By: Ivan Flores / Columnist
Spring is around the corner, the State of the Union address went off with out a hitch (unless you are Republican, but that is a conversation for another time), the smell of daisies and revolution is in the air and there is a fresh political sex scandal that has lead to the shameful resignation of yet another United States congressman.
As of Feb. 9th, 2011, Representative Christopher Lee of New York’s 26th District tenured his resignation from the United States House of Representatives. Lee allegedly replied to a woman’s Craigslist personal advertisement, (you can already see where this is going) and sent lewd photos of himself to her. While the woman in question has yet to be named, what is clear is that Lee used his name and personal email address and a series of weak lies to begin a correspondence with the woman.
Now, to Lee’s credit, he did attempt to cover up a couple of facts about himself. He responded by saying that he was a 39-year-old divorced lobbyist. In his fantasy life, his wife is out of the picture, he is seven years younger and he lives the fast life of a lobbyist with a kid, because if there is anyone you can trust, it is a divorced single parent lobbyist working in Capitol Hill.
Given our politicians’ recent propensity for scandalous affairs, this one is pretty tame. There is no secret family, no love child, no gay affair, no sex tapes, no prostitutes and no molested pages and aides, just some good old-fashioned lying and attempts to deceive and cheat on his wife.
According to the emails and a photo leaked by the woman in question to news and gossip website Gawker, Lee complained about people who lie on Craigslist, and apparently has a penchant for sending half-nude photos of himself to total strangers while missing out on the irony of his quotes and the consequences of his deplorable actions.
In June 2009, Lee wrote an opinion piece about why he supported the Student Internet Safety Act, a bill that aims to educate young people about the dangers of the Internet. Lee wrote: “Responding to what may seem like a friendly email or an appealing marketing offer can have serious consequences. Private information and images can so easily be transmitted to friends and strangers alike.” I suppose hindsight is always 20/20, but to be fair, the bill did not cover the dangers of lying to your wife.
With the advent of the 24-hour news cycle, the Internet, camera phones and newspapers, there really is no way to hide an affair. What politicians need to learn is control and restraint. While many wonder how the tame affairs of Lee have made it to such notoriety, he got busted without actually doing anything, or anyone, for that matter. It is the simple fact that he lied and got caught in the most public of forums, the Internet, and that is what made this story important.
While Lee is no Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister who is currently accused of soliciting an underage prostitute and bailing her out of jail, he is still a disgrace to the American people. If we cannot trust a politician to be faithful to his family, then how can we trust him to be faithful to the American people?
The Politick is a political op-ed column. Look for it every other Wednesday.
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