, including some analysis on what to expect from next year's Senate race in Idaho, whether Craig is on the ballot or not.