Woops ... Congressman Closes Briefcase, Goes Home
The Washington Post:
Rep. Chris Lee (R-N.Y.) resigned from the House Wednesday evening effective immediately, an announcement that came just hours after a Web site reported that the married congressman had sent a shirtless image of himself to a woman he met on Craigslist. [more below the image]Several newspapers are describing Lee as "anti-gay," and that is somehow not surprising. If he follows the standard script, there will be some embarrassing stuff with his wife and then he will beg the public for forgiveness, he will want us to overlook his faults and see his essential goodness. There will be no use of the word irony in the news coverage.
"I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents," Lee said in a statement announcing his resignation. "I deeply and sincerely apologize to them all. I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness."
Lee's decision to vacate his Upstate New York seat came after Gawker, a gossip Web site, posted the shirtless image and what it said was correspondence between him and a 34-year-old woman.
The woman, who Gawker described as a 34-year-old government employee from Maryland but did not name, told the gossip site she posted an ad last month on the "Women for Men" forum seeking "financially & emotionally secure" men who don't "look like toads." That same day, she got a response from a person who said his name was Christopher Lee, describing himself as 39-year-old lobbyist, "a very fit fun classy guy. Live in Cap Hill area. 6ft 190lbs blond/blue." In follow-up e-mails he attached photos -- one in a blue polo, the other shirtless.
Lee, who is married and has one child, was elected to the 26th district in 2008 and easily re-elected in 2010. His resignation will trigger a special election in a district Arizona Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) won with 52 percent of the vote in 2008. New York Rep. Chris Lee resigns from the House
posted by JimK at 8:42 PM
7 Comments:
who cares
?
Thanks for stopping by to read and comment on this post, "Anonymous!"
This is just the kind of guy conservatives want to "preserve the sanctity of marriage" for.
What a shining example for our youth.
Or was he just perhaps "redefining" marriage?
Have a nice day,
Cynthia
As surprised as I am, I have to admit I agree with Anon as well as Cynthia. So another GOP congressman has been found to be "flirting" behind his wife's back, so what? Who cares?
That's not news, it's the same old GOP who works to preserve the sanctity of marriage AND the freedom to pursue happiness!
Salon reports What the right won't admit about Reagan: What happens when a caller confronts Rush Limbaugh with the Gipper's actual record
There was a telling exchange "on Rush Limbaugh's program last week. Presumably by decoying Limbaugh's screeners, whose job it is to prevent the host from being confronted by anybody who knows what they're talking about, liberal blogger Mike Stark got through.
Stark said that he couldn't understand why conservatives idolize Ronald Reagan. He listed his reasons: "Instead of privatizing Social Security," Stark said, "he raised taxes. We're all paying higher taxes today out of our paychecks every single week because he decided to save Social Security."
Talking over Limbaugh's constant interruptions, he continued. "The Greenspan Commission. He signed it into law, and it raised taxes on Social Security."
"What?" Limbaugh blustered. "Wait, you're talking about Reagan or Clinton?"
"I'm talking about Reagan. Reagan did that. He raised taxes on Social Security. He negotiated with terrorists, sending -- over and over again -- arms to Iran in exchange for hostages."
That would be the Iran-Contra scandal that probably would have ended in Reagan's impeachment had he been a Democrat.
Stark went on: Reagan (humanely) gave amnesty to millions of undocumented aliens. When terrorists bombed U.S. Marine headquarters in Beirut, killing 283 Americans, he (wisely) pulled out of Lebanon's civil war.
"He's a tax-raiser, an amnesty-giver, a cut-and-runner, and he negotiated with terrorists," Stark continued. "Why is he a hero to conservatives?"
Limbaugh was beside himself. "Where did you get this silly notion that Reagan raised taxes on Social Security? What websites do you read? Where did you pick that up?"
"Look up the Greenspan Commission," Stark advised. "It's not too hard to find. It's a matter of history."
He's right. Reagan increased payroll taxes in 1983. History records that, alarmed by spiraling deficits, he signed tax increases during six of his eight years in office. Even so, his administration tripled the national debt, to almost $3 trillion.
Consistent with the GOP's faith-based War on Arithmetic, his acolyte Dubya then redoubled the debt to $10.4 trillion, leaving a $1.4 trillion yearly deficit.
Note to the Tea Party: Had President Clinton's tax policies remained in place since 2001, the national debt GOP politicians pretend to agonize over would no longer exist.
But Stark never got that far, because Limbaugh hit the mute button, then delivered a lengthy soliloquy about how liberals can't be reasoned with, only defeated. Is there a bigger faker in American life?
"Ronald Reagan," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has ruefully observed, "would have a hard time getting elected as a Republican today."
There's no doubt about it."
oh, he'd be elected
between 1980 and 1992, the U.S. boomed due to Reaganomics
in foreign policy, he turned arms limitation talks into arms reduction talks and psyched out the Soviet Union with Star Wars
Mister, we could use a man like Ronald Reagan again
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