The office of Mike Crapo would like the three-term Republican senator to be known for his work on the powerful banking committee, for his participation as a member of the Gang of Eight on big-budget concerns and for his efforts to resolve a decades-old land management issue in Idaho’s Owyhee County.
Instead, Crapo (pronounced CRAY-poe) has entered the public’s consciousness as the Mormon senator who drank vodka tonics alone in his Capitol Hill apartment on the night of Dec. 22, climbed into a 1999 white Jeep and took a half-hour drive past the monuments and into Alexandria, where he ran a red light and then scored a 0.11 on a breath test. His arresting officer noted bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and an odor of alcohol. . .