Last week's Question of the Week asked readers whether politicians and the media have been too hard on Sen. Larry Craig. Most did not.

Among 474 responses to this unscientific poll, 305 said leaders of Craig's party and the meadia have not been too hard on the senator. Just 169 disagreed.

Some readers' comments:

- No. Larry Craig has shown himself to be a hypocrite when it comes to issues of morality and ethics. Craig represents just that kind of politician that we need to extricate from our government. In his case, his party acted swiftly, as it should have.

- I have been watching all the media on this poor Idaho senator. I feel sorry for him. OK, he's not too bright, but he didn't deserve to be crucified either. The politicians and holy people feel they are the judges in our country. Well, guess what, folks, you're not. That poor man screwed up. I know, he was one of the loudest in D.C. speaking out against gays. So now he is eating his words. I feel for his family. Who among us is perfect? It's the most imperfect ones that yell the loudest.

- If anything, it has not been hard enough. Not because of his private life, but because of the fact that he used his status as senator as a platform to denigrate gays and acts of adultery in the name of family values, while at the same time indulging in the same acts himself. This is hypocrisy at its highest level. Speaking as a lifelong Republican, I believe the Republican Party took a wrong turn when it began using religion and ethics as a leading political point on its party platform. I believe strongly that religion is a personal thing between God and an individual and should not be politicized.

- When you (and your party) claim to be the sole arbiters of moral conduct, it is difficult to elicit sympathy when you are caught violating the very moral code you want to legislate on the rest of us. When will conservative Christians wake up to the continuing hypocrisy of those they keep voting into office?

- How would the media and his party have treated Sen. Craig if he had been arrested for driving under the influence? I believe a DUI to be a much more potentially serious situation, endangering innocent people. Seems to me the restroom situation, "toe tapping and hand signals," are not appropriate public behavior and evidently not legal, but I do not see where the public at large was in danger -- only the senator's reputation. Compare this to the situation in Iraq where we were duped into a war -- innocent young people being killed and maimed daily. Do the politicians responsible for that situation get the same treatment that Sen. Craig received? Let's keep things in perspective, please.