By Bart Jansen, CQ Staff

Senate Republicans seemed really ticked at colleague Larry E. Craig last fall, what with his hush-hush arrest and guilty plea. But they didn’t cut him out of the club.

Three weeks after the Idaho Republican announced his intention to resign, his re-election committee got $11,645 from a special PAC set up with the help of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).

The check was cut on Sept. 25, but his colleagues could not have expected him to use the money to run again. Craig changed his mind in October about resigning but still said he wouldn’t seek re-election in 2008.

The money was Craig’s share of a golf fundraiser held in June — same month as his misdemeanor arrest and two months before the incident was disclosed.

By handing over the money, his colleagues kept their end of a fundraising bargain. Funds from the event moved through a PAC called 2007 Senators’ Classic Committee, to 19 senators whose terms end this year.

The committee reported raising $825,900 through Dec. 31. Participating senators took in as much as $20,795 (to golf outing sponsor John W. Warner , R-Va.) and as little as $6,147 (to Lindsey Graham , R-S.C.).

The NRSC helped organize the Classic Committee and handles some of the PAC’s accounting, said NRSC spokeswoman Rebecca Fisher. Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who heads the NRSC, had been among the leading voices calling on Craig to leave the Senate last fall.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Norm Coleman of Minnesota and John E. Sununu of New Hampshire — all of whom participated in the Classic Committee — also called on Craig to resign.

Republican leaders requested an Ethics Committee investigation of Craig in August, shortly after learning that the Idaho Republican had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

The case had been initiated by an undercover police officer who interpreted some of Craig’s actions in an airport restroom as a solicitation for sex.

Craig said he would resign but later decided to stay in the Senate and try to withdraw the guilty plea. He is appealing a court’s refusal to let him do that.

The Ethics Committee on Wednesday admonished Craig for his actions and chastised him for failing to seek permission before he used campaign money for his legal defense — more than $213,000 so far.

“You should also take careful note that the committee will consider any further use of your campaign funds for legal expenses without the committee’s approval to be conduct demonstrating your continuing disregard of ethics requirements,” the six-member panel wrote.

Craig brushed off a question about whether he will seek the committee’s permission. “That’s already been written about,” he said.