I think this is bs, I don’t think this calls for resignation, just a stint in rehab and the claim that the demon rum made you do things you never would have dreamed of doing normally (at most).
That’s my two cents.
by DougJ| 126 Comments
This post is in: Green Balloons
I think this is bs, I don’t think this calls for resignation, just a stint in rehab and the claim that the demon rum made you do things you never would have dreamed of doing normally (at most).
That’s my two cents.
Comments are closed.
Just Some Fuckhead
Seems like he should be resigning from his marriage, not Congress. What am I missing here?
bkny
msnbc just reported that .. and cenk had the photos up.. hahaha
Lolis
It took my workplace a year to fire a guy who videotaped himself mast*rbating in the men’s room stall and sending the video to a couple women in the office. So yeah, this feels pretty fast to me. Not that I am complaining.
cathyx
I think he should resign. I prefer congress members to not be morally bankrupt.
Violet
The whole story is kind of sad. I feel bad for his wife and young son.
DougJ®
I know people who know people in his office and I think the deal is that just that he screwed around a lot.
Honestly, though, in my view, if they were age appropriate women who didn’t work for him and didn’t dress him up in diapers, who cares?
srv
Jesus, couldn’t he just go hike the AT for awhile?
Cris
He’s from the Sarah Palin school of scandal management.
Ana Gama
Is he resigning so quickly so that the rest of the story doesn’t come out? Should we speculate?
General Stuck
When Little baby Jeevus wants a scalp, the only question is blond or brunette?
Violet
@Lolis:
I wonder if he’s resigning so quickly because there’s way worse stuff out there and he hopes by resigning it’ll stay hidden. Wouldn’t surprise me.
Allan
Ensign and Vitter are having a good laugh at him.
Keith
I would put the shirtless picture in front of the shark poster a bit less embarrassing than the one of Rep. Schock wearing a pink picnic table shirt with a teal belt. I sentence them both to an Indian leg-wrestling match while their peers shove dollars into their mouths while chanting “You both look like fucking idiots.”
Sko Hayes
@Violet: My thought exactly.
There are a lot more skeletons in his closet.
Little Boots
maybe he’ll go from posing as a divorced lobbyist to being one.
Mark S.
@DougJ®:
Who has sex without dressing up in diapers?
Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have put that out there. Where’s the delete button?
BGinCHI
Why doesn’t he just say “I was polishing my camera and it went off?”
Mark S.
@Little Boots:
The advantage is he won’t have to update his Craig’s List profile.
Elvis Elvisberg
@Allan: Yeah, really. Republicans *never* resign, or even suffer negative consequences, because of this sort of thing. The theories in this thread, that he did way worse stuff or that the “divorced lobbyist” thing on his profile was aspirational, are all that make sense to me.
Seems silly to me to have to resign over this, but whatever.
Warren Terra
I’m inclined to agree with DougJ that this is a failure of his personal life, and he deserves to be absolutely reamed in divorce court but doesn’t mean he’s bad at being a Republican congressman. Shouldn’t get re-elected, probably, but so long as he hasn’t been abusing his position (heck, in the Craigslist ad he wasn’t even admitting his position), it’s personal, if tawdry. Larry Craig didn’t resign, and his purely personal behavior was at least as bad; Bill Clinton didn’t, and his was at least as bad, also.
Still, wasn’t there something at TPM a couple of weeks ago snarkily asking which Republican will be the first to resign over an ethics scandal, talking about running a pool? I wonder if anyone made any money on this …
Maude
@General Stuck:
WIN
hhex65
the war on heterosexuality just got real
Pooh
@cathyx: HAHAHHAHAHAHHA
HAHAHAHHAA
Ha
HAHAHA.
Good one.
ronin122
While I agree and that politicians shouldn’t have to resign for this sort of thing, another side of me says “fuck him.” The hypocrisy involved with the GOP and their sex affairs are enough to make me consider this his just desserts, which may cause some internal dissonance within me but oh well.
singfoom
I support his resignation. I don’t care what people do in their private lives, but if you’re a “Family Values” Republican, you need to practice what you preach.
I also support this resignation based on his blatant stupidity. It’s one thing if he’s cheating on his wife online, but if he can’t figure out how not to get caught, he’s not that smart.
I want smart representatives.
El Cid
I guess this was a lot more serious than hiring hookers to dress you in diapers or having your family buy off a husband and wife because you slept with the wife or disappearing for several days as a governor with no transfer or power and no contact info in order to fly to Argentina and be with your true love.
nevsky42
I guess he possesses a sense of shame; the picture is goofy, but by the standards set by others in the Senate it certainly didn’t look like he had to resign.
Steve
I used to think this sort of thing was nobody’s business. Now that I’m married I guess I’m a moralizing jerk and I think guys who cheat are total assholes. Mind you, you don’t have to resign just because you’re an asshole, but I shed no tears for him.
Lev
Anyone else think Chris Lee looks A LOT like George W. Bush?
cathyx
@BGinCHI: And he accidentally sent the picture to craigslist, (it’s preprogrammed on his phone and the button is right next to Larry Craig’s number) and accidentally got posted in the women seeking men category. Very plausible.
Ana Gama
I hope he doesn’t have any pre-existing STD’s because he’s never gonna get insurance now.
Mark S.
@Lev:
At least in his shirtless picture, he reminds me a lot of the guy on CSI.
BGinCHI
@cathyx: Well duh, the app is called “Larry Craigslist.”
pragmatism
maybe fox news offered him some wingnut welfare?
Comrade Dread
Yeah, as long as Vitter is still in office he won’t even hold the title of most hypocritical member of Congress.
Comrade Javamanphil
If anybody thinks this about anything other than holding this district in 2012, you are fooling yourself. I’d wager he didn’t resign, he was pushed.
danimal
Jeez, doesn’t anyone teach young GOP congresscritters the first rule of sex scandal management anymore? Hang tight, shut up and NEVER RESIGN. Lord knows, we have enough examples of successfully avoiding accountability.
And shouldn’t someone have taught him the blessed Golden Rule of GOP scandals: IOKIYAR?
Villago Delenda Est
You know, this reminds me of that utter asshat Jack Ryan. You know, the guy who was married to Seven of fucking Nine? And that wasn’t enough for him?
joe from Lowell
I find this story kind of sad.
A man his age. Nice bicep.
And no, he shouldn’t have to resign over this.
GregB
Today’s GOP bringing honor back to Washington one sex scandal at a time.
Anyone want to bet on the outcome of the special election?
JPL
Boehner forced him out because the guy was stupid enough to send a picture. Vitter and Ensign and Boehner himself knows that is a no…no.
Cris
@Villago Delenda Est: If only we could get another Obama out of this one.
gelfling545
@DougJ®: I really don’t care about the behavior. People do it – that’s why there’s a word for it. It’s between him and his wife, although if he were an acquaintance of mine I’d make sure he knew I think he’s scum. What I object to is the arrogance that makes him think he won’t get caught. And really,craigslist? If he didn’t know this would get out, he is way too naive to be in congress.
DougJ®
@JPL:
It does make you wonder if there’s something on Boehner and he doesn’t want people poking around in the general vicinity.
Loneoak
Yeah, this is no double-wetsuit, giant dildo sized scandal.
BGinCHI
His district is most of underpopulated Western NY. Very red.
Anyone in his district?
Mr. Poppinfresh
I’m sorry, but not even a fake name? He’s just too dumb to be a Congresscritter.
steve
I don’t think he deserves to lose his job. However, if you consider what he wrote in his emails to the Craigslist woman, it makes perfect sense that he’d want to resign. He wants to be a divorced lobbyist and play the field, and now he’ll probably get his wish.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
@Comrade Javamanphil: It appears to be a safe red district. He could have been primaried from within the GOP if it came to that. His resignation makes no sense to me whatsoever.
Amanda in the South Bay
@DougJ®:
What’s wrong with having an infantilization fetish? Its not the fetish, its *lying* about the fetish as a family values kind of guy that is the problem.
Tim
Lord God, the man is HAWT.
I really think he needs to come to my house in Boston and apologize to ME, dammit.
Jeff
@DougJ®:There must be more to come,( so to speak) if he resigned this quickly. I wonder if diapers may not be out of the question.
Keith G
@DougJ®:
Ah…no.
Violet
@DougJ®:
Where there’s smoke there’s fire. That’s what I figure anyway.
He’s hiding a lot more and maybe a lot worse.
I don’t care what he does in his personal life so long as he doesn’t try to tell me or others what we should do in ours. Since he’s part of the morality brigade, well, reap what you sow and all.
steve
@Villago Delenda Est:
The implosion of Jack Ryan led directly to the ascent of Barack Obama. When Ryan dropped out of the senatorial race in Illinois, the state GOP replaced him with … Alan Keyes. Obama won easily and the rest, as they say, is history. So we should be grateful that Seven of Nine wasn’t enough for Jack.
JPL
@DougJ®: There’s always plausible deniability unless one has documentation. See no evil has always been the republican motto.
JGabriel
DougJ(R):
I agree. I’m also wondering why this guy has to resign over a little online flirtation, where Vitter gets to stay in office despite his whoremongering.
On the other hand, it’s refreshing to see a GOPer take a hit on this. They usually get applauded by their peers when busted like that, c.f. Vitter.
.
Mako
I just wanted to mention that trolling libertarians is a lot like trolling soc.fat-acceptance back in the day, too easy and pathetic and generally frowned upon.
There are always groups of people desperate to have their story told.
Might be a group explaining genetic disposition to fat.
Might be a group explaining that they are smarter than you.
They all deserve our love.
Villago Delenda Est
@steve:
Well, that part of it turned out well.
But WTF? He’s married to this stone fox, who fills out a cat suit like no one’s business, apparently is also a doting mother, has a functioning brain, is as funny as hell, and all around great person in general, and he does that? I mean, come on. If Jeri Ryan were decorating my bed, I’d be forever grateful and delighted with just her.
sukabi
@Ana Gama: it would be irresponsible to NOT speculate… I’m thinking his faster than the speed of light resignation is the result of knowing how much more could be exposed….
BGinCHI
I really think we ought to can the speculation until Luke Russert tells us what’s going on tomorrow.
sistermoon
@Jeff: Rumor in Western New York is that Mr. Lee’s been screwing around for quite some time. Before he was elected to Congress, he supposedly had a hairdresser honey stashed away near Buffalo.
I sense an impending bimbo eruption…
Lev
Is Lee’s district on the chopping block for redistricting this time? Maybe he figured he’d get out while the getting is good.
BGinCHI
For those of us who have lived in Buffalo, this image will send us for refuge to our happy place.
Yikes.
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
DING DING DING DING DING!
The thing is, the natural serfs who are the teabaggers ignore this sort of blatant sexual hypocrisy all the time. Just look at the reaction they have to Bristol Palin’s out of wedlock pregnancy. If it had been Chelsea Clinton, a Kennedy female, or an Obama daughter in the same situation, we’d never ever here the end of it. But they just look the other way with one of their own, every single time.
It’s a damn good thing Jesus isn’t coming back, for the sake of his blatantly hypocritical followers.
mr. whipple
Did he say he was resigning to spend more time on Craigslist, er, with his family?
JGabriel
@Mark S.:
Ahem. Is there something you’d like to tell us, Mark? Or untell us?
.
bago
Of course the guy has a sense of shame. He has respectable pecs after 40. Goes to the gym for a reason. Unlike your conservative poly-stalwarts, like Gingrich and Limbaugh.
Martin
Meh. How stupid do you have to be to troll Craigslist using your own name while married and elected to office? He’s not resigning because he’s amoral, he’s resigning because he’s a fucking retard that should be lucky he can find his car in the parking lot at the end of the day.
dmsilev
@Villago Delenda Est: Jack Ryan didn’t cheat on Jeri (that we know of). It was rather more baroque than that. By the time of the campaign, the two of them were divorced. One of the local papers managed to get the divorce records unsealed, and discovered that one of her reasons for divorcing him was that he asked her to go with him to a series of Parisian sex clubs, and this was well beyond her comfort level.
Exit Jack Ryan, enter Alan Keyes.
dms
cmorenc
Has Fox run the caption yet: “sex scandal forces Christopher Lee D-NY to resign” across the bottom of the screen?
scav
Gotta love this side of the Rabbit Hole, everyone’s stunned at the simple resignation following scandal action from the PR playbook. I can only guess he gave up because his conduct failed the Vatican II test: “Where the guy who’s got religion’l tell you if your sin’s original”. Although, to be fair, in Congress adult female accompanied with bog standard lying. . . practically retro-cool status. Still, the thought of being laughed at in the congressional washroom must have been scary.
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev:
Oh, I knew that was the nature of the scandal (not, per se, philandering), but thanks for providing the detail that I glossed over. I can’t imagine pressuring a woman into doing something like that beyond her comfort level, but Jack obviously read a lot of Penthouse Letters back in the 70’s and 80’s…
Tsulagi
Disagree. Not because he’s family values challenged, but because of the stupid. He’s trolling Craigslist. Lying about his marital status while replying using his real name and an email address associated with his Facebook account. Apparently thinking women he’s replying to are as stupid as he is never having heard of the Google. Top it off he sends that shirtless photo in his most macho pose thinking that’s going to seal the deal. FAIL.
There should be a minimum intelligence bar for members of Congress and the WH. Did a quick search. This dumbass sits/sat on the House Ways and Means Committee. One of the most powerful committees in the House. Do you really want the intelligence of that guy in the cell photo of himself in a mirror casting votes on issues involving hundreds of billions of dollars? I think not.
Turgid Jacobian
@DougJ®: why would you care if they dressed him in diapers?
Just Some Fuckhead
@cmorenc:
No, but all right thinking Fox viewers know New York Republicans are more like Democrats than God-fearing SouthernByTheGraceOfGod ones.
hilts
BREAKING…
Chris Lee and Eric Massa will set up a lobbying firm on K Street
Musical Tribute to Chris Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOTB9vwc9nQ
bemused
An R legislator fooling around on his wife is nothing unusual. That happens almost weekly. What is shocking is that he resigns just hours after getting found out. Very peculiar.
JGabriel
@Turgid Jacobian:
It’s an allusion to the David Vitter prostitution scandal — one or two of the prostitutes Vitter allegedly visited claimed that he liked to poop in diapers as part of his sex play.
.
Just Some Fuckhead
@hilts:
No way, they’d never any lobbying done between bouts of naked tickle fighting.
trollhattan
Who knows? Maybe he’s discovered it’s hard to get any governin’ done sleeping with one eye open.
JGabriel
@bemused:
Lee lied about his age. Republican men never do that.
.
RalfW
Having him stay on doesn’t exactly help the 17% base that wants to demonize gays for wanting to settle down into monogamous marriage, now does he?
sukabi
the headline on RawStory for this is pretty funny:
GOP congressman resigns over failed attempt at extramarital sex
trollhattan
In happier congressional news Gabby Giffords has started speaking, which now places her functionally ahead of most congressional Republicans.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014172456_apuscongresswomanshot.html
Way to go, congresswoman!
russell
there’s a difference between “judging somebody’s lifestyle” and figuring out that somebody is too freaking stupid and reckless to hold a position of responsibility.
there’s also lots of daylight between “an affair between two consenting adults” and trolling for hookups on craigslist.
don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out, lee.
Calouste
@Martin:
He definitely has a look in his eyes that makes you doubt he would be able to find his car in the parking lot at the end of the day. And we’re not talking about the absent-minded professor look.
Martin
@Villago Delenda Est: I just don’t get being married to Jeri Ryan and thinking ‘you know, this just isn’t good enough, I want more’.
Why ‘greedy’ isn’t considered to be perfectly synonymous with ‘stupid’ is beyond me.
BerkeleyMom
John, are you saying it was a premature e-resignation?
sukabi
@Martin: don’t think it’s greedy as much as sociopathy
Kuvasz
Where there’s smoke there’s fire. Expect more revelations of such behavior and the impetus for resignation.
hilts
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Chris Lee should join forces with Eric Massa, Mark Sanford, John Edwards, Larry Craig, Alvin Greene, and Elliot Spitzer to form the bipartisan Silly Party Leadership Council.
Lisa
So weird. After seeing his name on the list of Reps who voted for that odious abortion bill yesterday, I went to his website to get his number (I’m in NY 29th) so I could call and give him a piece of my mind. I didn’t get a chance to do it today, but after reading the Gawker story a few hours ago I was all pumped to make the call tomorrow and ask if the topless philanderer would consider abortion when he got his Craigslist girlfriends pregnant. I actually wish he would have waited another day so I could have done it.
Just Some Fuckhead
@hilts:
That would be a vitter pill to swallow!
TuiMel
Sorry. This guy is a moron. He should not let the door hit him in the ass.
Church Lady
He might be dumb, but let’s give the guy a little credit. He has a really great bod for a guy on the down slope to 50. Props to his workout routine!
Warren Terra
@BerkeleyMom:
I think you mean a premature ejection.
gwangung
@sukabi: They’re not exclusive.
If I were married to Jeri Ryan, I’d move heaven and earth to stay that way (and not just for the physical stuff; someone who’s bright, witty and a pretty nice person after going through the Hollywood meat grinder is a treasure, no matter what they look like).
No, I take that back. Just plain stupid.
Matt
@hilts: I thought that name was already taken by the Tea Party Caucus. :)
HRA
It will be interesting at work tomorrow. Most of my coworkers live in his district which encompasses an area north of Buffalo.
I agree with those who said there is more to be revealed in his resignation.
OTH what’s with these men of a certain age having to prove they can still be appealing to others? Yes, some women do it, too.
Cacti
He just needs to tell the voters he caught “teh gay” from Barney Frank.
All will be forgiven.
DougJ®
@HRA:
People like to feel attractive even when they’re not young anymore. I’m not going to begrudge them that.
shortstop
@Martin: I don’t think it works that way. Wanting to get it on with additional people, or, more accurately, the mindset that allows one to philander, doesn’t seem to correlate very much with the relative attractiveness of the partner already at home.
piratedan
perhaps he forgot the unspoken Republican game plan for this kind of behavior, move in to a FAMILY sponsored residence and THEN have Rightious Rev Coburn handle the monetary buy offs. It’s all about procedure I tell ya, you don’t follow the rules, you have to pay the price. Bet there’s something really bad in there, like an unwanted pregnancy and him sponsoring an abortion to cover the transgression.
shortstop
@DougJ®: No, but you can’t tell me that pose with clenched fist isn’t fucking hilarious. I don’t begrudge anyone wanting to look attractive, but have a sense of dignity, people.
shortstop
@piratedan:
I’m cynical enough to suspect that Coburn also performs the abortions for the girlfriends.
TuiMel
@shortstop:
This.
Suffern ACE
I’m conflicted. I’m hoping that there is more to this resignation since it appears to be just a trifle when compared to other infidelity scandals that we’ve had recently and I don’t want to give off the impression to the world that we really are as prudish as the French say we are behind our backs, hateful gossip mongers that they are.
On the other hand, I hope that we never have to learn what the “more to the story” is, since the guy resigned and is now technically a nobody who can’t do any harm by voting. (And I’m prudish and don’t like all these saucy stories in the press).
J. Michael Neal
@HRA:
Isn’t that usually called “Ontario”?
Spaghetti Lee
Suburbs of Buffalo and Rochester, a little bit of rural in the middle, R+5 or so. Maybe I’m too optimistic, but it seems like a district the Dems could fight for. NY-23 is just up the road, and that wasn’t rep’d by a Democrat for 150 years until Owens won.
Steve
I seem to remember the Dems had some kind of messy primary situation in that district in 2008, when it otherwise might have been competitive.
DougJ®
@Steve:
Sort of. They had two crappy candidates who destroyed each other so that an even crappier candidate ended up winning.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
Fuck, who’s next, Peter Cushing?
HRA
@J. Michael Neal:
No, it’s northern Erie County right before Niagara Falls and north of Buffalo. It’s Williamsville, Lockport and Clarence where my coworkers live.
@TuiMel:
This x2
And the Horse He Rode In on
@Ana Gama: it would be irresponsible not to
HRA
@DougJ®:
Of course, we all want to feel and be attractive no matter the age. Some just carry it to far to stroke their ego at the expense of their families.
rikyrah
I think it’s hilarious
Wile E. Quixote
@hilts:
Don’t you mean “K-Y street”. OK, sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Sasha
Just as well. He obviously doesn’t have the enough hypocrisy and chutzpah to cut it as a Republican politician.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Maybe, just maybe, he is leaving office to focus on repairing his relationship with his wife, family and friends. Maybe he doesn’t want any distractions, to actually focus all of his efforts on cleaning up his life. Maybe he feels that this mess will bring sustained, unwanted attention to him and his and that taking himself out of the public eye is what’s best for him and his family.
Maybe this is just one of many and once the word gets out he’s afraid of what else might come up.
Other than himself, who knows? Nobody.
IMO, regarding his leaving office, he did the right thing. Too bad that too many other politicians don’t have the guts to do the same thing. If he is going to be sticking his nose into the lives of other people and legislating morality via DADT and his anti-abortion stances then he had no other choice than to resign in shame after this came out.
He isn’t very honorable, IMO, but he did the honorable thing here.
BruinKid
Except the WSJ’s Jonathan Weisman says there’s much more to this.
celiadexter
I have no doubt but that there’s much more to this than what we know at this point, and even though he guy is out of office now it’ll be a story that ought to make us snark a bit. I mean, what are Republicans about except faux-puritanical sexual hypocrisy? Despite all their earlier talk about deficits, all they’re actually *doing* in Congress is trying to legislate more punishment for women who have sex…
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
I’m glad Richy Rich is gone. He’s just another immature asshole who was born on third base and thought he hit a triple. He inherited a business, sold it, bought a safe seat in Congress, and immediately got on a committee that oversees banking. Banking is not that important in his district. He felt he owned the world and we just live in it.
AnnaN
This has nothing to do with Chris Lee and everything to do with taking one for the team, i.e., falling on Boehner’s sword (No, it’s not a euphamism. I don’t think.)
Now everyone is talking about Lee and not Boehner and those Lady Lobbyists Legs he’s been accused of humping.
Zach
Larry Craig said he’d resign immediately after his story surfaced, which did a lot to quiet the story until he figured he’d just stay in office. I wonder if Lee’s taking that event to heart.
WyldPirate
bbb