Things like this are the reason that I don’t expect to be any happier with my government when the next election comes around. We expect our politicians to be pretty much full of crap, but when you have one that takes it to the next level of audacity, you have to stand up and take notice.
The article that I linked to is a little old now and more information has surfaced that doesn’t help Mahoney’s cause, but the gist of it is there. Basically, Rep. Mahoney had an affair with a woman on his staff and then paid her $121,000 to keep her quiet after he fired her. That alone is bad enough, but
“Mahoney himself was elected in 2006 after a sex scandal involving inappropriate communications between underage congressional pages and former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.). Mahoney ran on a campaign to restore moral dignity to the office.”
Seriously? You’re going to bring moral dignity back to the office by having, what you admit to be, multiple affairs. Anyone that has ever discussed fidelity with me knows without a doubt that cheating is something I can’t stand. Even when I watch movies or TV shows, I actually get angry and agitated. So the cheating is bad enough, but then you’re going to be a colossal, hypocritical ass and claim that you have some kind of moral authority to bring respect back to an office. That’s just insulting.
Then there’s this great quote from Politico via CBS:
“I would have come forward earlier but making sure my family is ok is far more important than any political career,” Mahoney said. ”I have not violated my oath of office, nor have I violated any laws, and I consider this to be a private matter.”
First, he wouldn’t have come forward at all if he could have gotten away with it. Then, I’m insulted again that he claims that his family is priority number one. If it really was, he wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. He lied about his family values before to gain political advantage, why should anyone believe him now? Then on top of that, he almost qualifies his guilt by arguing that he didn’t violate his oath of office or any laws so its really not that big a deal or of public concern. Again, if he hadn’t made his moral compass a central plank of his platform, it wouldn’t be as much of a public issue, but he did and so it is.
The silver lining of this whole thing is that he was found out for what he really is and that he won’t be adding his shovel of dirt to politics on any significant scale any more. In the mixed feelings category, I’m truly sorry for his wife and what she’s having to endure by having the breaking of her marriage play out in front of the country, but I’m glad that a political wife that got cheated on isn’t hesitating to get a divorce. I just hope that she can get through this quickly and move on with her life.
Yes, Mahoney is an idiot. No question about it. Worse, he’s a crappy Democrat. This guy is a former lifelong Reublican who got convinced by some local folks that he could make a credible run of it if he switched parties and ran as a fiscally conservative Democrat in a district that’s historically been slightly (but not dramatically) more red than blue.
So he did it. Unfortunately, with the exception of the whole “creepy X-rated text-messages to underage men” part, he seems to be every bit the horn dog that dear old Mr. Foley was. Possibly more so, except that, like I said, in many people’s eyes, the severity of his transgressions is somewhat masked by the fact that they were “normal,” i.e. – between consenting heterosexual adults. There’s a very old saying in politics which has it that the only surefire way a popular candidate or official can wreck their political life is to get caught with a dead girl or a live boy. Heh. Though they’re equally slimy, Mahoney’s peccadilloes don’t have the same irresistible odor of the taboo wafting from them.
He looks nearly certain to get his a$$ handed to him by his Republican challenger in the district, who, up until the time of the revelation of Mahoney’s affair(s), had been running significantly behind him in the polling. In the first week of October, internal NRCC polling had Mahoney cruising (no pun intended, LOL) to reelection over his challenger (Rooney) by a 56-31 margin. Most politicians would love to have such a comfortable lead. The same poll, by the same firm, taken on the 15th and 16th of October, showed Rooney leading Mahoney, 55-29. That’s a fifty-six point swing…..in one week. I don’t think they make a clearer definition of the phrase “electoral collapse.”
So it appears that even the phrase “stick a fork in him” might not be enough to describe Mr. Mahoney’s chances in a couple of weeks here, and good riddance, I say! As always, I share your sympathy for his family, particularly his wife. But not any more, per se, than I did for David Vitter’s family, or Eliot Spitzer’s, or poor Larry Craig’s wife, who had to sit beside him during all those excruciating interviews and continue the charade of being his loyal helpmeet, when she must have wanted to go 12″-cast-iron-frying-pan on his closeted-homophobic a$$.
I truly have begun to believe (given the prevalence of this sort of thing within the political community) that it must be something about the makeup of a person who would be attracted to a life in electoral politics which carries with it the psychological makeup which provides for a large proclivity for inclination towards such sexual shenanigans, in much the same way that certain genes for certain traits can also carry secondary traits with them. Put more simply: I think you have to have an enormous (and possibly fragile) ego to actively want to get involved in electoral politics, and one of the distinct characteristics of such an outwardly-focused ego is the need for love, reassurance, the feeling of being desired. It’s cheap, untutored, armchair-psychoanalysis of the worst, supermarket-tabloid sort, but I think it might have some validity here. I dunno. But I **do** know that I won’t be sorry to see the back of Tim Mahoney, that’s for sure.
Now….don’t even get me started on Michelle Bachmann. Did you SEE her loathsome comments to Chris Matthews on Hardball the other night? Truly vile. Made me reprise Sarah Palin’s joke from the GOP convention, though:
What’s the difference between Michelle Bachmann and Joe McCarthy?
A: Lipstick.
You want vile, of a whole different sort? Look no further.