WASHINGTON - Political support eroded significantly Wednesday for a Republican senator caught up in a sex scandal when three fellow Republicans in the U.S. Congress called for his resignation and party leaders pushed him from senior committee posts.

Senator Larry Craig "represents the Republican party,'' said Representative Pete Hoekstra, the first Republican member of Congress to urge a resignation.

The White House expressed disappointment and nary a word of support for the 62-year-old legislator, who pleaded guilty earlier this month to a charge stemming from an undercover police operation in an airport men's room.

His is the latest in a series of scandals involving Republicans that threaten to further tarnish the party's reputation. Polls showed that ethical lapses by Republicans played a role in allowing Democrats to win control of Congress during last year's legislative elections.

Now Republicans are trying to curb the power of the new Democratic majority in Congress and generate some enthusiasm for Republican candidates in the 2008 elections at a time when a Republican president, George W. Bush, is at a record low in public opinion polls, mainly due to his handling of the war in Iraq.

Craig recanted his guilty plea on Tuesday, and said he had committed no wrongdoing. He said he has only recently retained a lawyer to advise him in the case that threatened to bring an ignominious end to a lifetime in public office.

Senators Norm Coleman and John McCain, a presidential candidate, joined Hoekstra in urging Craig to step down.

"Senator Craig pled guilty to a crime involving conduct unbecoming a senator,'' said Coleman in a written statement.

McCain spoke out on an interview with CNN television. "My opinion is that when you plead guilty to a crime, you shouldn't serve. That's not a moral stand. That's not a holier-than-thou. It's just a factual situation.''

For a second consecutive day, Republican Senate leaders stepped in, issuing a statement that said Craig had "agreed to comply with leadership's request'' to step down temporarily as the top Republican on the Veterans Affairs Committee as well as two appropriations panels.

"This is not a decision we take lightly, but we believe this is in the best interest of the Senate until this situation is resolved by the ethics committee,'' said the statement, issued in the name of Mitch McConnell, the party leader in the Senate, and others.

For their part, Democrats studiously avoided involvement with an unfolding Republican scandal.

"We at least ought to hear his side of the story,'' said Senator Christopher Dodd, like McCain a presidential contender who spoke on CNN.

"I am not gay. I never have been gay,'' Craig said on Tuesday, but that stood in apparent contradiction to the police report that led to his guilty plea, submitted on Aug. 1.

Craig was arrested on June 11 in the Minneapolis airport men's room after an undercover officer observed conduct that he said was "often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct.''

Craig was read his rights, fingerprinted and required to submit to a mug photo shot at the time of his arrest.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, and signed papers that included a notation that the court would not accept a guilty plea from anyone claiming to be innocent.

In his public appearance on Tuesday, Craig said he had "overreacted and made a poor decision'' after being apprehended.