Democratic fundraiser arrested in Colorado

Disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu was arrested in Colorado late Thursday after a federal judge in California issued an arrest warrant Wednesday when he failed to show up for a court appearance related to a felony theft conviction.

FBI agents took Hsu into custody at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., said an FBI spokesman.

Hsu had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to turn over his passport and ask a judge to cut in half the $2 million bail he posted last week when he turned himself in after spending 15 years on the lam from a felony theft conviction.

Instead, Hsu failed to show up at the bail reduction hearing and fled. The California judge issued a new arrest warrant for him.

CRAIG REVERSES AGAIN

The political and personal drama of Sen. Larry Craig took another turn Thursday as a spokesman for the Idaho Republican said the senator has all but abandoned the notion of trying to finish his term.

"The most likely scenario, by far, is that by October there will be a new senator from Idaho," said Craig's chief spokesman, Dan Whiting.

Whiting said the senator would try to complete his term only if his guilty plea for disorderly conduct in connection with a sex sting can be voided by Sept. 30 and if the Republican leadership agrees to restore Craig to the committee leadership posts from which he was recently ousted.

Legal experts have said Craig's chances of getting his guilty plea set aside are slim, and the senator's prospects of getting his committee posts back would seem all but impossible, given Republican leaders' anxiousness to see Craig exit public life.

It was not clear if Whiting's comments reflected a new sense of pessimism, or reality, by Craig, and what might have prompted the senator to shift his position since Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Craig took new steps to clear his name in Washington and in Minnesota, where he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. Craig's efforts, including a suggestion that he might not resign at the end of the month as he had announced, infuriated Republican Senate leaders who thought they had contained the political damage from his case.

Back to paper ballot?

Lawmakers have come full circle after devoting more money to high-tech voting machines following the 2000 election debacle in Florida. They now say a return to the paper trails of old is the key to an honest vote.

Legislation pending in the House would require a voter-verified paper ballot for every vote cast in national elections beginning with the November 2008 ballot. It also would require random audits in federal elections and specifies that the paper ballot is the vote of record in all recounts and audits.

Public confidence in the voting process is at an all-time low, said Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., the bill's chief sponsor. "I shudder to think what would happen with another election where millions of Americans don't believe the results," Holt said.

But his bill has been hit by a barrage of criticism from state and local election officials and election machine makers who contend the timelines are unrealistic, the audit process is overly cumbersome, the reliance on paper is too restrictive and the money allotted to replace existing systems, $1 billion, is insufficient.

NEWS SERVICES