A married US congressman has resigned after a half-naked picture and emails that he sent to a woman he met on the internet were published online.
Chris Lee, a Republican who has represented a northwestern district of New York for the past two years, announced he was quitting just three hours after details of his extramarital liaison emerged…
The picture of Mr Lee was published on Wednesday by Gawker, the New York gossip website. The congressman had sent it to a woman appealing for contact on Craigslist, the classified listings site.
In her Craigslist posting, the woman asked for respondents to come forward and prove that not all men were “toads.” In his reply, Mr Lee wrote: “Hi, Hope I’m not a toad
”
An email exchange between Mr Lee and the woman, who was not named, was also published. The congressman had claimed to be a 39-year-old divorced lobbyist and described himself as a “fit fun classy guy”.
Asked by the 34-year-old woman “so do you always send shirtless pics to women from [Craigslist]?“, Mr Lee responded: “Sorry. It’s all I had”. She replied: “I was only joking”.
The pair then exchanged stories about previous dates. It is unclear whether they met. The woman is said to have cut off contact when she searched the internet for Mr Lee and discovered his true identity.
Proving that a congressman can be as dumb as a high school sophomore who just discovered sexting.
#18
Democrats:
Fred Richmond. This New York Democrat was arrested in 1978 for soliciting sex from a 16-year-old. He remained in Congress and won re-election—before eventually resigning in 1982 after pleading guilty to tax evasion and drug possession.
Gerry Studds. He was censured for sexual relationship with underage male page in 1983. Massachusetts voters returned him to office for six more terms.
Gary Hart (1988): Affair with model Donna Rice.
Barney Frank (1989): Affair with male prostitute, who also conducted business in Frank’s home.
Gus Savage. The Illinois Democrat was accused of fondling a Peace Corps volunteer in 1989 while on a trip to Africa. The House Ethics Committee decided against disciplinary action in 1990.
Mel Reynolds (1994): Sexual relationship with 16-year-old campaign volunteer.
Rep. Mel Reynolds. The Illinois Democrat was convicted of 12 counts of sexual assault with a 16-year-old. President Bill Clinton pardoned him before leaving office.
Bill Clinton (1998): Affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.
Gary Condit (2001): Affair with (murdered) intern Chandra Levy.
Neil Goldschmidt (2004): Admitted to having a relationship with a 14-year-old girl in the 1970s.
Roosevelt Dobbins (2005): Congressman form Arkansas, pleaded guilty to fondling a 16-year-old.
Gavin Newsom (2007): Affair with the wife of a top aide.
Eliot Spitzer (2008): Involved in prostitution scandal.
John Edwards (2008): Had an affair with a campaign employee while running for President.
Kwame Kilpatrick (2008): Text messaging sex scandal
You are absolutely right, mextli: Democrats can be cheating slimeballs too.
But you still miss the point. Democrats typically don’t make holier than thou proclamations about “family values” a central part of their platform.
A politician who cheats on his wife is an asshole. A politician who runs on a platform of morality, christianity and family values is a hypocritical asshole. There is a difference.
When you make it your business to tell other people how to live, you should make sure your own house is in order first.
#61
“When you make it your business to tell other people how to live, you should make sure your own house is in order first.”
I agree 100% and the “scandals” are easily found on both sides.
Was trying to place it, this guy looks like former Democratic Party Chairman and megafundraiser who bankrolled the Clinton’s house in New York, Terry McAuliffe.
tcc3,
YUP!!! There is a difference.
The more obvious point you miss is the Democrats tend to rationalize or defend bad behavior for members within their own ranks.
The Republicans ask for their members to resign if they don’t already do so if they should go off the beaten path.
I’d rather they just stop claiming moral superiority. Several posters above claimed he was a good Representative and they would have voted for him anyway.
It only becomes more than embarrassment / bad pr when your political platform is based on holding the moral highground.
Its time we stopped voting for people based on (often faked) family values positions and started paying attention to real issues.
Evidently too many of you PUKES don’t understand what the concept of “hypocrisy” is.
Defined: a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.
So, when Barney Frank has voluntary sex with another adult male there is no hypocrisy. When, pick your own favorite from a dozen PUKES, does the same thing after winning an election based on outlawing same sex marriage, there is, I know its difficult for you retards to get this: a “difference.”
Should the sex lives of our Pols make any difference?===No. Are the laws they pass/try to pass in Congress relevant?==Yes.
complicated, I know, but work on it.
Stan: Oh man, I feel like a total choad.
Cartman: Aw, come on Stan. Maybe that’s just because you look like a total choad.
To all you liberal leftist loons: No hypocrisy from the dems dare you say????
Eliot Spitzer (2008): Involved in prostitution scandal.
From wikipedia:
“In addition to prosecutions and civil actions in the financial sector, Spitzer has pursued cases in both state and federal courts involving pollution, entertainment, technology, prostitution…”
Um, all politicians are scum. Period.
#54 You went to Harpers Magazine for analysis of Christ’s teachings?
Christ did not teach redistribution of wealth, pacificsm, abortion, etc etc.
Liberation theology is NOT scriptural.
#60 Well done, concise. The double standard is absurd, he shouldn’t have resigned.
He could have repented…and served his district with distinction…that would have redeemed his name.
Screw the left, when their propaganda press keeps harping on this, just bring up Clinton’s blow jobs disgracing the Presidency…etc…each and every time they attack…
Its like “beating them like an Egyptian…”
Hey, that should be counter to “walk like an Egyptian”…
I notice the media puts that this guy is a Republican to lead off the article, but when it’s a Democrat it tends to be left off or buried inside somewhere, just a minor bit of trivia that’s not important, but if it’s a Republican, the scandal tells you something about the whole party and the reader needs to know this fact.
#64 The Republicans ask for their members to resign if they don’t already do so if they should go off the beaten path.
Like Vitter the Shitter who had the prostitutes dress him up in diapers? Last time I checked he’s still in office.
Spitzer, who I thought was as close to solid gold as a politician could get was indeed a lying hypocrit–or not, depending on how you apply the definition. But when caught, he immediately resigned. Did make his wife stand there with him though—or, maybe he didn’t.
Did he run for office based on family values? I don’t know. Every “law officer” is charged with enforcing laws that they may personally agree with or not, violate or not. That is hypocrisy or not depending on how you apply the definition.
Blacksheep–about a month ago there was a long thread on societies without taxation. My view: LIEberTARDS were shown to be high school nerds living a life in the dark in their parents basement. The Tax = Slavery BS position is not worth the argument. I’ll take the conclusion from last time: grow up.
Alfred #69,
The author is a lifelong Christian, as he states in the article. Don’t decry the article because of its provenance. (Can anything good come from Nazareth?)
Second, although Christ did not blatantly advocate for organized wealth re-distribution, except specifically for the rich, young man, he did leave hints about helping those in need, which some have attempted to put into law. Even if Jesus meant this to be an individual’s responsibility and action, since our sense of neighbor has been widened because of tech, I hold it to mean the same for our sense of obligation.
For the rest of us…
…it is nigh impossible for each one to hold themselves to their own standards, much less to expect a successful outcome when we impose those standards on others; especially when the others don’t know they have been so imposed!
#74–revdjenk==a quibble when you say “it is nigh impossible for each one to hold themselves to their own standards..” /// In the main that is a false statement. In the main, “by definition” people DO follow their “own” standards. Thats the core of hypocrisy: pretending to have standards you actually don’t have. There is a “public/political” standard, and then there is “your own.”
Now, it is true that few of us are true to our own standards all the time. Errors are made, bad feelings created, the standards returned to or the lying continued.
Words. Does understanding words a little bit deeper than we normally do help explain life at all or not at all?
Words. Can we “think” without words or merely stumble? Once words are formed, do they prevent more nuanced understandings? How many dictionaries should the average person own/use? See above where I used the word “prevent”? Well, it didn’t stop my thinking, and I thought it was too absolute. Probably more fair to say of “labels”. Label: a word used with the intent of terminating thinking. Heh, heh.
Once words are formed, do they “hinder” more nuanced understandings? Words: the very stuff of thinking.
Try it.
#74 Progressive wealth distribution schemes are not Christian because they are not voluntary charity, they are theft of wealth to redistribute it to many unworthy of charity as their poverty is self inflicted.
And progressive redistributive schemes don’t work as proved by the Trillions spent in a war on poverty to no effect.
Because dependency on the government dole is subtle slavery, its unchristian. Christ was not about making people dependent upon the Government dole…as His apostle Paul well knew:
If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. (2Th 3:10 NKJ)
Taxation is slavery as it requires time to accumulate wealth. For example, the average American works the first 3 months of the year for the Government = slavery.
Moreover Progressive redistribution schemes are tyranny as they require Government control of both the giver’s wealth and the recipient’s life style. Of course, millionaire progressives like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Watters etc, exempt themselves and their wealth from this control, via loopholes in the tax law or simply exempting themselves (and often their staff) from the laws they make for others to obey.
As for Jesus Christ, you have Him wrong, He commands all, rich and poor, to be free of every possible idol, and if that is money, as it was in the case of that rich man, then one must sell all they own:
33 “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. (Luk 14:33 NKJ)
In context the rich man’s idol, what he loved more than God Himself, was money:
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. (Mat 19:22-23 NKJ)
The US Constitution predicates our freedom form Government slavery, on the image of God in man.
We have inalienable rights by virtue of our creation by God, these are not given to us by the State, therefore the State cannot take them away.
That progressive hate.
Supreme court progressive Kagen argued Government has a right to skew free speech in its favor, to deny us free speech by corrupting that speech.
That is from the pit of hell.
Satan has always spoken through snakes (Gen 3:1).
So also the evil trinity of Pelos/Reid/Obama, their baby killing health care, which they exempted themselves and their staff from because they know how shitty it really is.
They could not make it a voluntary program because no one in their right mind would turn over their life, their health care, to bean counting Government bureaucrats, whose salary is increased when they cut costs. And when the Government controls it, there is no one to sue.
Progressive tyranny is from the pit of hell. Like the original satanic lie, the fruit looks good, but it hides a deadly core. History shows Stalin, Mao,..etc., didn’t start out as mass murderers, they believed they were creating a better world. But socialist theory is founded on false premises people will work as hard for others as they do for themselves.
They also have irrational view of wealth creation, it won’t happen in a socialist system.
Then as a progressive society destroys the producer class that creates wealth, it becomes prgressively poor. Then progressives blame the people for the failure of their programs, and begin killing them to coerce them to work harder, thinking that will create wealth. It does not.
Mao and Stalin killed millions trying to make socialism work, but no matter how many were killed, threatened, coerced to work harder, the working class does not create wealth. The producer class does, and they were killed off by socialism.
Progressive economic theory is from the pit of hell, like the first lie told to Eve, the fruit looks desirable, but its juices are death itself.
Like Death, progressive appetite for control is insatiable, and as CS Lewis wrote, the tyranny done for “our good” becomes truly unbearable:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.- C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock
Like all satanic lies, Christ would condemn progressive philosophy…its a false religion.
# 46 said:
He resigned because there is way more to this story than has been revealed.
———————————
Yes….. there is more.
In Washington DC the word on the street, is that the women is African American.
#50 Good theory.
#77 Not credible the propaganda press spare him anything, he is Republican.
#50 Likely has it right, he’s a chickenshit.
If he was a man, he would take his repent, take his punishment, but continue to serve as he was elected to do.
with distinction, tirelessly, to regain respect, his name.
To quit accomplishes nothing for him.
Republicans must lose their water when they get picked up by Gawker.