Another "Family Values" Republican Bites the Dust in Sex Scandal

Well, here we go again: another "family values" Republican politician caught in a tawdry sex scandal. This time it's Congressman Christopher Lee of New York, now former Congressman Christopher Lee, who resigned Wednesday when some interesting pictures of him turned up on the Internet. This is not one of them:

Former Congressman Christopher Lee (R.-N.Y.)

We'll get to Mr. Lee in just a moment, but for the record, crankyjewishguy (CJG) wants to make it clear that he actually doesn't care about the sex lives of presidents and members of Congress, unless we're talking about Congresswoman Kristi Noem of South Dakota; then he's very interested. He thinks there have been, and are, some very fine leaders with less than perfect records of marital fidelity and sexual propriety. Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, and Millard Filmore come to mind. (Actually, CJG doesn't know anything about Millard Filmore's sex life, he just loves the name.) But, CJG does take exception to politicians who campaign on so-called "family values," which usually includes a rabid antipathy to gay rights and gay marriage, whose own family values leave much to be desired. Their sanctimony is repellent. There's Mr. Family Values, Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, who was caught up in a prostitution scandal that revealed the Senator's affinity for diapers, yet his campaign commercials use his wife and kids for props to show you what a great family man he is. (Despite the scandal he got re-elected by a wide margin last year.) There was Republican Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, super conservative, arrested for soliciting gay sex in an airport men's room. There's Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada, also a big family values guy, who was sleeping with the wife of one of his aides. And, of course, there's Newt Gingrich who was trying to impeach Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky matter as he himself was having an extramarital affair. There are frisky Democrats, too, of course, with John Edwards being Exhibit A, but he appears to be certifiably nuts and he didn't run around campaigning on a platform that tells other people how they ought to lead their sex lives. These GOP hypocrites take to the floor of the House or Senate and rail against gay marriage because, they argue, it will undermine the American family, then ravage their own American families because their egos and, excuse CJG for this, their dicks get in the way. Marriage is so special, they claim, heterosexuals have to fight to keep it for themselves or it won't be special anymore. How full of shit are these people?

So, back to Congressman Chris Lee. It seems he's one one of those self-respecting, cosmopolitan men CJG wrote about a few days ago who troll Craigslist for prey. And he made the mistake of sending one of the "women seeking men" on Craigslist a photo of himself which found it's way -- surprise, surprise -- into cyberspace. Here's the photo in question:

He rather fancies himself, don't you think? Notice the tightly curled right fist so he can flex a little political muscle, and the vapid, penetrating gaze that asks, "are you as into me as I am?" Maybe we should be grateful for small favors; at least he kept his pants on and had the decency to dispense with the American flag as a backdrop.

State of the Union: Hot and Getting Hotter

If you watched last night's State of the Union address you know that the seating arrangements were somewhat different from those of recent and even not-so-distant memory where Democrats and Republicans sat on different sides of the House chamber, sort of like men and women in an Orthodox shul. This separate but equal seating meant that only half of those assembled would be standing and clapping at any given point since it is perfectly obvious that anything a president says that appeals to one party has to be seen by the other as completely antithetical to the American way of life and probably even subversive. The old seating arrangement also ensured that when someone like Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina yelled "Liar!" at the president last year, Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California wasn't right next to him to punch him in the face.

Typical of Congress, it took a congresswoman getting shot in the head for its members to decide that maybe they could intermingle across party lines for an hour or so during the State of the Union. But it wasn't like they just filed in and grabbed seats. A big deal was made in the run-up to last night's speech every time one member found a member of the other party willing to sit next to them. Chuck Schumer of New York and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma found each other, which had the added value of having a Jew and a gentile sitting together.  Nevada's three congressmen, two Republicans and a Democrat, decided to sit together, but no one wanted to sit with them anyway. Some Republicans agreed to sit with Democrats, but only on the Republican side of the chamber. The whole thing was like a bad mixer at a single sex college. And some weren't buying the new comity. Senate Minority Leader Mitch (Dr. No) McConnell said he preferred the company of his usual cronies. Nancy Pelosi and Eric Cantor didn't sit together, but crankyjewishguy (CJG) doesn't think it has anything to do with the fact that Cantor is a Jew and Pelosi is not. He thinks they just hate each other's guts. John Boehner and Joe Biden had no choice but to sit together behind the President, and it was a relief that Biden didn't need the box of tissues he brought just in case Boehner had another one of his crying fits, though Boehner appeared to come close  near the end when the President invoked his Horatio Alger-like rise.

One can understand why Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr might have avoided sitting together, but really, all this fuss about who's sitting with whom? Please. All CJG wants to know is this: who got to sit next to freshman Congresswoman Kristi Noem of South Dakota? That had to be toughest seat in the House.

Congresswoman Kristi Noem (R.-S.D.)

CJG used to be a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts.
He is now a registered Republican from Rapid City.