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Republicans Party

By Jay D. Homnick on 2.11.11 @ 6:07AM

Must they give us the shirt off their back?

There used to be only two kinds of political office in the United States, elective and appointive. The Republicans have invented the third kind: disappointive.

Less than a month into the tenure of the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives one of their rank-and-file was caught in rank behavior and filed his resignation. This despite the elaborate evasive action he took in trying to pick up women on the Internet by sending out a shirtless picture of himself. How could he have anticipated that people would still be able to identify him as a stuffed shirt?

The genius in question is a fellow named Chris Lee from upstate New York. He answered a want ad on Craig's List from a woman who sought -- get this -- a mature guy. Naturally, if you look for a mate wanting, your mate will be found wanting. But the broader question for the nation is whether the Republicans leave something to be desired -- leave something valuable, such as our trust, just to be desired in shallow ways.

Now I confess to having written this article once already, but it begs for a revisit. This is a critical moment in the evolution of our politics, and we can only survive with the fittest. This new bunch came to town with great promise of acuity and their moment should not be squandered on promiscuity. Keep the promise you made to the cutie you married and serve the people humbly, that's the advice they need to follow.

Ronald Reagan wrote his son, Michael, on his wedding day: "If you truly love a girl, you shouldn't ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors." There is nothing that needs to be added to that in terms of morality, personal loyalty, and even practicality.

After fifty-two years of living and observing life, I can tell you that the average of other women lags behind the average of wives in every area: looks, intelligence, social skills, personality, demeanor, not to mention achievement and dignity. As James Thurber wrote in the New York Times almost a century ago, the non-wife has two key virtues. She builds you up without challenging you and she can be unloaded with less consequence. All the things that voters used to do for Congressmen, in fact.

We are living in too important a time and our representatives in high office have been entrusted with too important a task. At this point, they cannot cheat on their wives without cheating on us, cheating on the country, cheating on the future. Somehow they have to find the strength to put aside the whims and the women. Park those fantasies off for future reference when you are cashing retirement checks and your sun visor is not reflecting back on the voters.

Look, this is a lot less easy than it sounds, I know. There is plenty of temptation anywhere, and it is only heightened by the junction of ambition and power that is Washington, the junction of ambition and money that is New York, the junction of ambition and beauty that is Hollywood. I am not judging Christopher Lee, not by a long shot. I am not trying to portray myself as a better person by one iota. My plea -- my hope -- is that the higher calling substitute for the lower urges. As Maimonides declared: "Sexual fantasy can only occupy a mind diverted from wisdom."

We are all human beings with a full complement of frailties. Still, it is possible, though not without great commitment, to devote ourselves to noble causes. This is more true at a time of national emergency. Guys, we are looking for mature people, fit and cheerful and goal-oriented, not given to deceiving themselves and others, people who take responsibility and address themselves to the long term. But we have been burnt too many times before.

About the Author

Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he performs his original composition, "Buy You (Bayou) a Drink".

Letter to the Editor View all comments (83) | Leave a comment

Appleby| 2.11.11 @ 6:42AM

You are expecting a man to keep his clothes on and think of something besides sex, when everything he sees and hears tells him that sex should be the total focus of life?

When every second commercial is for a product to disguise his gray hair and prop up his droopy wee-wee -- even commercials starring his two little daughters urging him to GettaGirlNow by using these products -- obviously the whole idea that there is more to life than sex has gone right down the memory hole.

Its all there in Aldous Huxleys *Brave New World* -- keep the folks boys and girls, focus them on sex, drugs, and entertainment (and tell them they NEED these things every day or they will DIE) and never give them any time or inclination to be alone with a good book and their thoughts -- and this is what you will get: an army of teenaged brats -- forever.

You wanted it: You got it.

canuckistani| 2.11.11 @ 7:42AM

When are we going to grow up and realize what happens in a man's bedroom, or mind, for that matter, with regards to sex is completely detached from his political and practical contributions to the state.
People are afraid to admit men can actually compartmentalize these acts.
My issue with Lee and others like him, is that they were elected on the false premise of social conservatism - like giving a lollipop to a baby, they use their faux morality to a) extort the GOP nomination and b) bamboozle the electorate that they are somehow fitter than they are in the quiet of their minds.
His ACU rating was second only to King in the NY caucus, he was doing his part. But the continued pandering to the pollyannas in the party leave the scortched earth we have now and Boehner and his cabal of idiots left with a hole in a yankee state.

Ryan| 2.11.11 @ 8:39AM

If a man is incapable of making good, simple, moral choices in his personal life - like NOT CHEATING ON YOUR WIFE, then he cannot be trusted to make good moral choices in government.

Morality cannot be compartmentalized.

PCC| 2.11.11 @ 9:01AM

So you say. Personally, I think your view is the kind of hypocritical moralising that led to the Salem witch trials, or their modern equivalent of preachers found in motel rooms with underage boys and girls.

PaulyD| 2.11.11 @ 9:14AM

Standard lame liberal straw-man argument. Lump it in with the conservatives don't believe in global warming so they must by Nazis trope.

So tiresome.

PaulyD| 2.11.11 @ 9:16AM

Correction: that would be "be Nazis"...

Ryan| 2.11.11 @ 2:10PM

Everyone is a hypocrite to their own ideals. The issue here is not being a complete idiot about it and stupidly acting on impulses.

Men should stay faithful to their wives. Period. Public office or not, that's the standard.

Occam's Tool| 2.11.11 @ 6:48PM

I wouldn't want a pedophile as my Congressman, either. One Gerry Stubbs was quite enough, thank you.

The greatest Roman emperors kept things fastened well there, as did our greatest Presidents and Generals, other than FDR. (Lincoln---Mary; Wahington---Martha, Reagan---mommy. Grant was also uxorious, as was Marshall ---and our greatest generals. I don't recall Marcus Aurelius fooling around, and Livia ran Augustus' life.)

Of course, Churchill was also quite faithful.

Pelligrino| 2.11.11 @ 12:44PM

Very well and succinctly presented. Thank you, Ryan.

Real men adhere to fundamental tenets like those expressed during the Promise Keepers rallies.

skip| 2.11.11 @ 2:01PM

That always bugged me about the Clinton Lewinsky affair.

Liberals argued his sex life had nothing to do with running the country.

I thought if the guy would lie and cheat to his spouse, who he vowed to be faithful to before friends, family, and God almighty, how in the world can you trust him to even grocery shop or take out the trash much less lead the nation. He has proven he is untrustworthy to his spouse but rest assured all us strangers can trust him?

Liberals are so unintelligent and dishonest it defies simple common sense.

Purpleguy| 2.12.11 @ 2:06AM

and yet, more Republicans are diminished by their own sexual proclivities. they don't practice what they preach and that's the difference.

axbucxdu| 2.12.11 @ 11:39AM

Yup, it's funny how the MSM prioritizes the use of their ink and air-time, ain't it? OTOH, the libs' principles are based on immorality, so their "foibles" are excused by default.

skip| 2.12.11 @ 2:53PM

and yet, one more post screaming of unintelligence and dishonesty from the poster whose moniker screams of sexual proclivities involving homosexual one way sewer pipe abominations.

and yet, all Republicans and all Democrats and all Libertarians and all Independents and all of the any other political affiliations have never practised what they preached without fail, yet more of those of the conservative bent have at least acknowledged this hypocrisy, while more of those of the liberal bent have pretended this hypocrisy doesn't even exist, and that's a monumental difference.

Ted| 2.11.11 @ 1:19PM

This is so true... Public morality is private morality writ large.

Honesty, integrity, and loyalty can not be only in one sphere of one's life. They are either throughout the whole, or they are absent.

Ted| 2.11.11 @ 1:20PM

This is so true... Public morality is private morality writ large.

Honesty, integrity, and loyalty can not be only in one sphere of one's life. They are either throughout the whole, or they are absent.

Alan Brooks| 2.11.11 @ 10:04AM

Canuckistani,
AS thinks only the wealthy can have a good time, it is hopeless for America. "As long as you don't get caught" is their slogan.
Everyone from Spiro Agnew to this mental midget Lee got caught; their mistake was getting caught. There are guys at AS who never got caught, and that is what counts, making sure their wives didn't know they were 'doing it' on business trips.

Publius2011| 2.13.11 @ 1:01PM

Alan is even more incoherent than usual. Thanks for playing, Alan.

Clint| 2.11.11 @ 10:14AM

The New Morality Is The Old Immorality Condoned.

Alan Brooks| 2.11.11 @ 10:50AM

The Services are a great place to 'do it'--
especially the Navy.
Why, you can get anything you want in the Navy-
anyONE.

Clint| 2.11.11 @ 1:47PM

Uh Oh !
Brooks Is Auditioning For The Village People.

You Go Girl!

skip| 2.11.11 @ 2:04PM

Bet his favorite was the cop.

Alan Brooks| 2.11.11 @ 2:23PM

Clint,
your impersonating bloggers at AS (Margie, me, perhaps others) was worse than what Lee did.

Clint| 2.11.11 @ 2:48PM

I got $1000.00 that says it wasn't me Brooks.

Someone is Punking You & laughing about You focusing on Me.

Alan Brooks| 2.11.11 @ 3:28PM

Then I apologize. Marge said she heard that it was you, but she doesn't blog here anymore so there's no way to know.

Anyway, my view of sex, any sex, is that is no big deal either way. And this imbecile Lee didn't even get to take his pants off in front of the camera-- he is a failure even just as an exhibitionist. Lee isn't a bad guy, he is merely a clown.

Clint| 2.11.11 @ 5:01PM

Thank You.

Carry On.

Alan Brooks| 2.11.11 @ 6:11PM

Lee-gate is 'harmless', like watching a bad TV show; think of it, Lee takes his shirt off (with a sh*t-eating look on his face) and now he'll end up writing a book about it:
"Baring My Soul, Layer By Layer"; then he will appear on Oprah to plug it. Hugh Hefner writes the preface. And Lee lives happily ever after.

Hypocracy| 2.14.11 @ 4:17PM

What really gets me is think what would happen if this guy was a liberal. He would lie, lie and the Demoncraps and media would circle the wagons and defend him until he gets Charlie Wrangel's post in the powerful "ways and means committee". How much of what Republicans have to go through that Demoncraps never see. Do you see a double-standard anywhere here?

Melvin| 2.11.11 @ 7:15AM

The Mrs. and I were musing the other day, and after many years of marriage, I have come to the conclusion that a person either has infidelity in them or they do not.
Many men and women seem unable to help themselves in straying, while many others can stay with each other till death do them part.
If I was to take a picture of myself the way that fool Congressman did, I would probably need an IMAX panoramic camera, and then it still would be dicey.
No greater sin to a marriage is infidelity. Most marriages can recover from money problems, family problems, and the other things that pull the fabric of marriage apart.
It all boils down to trust. If a person's wife or husband can trust them, then the constituents can trust em.
The 212 Congress just convened and the Republicans already have their middle aged Rico Suave's falling by the way side.
This fool Putz has lost the respect of his children, family on both sides, constituents, and his wife.

canuckistani| 2.11.11 @ 7:47AM

RR is the ONLY divorced president in history.
He split over work with a union, then he flip-flopped and became a middle-of-the-road conservative. Careful who we quote.

Lee was a top quartile conservative on what matters - policy. He's gone, and a strong district could now be 23rd -ed by the Baggers.

Thank the ladies of temperance league for forcing good candidates to drink the pollyanna Kool-aid to get elected.

jothepro| 2.11.11 @ 8:35AM

Hey canuckistani,
BC was the only president to get a blo_ job in the oval office.And he flip-flopped over welfare. Big deal. What's your point? Middle of the road my ass. Is there smoke in the air where you are at?

Alan Brooks| 2.11.11 @ 10:55AM

Canukistani doesn't know that the wealthy OWN America and always will. But instead of wealthy whites owning it, the wealthy of all races will;
we have a black president now-- and that's a start.

Appleby| 2.13.11 @ 7:27AM

The heirarchy in Canada are like the old Soviet -- the apparatchiks run things and steal and lie and play around and sometimes get caught and booted; the nomenklatura steal and lie and play around openly, and are constantly re-elected, and in fact kids long to grow up and BE them --and everyone else is a resentful prole fighting over the scraps left behind.

How can he opine on American standards when he has never experienced life in a republic?

Ted| 2.11.11 @ 1:23PM

Jane Wyman had two marriages and two divorces under her belt before she married Reagan.

Alan Brooks| 2.11.11 @ 2:49PM

The way you all write, it's as if Lee had actual sex by way of Craigslist.

Occam's Tool| 2.11.11 @ 6:50PM

RR divorced, but he was uber faithful to Nancy.

Louis Jenkins| 2.11.11 @ 8:27AM

Another Republican done gone! One should be careful sending out text messages with your picture attached. In fact, one shouldn't do it at all. Chances are he's done it before, only this one brought attention. When one is elected to an office he should walk the straight and narrow. In fact, he should have never done that. I have to agree with the writer, it takes a certain kind of man to hold office. Chris Lee has proven he is not that man.

Appleby| 2.11.11 @ 11:35AM

That's the mistake the GenYners keep on making over and over and over. Our local Chairman of the TTC was making a run for Mayor when one of his mistresses published his emails to her -- the moron was sending her TEXT MESSAGES that said the woman he was living with was only a prop to make him look good in front of the press! These stupid brats cannot get their limited attention around the fact that things you broadcast go EVERYWHERE and last FOREVER.

(We also had a hockey player who took nekkid photos of himself and TEXTED them to people and then was shocked when he became a laughingstock and was shuffled out of town.)

Kids, If you have to make a whore of yourself, don't put it in writing and send copies to the entire planet.

Alan Brooks| 2.11.11 @ 2:50PM

But Lee only took his shirt off-- not his pants!

Appleby| 2.13.11 @ 7:28AM

He got caught before he could go farther.

Consertive View| 2.11.11 @ 8:34AM

Some TV star (I forget who) once said, "Fame brings you to the point where you start to believe that the law no longer applies to you." So too power. We take an average man, put him in a position of power, and before long he begins to think, such laws, such moral edicts, no longer apply. I don't condem the man, I don't even pity him. We expect as citizens of this country that our political leaders, and our military personel all behave like saints, but politics like war are not places where saints long survive.

Did he have to go? Yes. He had to go because the crossed the line in public. His tarnished soul was shown. All of us have tarnished souls in one way or another. All of us have weaknesses of one sort or another. So let's not stone the man, but perhaps give him a ticket out of town. His sin was human. Our forgivness should be freely given. We can forgive but not condone

Alan Brooks| 2.11.11 @ 4:35PM

This is the 'funniest' (depending how lowdown one's sense of humor is) scandal:

"Ohio Gym Teacher Had Sex With Football Players, Say Court Docs"

All of them? at one time??
On the field? or in the locker room? Did they remove their uniforms, or only pull their trousers down? The big question:
Were they all wearing their shoulder pads?

MikeD| 2.11.11 @ 8:36AM

Although Mr. Lee has made a fool of himself, why is it that suddenly, as a Republican, he is now reviled and excoriated? If he were a democrat nobody would know or care because the media would bury it. Good old prez. 'Bubba: told a whole generation that doing what he did with Monica was "NOT SEX WITH THAT WOMAN!". If a Republican had lied like that he'd have been ridden out of town on a rail; yet the media and their accomplists tell us that it was "...just sex. Why get our panties in a wad over it; it's not like he did anything wrong."

But let a Republican show his sagging chest in a mirror and the Republic is shaken to the core.
Rep. Lee was really stupid and certainly made himself look like a fool while disgracing himself and messing up his marriage. But why is it so different from what is regarded as normal behavior in D.C.? The double standard is just another tactic used by the REAL morally bankrupt; ie, liberals and their fellow liars who have been proven to do ANYTHING to get and maintain power.

Conservative Bob| 2.11.11 @ 10:54AM

Mike the difference is we claim to stand for something while the dems do not. The left uses the hypocrisy hammer on us with glee. We dare to speak out for a value system that recognizes definable right and wrong so anytime anyone on our side falls short they use it to tarnish us all.
Those on the left twist our belief in a moral code into a claim of perfection, rather than a pursuit of perfection so to them anytime one on our side falls short they can gleefully point to our hypocrisy.
I do not know the broad circumstances of this particular situation but when he disgraced himself and his family he had no alternative but to resign.
The difference between us and them is that we recognize that having a strong moral standard guiding people’s behavior society is improved even though we recognize that the standard is unattainable for every person at all of the times. The limit it places on the general behavior is a net positive for our social order. The Left on the other hand seeks to remove any standard and to justify and accept any behavior as an individual decision. It explains why choice is their mantra in all things moral. Choice or the elimination of all moral standards is their holy grail. It is this drive to tear down any and all moral codes that has brought our society to its present place.
In the end it is not a double standard but the battle between good and evil. It is how a man who, at best, left his campaign aid to drown in a car can be memorialized as the Lion of the Senate, how the other half of the waitress sandwich can with a straight face pontificate on the immorality of greed in our economic system and how a man from whose home a male prostitution ring was run can claim to be the defender of the poor and down trodden.
While Lee’s behavior is disappointing, he will not be the last others will be tempted and will fall. Our victory will not be found in loosening the standards and principles we strive for, but in find others who share them to take the place of those who fail. Our founders rightly knew that our system required men of principle and character in order to work as designed. We have only to look at the democrats and progressive left to see what comes of the alternative.
The fact that republicans resign when their human failings are exposed and dems mostly do not is not evidence that there is a double standard but rather confirmation that we have standards.

ncatty| 2.11.11 @ 12:11PM

Good post.

jolizoom| 2.11.11 @ 6:11PM

Bob, excellent.

TS| 2.12.11 @ 11:25AM

Excellent! Best post I have read in months (and that is among some lofty company).

cuban pete| 2.12.11 @ 11:56AM

Well done.
Thank You.

Deborah D| 2.11.11 @ 9:07AM

My biggest beef with folks such as Lee is -- if you're stupid enough to post a picture of yourself online in an attempt to "get a date" -- the sheer stupidity of that act should (and did) get you fired. If you make those kinds of stupid decisions in your private life then what kind of stupid decisions are you making in your public life?

stmichrick| 2.11.11 @ 9:12AM

What is most revealing about this tale is how stupid the guy was. Imagine him giving that kind of forethought on policy matters. Such a moron.

Moral blindness crosses party lines but is treated differently. The Party of Standards' sin is branded hypocritical. The Party of No Standards' mistake is branded compartmentalized.

Bob K.| 2.11.11 @ 9:50AM

Our democracy has been dumbed down.

Smart politicians understand celebrity and use it in ways to enhance their power not destroy it. A competent politician keeps things simple and in focus. He or she does not do things that lets the electorates collective mind wander off focus unless there are political reasons to do so. Lee forgot this, or never learned it or was unable to control it. In any case he could not be an effective leader for his district which is in Western NY and probably is in the economic dregs. Upstate NY is a disaster area not unlike the state of Michigan.

Bob Miller| 2.11.11 @ 9:59AM

There is also a lot of "political adultery" going around, in which politicians fool and betray the steady supporters who put them in office and keep them there.

da monk| 2.11.11 @ 11:20AM

Have any of you conservative condemmers of politicans on left who have strayed considered that your idols on the Right have: 1) Newt asked his wife for a divorce when she was in the hospital recovering from her third surgery. 2) Henry Hyde confessed to an affair while condeming Clinton 3)
John McCain dumped his 1st wife after she was disabled in a car accident. Where were their morals which you justly accuse those malifactors lack? What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Appleby| 2.11.11 @ 11:36AM

My Mama always told me that "everyone else does it!" was not a defence. "YOU," she would say, "are not EVERYONE ELSE!"

Ted| 2.11.11 @ 1:26PM

Yes, Henry Hyde did... However, Clinton's impeachment was not because he had an affair, but because he lied under oath, among other things. You are drawing a false equivalence between the two cases, as so many did in 1997-1998 to obfuscate the charges against Mr. Clinton.

Ted| 2.11.11 @ 1:27PM

Newt has issues; no doubt about that. But have you noticed that he's not got a huge groundswell of conservative or GOP support for a potential Presidential run? There's a reason for it, and his behavior in the past has something to do with that.

Ted| 2.11.11 @ 1:28PM

And you will recall also that McCain took sole responsibility for the failure of his first marriage and he did so publicly.

Ryan| 2.11.11 @ 2:12PM

It doesn't make those decisions right or defensible.

Occam's Tool| 2.11.11 @ 6:51PM

I didn't want any of those three for President, but all of them would be better than Obama.

Old Joe| 2.11.11 @ 11:32AM

Da Monk is correct but the difference is that we conservatives hold our politicians to a high standard while the Democrats hold their politicians to no standard and winning is all that matters.

USAttorney| 2.11.11 @ 11:35AM

As conservatives I think we need to be more open to flaws within so we can fix them or understand why they don't need to be fixed/are subjective flaws. When we provide an umbrella of defense for all actions of a person, it makes the party look weak and partisan to a fault. DHS was not begun under Obama. Deficit spending did not magically expand under Clinton. In our own house we need to evaluate and speak with more unity on core, prioritized ideals. Since the SCOTUS wades into debates on abortion, and since the Senate has some clout with the budget, maybe our first focus is not on semantics or history lessons, but on a unified theme of budget cuts and fiscal restraint. Scaled layoffs, property sales to private enterprise, and initial reversion of powers back to the states and citizens.

Occam's Tool| 2.11.11 @ 11:57AM

Christopher Lee---what a horror show.

Pelligrino| 2.11.11 @ 12:25PM

Mr. Homnick, thank you. Good article and good admonition for ALL of us. All of us should be in some positions of responsibilities due to our work, our roles in our neighborhoods, our age, and just due to the fact that we are supposed to be role models.

Yes, that comes with aging. No excuses.

And certainly no excuses for those whose entire lives are funded by taxpayers.

What I want to know: Where would a Congressman, Senator, senior appointee, cabinet member, GS-14 or 15.....where would any of these people have the TIME for anything other than maybe a nap?

I expect them to life -- in the information age -- very dull, wonky lives. Sleeping takes 8 hours of your day. Personal hygene about an hour. Eating 1.5 - 2 hours (those power lunches, you see). Commuting to work: 1 hour.

So....let's see that just leaves....12 hours in the day -- at most -- in a perfectly flawless day.

Well, golly. Guess what, to those in leadership and senior management (in our Armed Forces too), we, the American Public do expect you to be working that solid 12-hour day. Week in, week out.

Sound just too dull for you? Good. Don't apply or position yourself for these vital jobs. Stay away.

If you have some time on Saturday, well, be reading. Yes, no fiction allowed. Be reading all those briefs, memos, recommendations, studies, pieces of legistlation, pieces of proposed regulation, maybe the Constitution....

Thus, there's no time in the day EVER for texting, updating your Facebook page, viewing potential hookups on Match.com, a little private chat with your college intern, seeing your surreptitioius Yahoo email account with your Ashley Madison date's response....now is there?

Shouldn't the 'Cyber Sergeant at Arms' at the Capitol be blocking IPs from certain web locations? (I guess we have to because these morons cannot control themselves.)

Alan Brooks| 2.11.11 @ 3:36PM

Taking one's shirt off (for a male that is), is NOTHING. At the beach guys do so every day. Right now, in FL. & CA., millions of guys are shirtless.

Conservative Bob| 2.11.11 @ 4:00PM

I think the point is not that he took his shirt off but that as a married man he took it off in an effort to facilitate a liaison with someone other than his wife. I could be wrong.

Alan Brooks| 2.11.11 @ 4:43PM

I was joking, Bob; it's silly, this particular scandal.
It isn't tragic, as the Joey Buttafuoco- Amy Fischer scandal was (a woman was shot);
Lee is a comic figure.

Conservative Bob| 2.11.11 @ 7:03PM

Lee unfortunately is a fool.

If hhe is remebered at all it will be as a punch line...

firebrand| 2.11.11 @ 5:39PM

What I noticed about the "studly" Chris Lee's picture was, he was "sucking in his gut". Lied about his age, lied about his marital status and even tried to lie about his solar plexus! Notice the unfortunate resemblance to Jim Bakker - Tammy Faye's wayward husband?

It is always the nerdy, Bible-thumping anti-abortion guys who are looking for lust in all the wrong places. (Read Mark Souder, who is currently back resuming his walk with the Lord).
Just another Christian choirboy gone wrong.

At least, Wilbur Mills was not claiming to be anything but a hircine, old Arkie, when he was splashing in the Tide Pool with Fanne Fox.

And I am not a lib/troll invading TAS space. I am an 83 year old conservative observer of Republican bumbling, screwing up our shaky majority in a time when we need it.

Republicans just don't know how to get away with it and they should quit trying.

stmichrick| 2.13.11 @ 11:19AM

Hey firebrand; a couple of questions.

Why is it that hypocrisy is the worst sin in all of these sordid episodes?

You are saying that professing no standards of behavior is superior morally than professing some and failing?

I'll give you that Lee looks foolish and nerdy but was he, in fact, a Bible thumping anti-abortion guy, or you assume that because of his party?

Why is believing that killing humans before birth to be wrong worse than trying to cheat on your spouse?

Just wondering.

firebrand| 2.11.11 @ 5:59PM

for "da monk" - -
You left out that Newt dumped the dour Marianne for the aide he was fooling around with. I believe the aide was Calista, the current wife (correct me if I'm wrong) -who appears regularly with New,t hawking the books they churn out, one after the other.

Diogenes only had to look for an honest man. If we are looking for one who can keep his pants zipped, we better get a long-burning lantern!

Occam's Tool| 2.11.11 @ 7:13PM

Here are some excellent Western Leaders, both politicians and generals, who could keep their pants zipped: Churchill. Lincoln. Grant. John Adams. John Quincy Adams. Truman. Sherman. Teddy Roosevelt. Marshall. Coolidge. Reagan (after marrying Nancy). LeMay. Antoninus Pius. Marcus Aurelius.

I could go with quite a few others, if I worked at it. It's not impossible. For example, John Bolton (my 1st 10 choices for President) seems to have a responsible private life, proving that massive size and fidelity CAN go together.

firebrand| 2.12.11 @ 12:19AM

OK, Occam's Tool - is there any length to which you would not go to prove someone speaking in general terms, wrong? You know very well, I was speaking of the the current crop. What scalpel do you use for splitting hairs?

It was a far reach back into history for you to find a little fidelity! You don't even know if the ones you cite were opposed to dalliance or merely more discreet.

John Bolton happens to be my choice, too. And do you know why he would probably not get elected? Because we are such a superficial electorate - pushovers for the cosmetic. The white mustache would go against him. When have we had a president with a mustache in recent times? When have we ever had one with a white mustache and darker hair?

I don't know if you happened to see Bolton one night on Greta Van Susteren's show when he was a guest along with a liberal know-nothing blow-hard . At he end of the set-to, Greta said to Bolton, "I'll give you the last word to respond to what he thinks." Bolton said, "Nah, I don't care what he thinks." And that was the end of the interview. The put-down of the millennium! I about strangled on my coffee, laughing. I could just see him as President, blowing off a stupid question by a White House journalist.

A lunatic country that voted for "Tiger Woods in a GQ suit" would miss the boat with Bolton over his mustache.

MikeN| 2.12.11 @ 1:51AM

What did Reagan know about his son that he felt such advice was needed? Like Kerry's mom telling him 'integrity integrity integrity"

firebrand| 2.12.11 @ 3:54AM

If just once, one of these Congressional wives would call a press conference, sweetly ask her husband to be by her side; turn and kick him in the shins, saying,"There, amend that!" and walk away. They never do.

335blues| 2.12.11 @ 11:18AM

It is no longer surprising that there are shallow, fake poseurs in politics, even in the republican party. There are lots of pretenders out there- remember arlen spector? He was a liberal pretending to be republican. Remember the myth of the moderate democrat? The last two years have exposed that myth quite clearly to be a lie (think claire mccaskill). How about the two john mccains? There is the fake john mccain that appears every six years pretending to be a conservative, then there is the real john mccain which shows up after the election and says marxist obama is really a "centrist". Of course that is another lie, there are no "centrists". One only need look at a politicians voting record to discern if they are a conservative or a marxist. There is no in between. And all of the shallow, fake poseurs will be discovered and weeded out.

martin j smith| 2.12.11 @ 1:49PM

Anyone who goes into public life who does not realize that they will be scrutinized closer that a million power microscope should re-consider. And those who ignore this reality are fools, and we are fools for having trusted them. There is a need to vet candidates very thoroughly so that if there baggage is too heavy they are not hired for the job.

firebrand| 2.12.11 @ 2:29PM

Possibly that is what Chris Lee was looking for - - to get screwtinized. The disgusting aspect of this is when Republicans are caught, the go on TV - all reading from the same mea culpa script. " I have let down my family, my constituents and my God." Well, my God! Did this not occur to you day before yesterday?

Ted Kennedy and Chris Dobbs never had to own up to anything at all. Barney Frank gives some insane explanation that he was mentoring a drug addicted person he felt - - sorry for.. Gerry Studds defied Congress and got away with it.

And pore old Henry Hyde crippled with old age, finds himself apologizing for a fling in 1940.

Occam's Tool - if you are in a crouch, waiting to correct me on 1940 or some other detail, I am generalizing again.

I am merely saying experience does not teach Republicans that they cannot get away with it. The reason being, you cannot claim the high road and walk in the gutter. If the gutter is your natural habitat, your constituents must approve.

bee free| 2.13.11 @ 12:32AM

---AT this, the 11th hour of Globalist-doomed
POST America, the Republicans, at best, worship
not even things as they are, but things as they appear to be (i.e. playing the false paradigms
of Left/Right while one and all are bankster
Globalist fronts).

Turning to franchise slum icons such as Trump
ain't gonna' stench the flow of blood.

A MAJOR HURL of all Globalist and EUGENICS
frontmen from Republican, and ideally ALLLL
American political ranks, is urgently called
for (--that would include McCain, Gingrich,
certainly the Bushes et al).

"REMEMBER, 'Free Trade', Globalism and
EUGENICS are always intertwined. ALWAYS.
ALWAYS. ALWAYS..."
-ALan Watt
Cutting Through the Matrix
(online)

-------ALWAYS

Who Cares!| 2.14.11 @ 4:13AM

Maybe his wife was a prude, maybe she would not swallow. Who cares? Women should be a girlfriend to their husband or they will find someone who will. Or maybe he was a hopeless philanderer.

But who cares. It does not reflect on his character or political knowledge and abilities one iota.

And that guy who claims all thoese politicians never got a little action on the side--I call bullshit. How do you know if the old drunk US Grant and the others (many of whom are of no consequence (LeMay?)) never got any?

Claudia Monteverdi| 2.14.11 @ 3:56PM

My Dear Jay,
I just stumbled upon this splendid article. Splendid in it's wrenching analysis of mankind and man's eternal predeliction, his lust for the unknown..splendid in every respect but thin immemorable (that can NOT be a word) quote...."the average of other women lags behind the average of wives in every area: looks, intelligence, social skills, personality, demeanor, not to mention achievement and dignity....." Just when I was begining to look forward to being that "other woman", I discover that her career and moral rewards are shoddy and not worth having...Dammit Jay, another dream shattered....As to that Congressman what's his face...Frankly Jay, who gives a rat's ass?
Love,
Claudia

Mad Hatter| 2.17.11 @ 4:54PM

To halt Democrats' spending with impunity,
Repubs voted with Tea Partiers in unity.
"Don't raid," our behest,
"The Community Chest!"
So Lee showed his chest to the community!

Mad Hatter| 2.17.11 @ 5:00PM

There was a Congressman from Upstate,
Who felt that as a mature guy, he'd rate.
Did a Craigslist check,
Now his life's a wreck.
It wasn't just a check, but check-mate!

Reebok| 8.11.11 @ 3:51AM

is good

العاب| 4.11.12 @ 4:30PM

We also had a hockey player who took nekkid photos of himself and TEXTED them to people and then was shocked when he became a laughingstock and was shuffled out of town.