Virginia GOP Congressman Used Staff as Servants

Tom Garrett (R-Va) - treats staff like servants.

If one wants an example  of the self-centered arrogance of elected officials, look no farther than Virginia 5th District Congressman, Tom Garrett.   Not surprisingly, Garrett is a Republican.  A major story in Politico reports on how Garrett and his wife treated Garrett's congressional staffers as virtual servants during business hours when they should have been performing governmental duties.  While mostly rural, Garrett's district - the largest territorially in Virginia - includes the cities of Charlottesville and Danville.  It goes without saying that sane voters would not reelect someone like Garrett, but never underestimate the idiocy of Virginia's rural Republican voters.  Here are highlights from Politico:

Virginia Rep. Tom Garrett and his wife turned the congressman’s staff into personal servants, multiple former employees to the freshman Republican told POLITICO — assigning them tasks from grocery shopping to fetching the congressman’s clothes to caring for their pet dog, all during work hours.

POLITICO has spoken with four former staffers who detailed a deeply dysfunctional office in which the congressman and his wife, Flanna, often demanded that staff run personal errands outside their typical congressional duties. The couple called on staff to pick up groceries, chauffeur Garrett’s daughters to and from his Virginia district, and fetch clothes that the congressman forgot at his Washington apartment. They were even expected to watch and clean up after Sophie, their Jack Russell-Pomeranian mix, the aides said.

The staffers said they feared that if they refused Garrett‘s or his wife’s orders — both were known for explosive tempers — they would struggle to advance in their careers. It wasn't just full-time staff: many of the allegedly inappropriate requests were made of interns, the former aides said.

“I didn’t know who I was working for: Was I working for him? Was I working for her?” said one of those staffers who, like others interviewed for this story, asked not to be named for fear of retribution. “We became their gofers.”

The behind-the-scenes turmoil boiled over Tuesday evening, when Garrett’s chief of staff, Jimmy Keady, abruptly parted ways with the congressman. His exit, multiple sources say, came amid a dispute with Garrett over the couple’s alleged misuse of official resources. Multiple sources raised the issue with the congressman, and senior staffers tried to rectify the situation repeatedly.

On Wednesday, Garrett, a 46-year-old Army veteran and former state senator, began telling associates that he was considering not running for reelection — stunning Republicans in Virginia and Washington.  But a day later, he reversed course, saying during a rambling 30-minute news conference that he would in fact seek another term.

Aides also grew acquainted with the couple’s dog, who often came to the office with the Garretts. Staffers were expected to watch the dog during office hours, and one aide did so over a weekend. Several aides said the couple would sometimes seem to forget the dog was in the office. When that happened, at the end of the day, aides were responsible for transporting it back to Garrett’s Washington apartment.  One source said the dog occasionally defecated on the floor and aides had to clean up the mess.

Aides also served as drivers for the congressman’s older daughters from a previous marriage, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Garrett’s conduct could raise ethics concerns. The House Ethics manual prohibits lawmakers from using staff for anything other than official congressional duties. Members are explicitly barred from instructing aides to do personal errands in the manual, which also recounts situations in which staff were wrongly told to fetch personal mail, clean a member’s home and pay a member’s bills.

Staffer say the atmosphere in the office was toxic, however, and the demands were far outside what should reasonably be expected of congressional aides. Flanna would reach out to aides at all hours of the night, according to two former staffers. One person recalled an incident in which Flanna lashed out at a staffer for not picking up the congressman from his apartment after he overslept.

Since taking office in January 2017, Garrett has had among the highest levels of turnover in the House, according to records compiled by legislative data company LegiStorm. More than 60 percent of his staff left in 2017, compared with the House’s typical 25 percent turnover rate that year, making the office fourth out of more than 400 legislative shops.

Obviously, Garrett must be using Der Trumpenfuhrer as his role model.

Same-Sex Marriage Not About Sex

The white Christofascists and other detractors of LGBT individuals like to always define us in terms of sex acts - sex acts which many of us may not even engage in at all or perhaps in frequently at best.  Heterosexuals do not define themselves solely in terms of who they are attracted to or the who they love.  Its all part of the effort of the "godly folk" to make LGBT persons somehow less than human and, therefore, worthy of abuse and discrimination.  As noted before, the real issue for these horrible people (that's how I see Christofascists) is that they cannot countenance anything or anyone who differs from their sick, neurotic fantasy world  belief system.  Hence, all too typically, they similarly hate blacks, Hispanics, non-Christians.  The list, indeed, is almost endless.  A column at DanRiver.com (the Danville, Virginia newspaper) of all places has an op-ed column that looks at the toxicity of homophobia and also makes the case that gay marriage isnot about sex.  Here are excerpts:

I was proud to see the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturn Virginia’s ban on same sex marriages.

Contrary to the motto, Virginia has not always been “for lovers.” Growing up in Danville, I can remember a time when interracial dating was against the law. It was the case of Loving v. Virginia in which the Supreme Court held Virginia’s ban on interracial marriages was unconstitutional and the government could no longer engage in racial discrimination.

For many young gays who have no support from their families, endure ridicule from their peers and receive condemnation from their church, death becomes a better choice than life. There is no form of oppression greater than the young gay man who sits in his church every Sunday and hears his pastor exclaim God hates things about him he cannot change. I would ask all the perfect people in the congregation to please stand.

Same-sex marriage is not about sex. It is about control, power and receiving the full protection of the law to the same degree as heterosexuals. I am not demanding anyone becomes a proponent of homosexuality or same-sex marriage. While I disagree with their theology, I respect the right of churches who oppose granting same-sex marriages from their altars.

Still, such a position should not translate into opposition to legalization of same-gender loving outside of their churches. In America, it is the state, not any church, that legitimizes the legal license of marriage. The church may choose, or not choose, to add its blessing to such a legal union. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. concluded, what makes America great is even when a person is deprived of a right, he or she always has the right to fight for that right. This is the very reason why I chose a career in politics, so I could fight for the rights of all persons (he, she, or “undecided”).

With the legalization of same sex marriage in 19 states and the president recently issuing an executive order that prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against workers based on their sexual orientation, we are moving closer to an America that lives “out the true meaning of its creed” and respects the humanity and dignity of all persons. Go Virginia!

Virgil Goode Denies Involvement with Eden's Curve

Not surprisingly, Congressman Virgil Goode quickly denied any involvement witht the gay themed movie, Eden's Curve, written and produced by Jerry Meadors, the artistic director of the North Theater in Danville, which received a $150,000 earmark from the federal budget due to Goode's efforts. Meadows went to great lengths to explain why Goode and his wife, Lucy, are thanked in the closing credits of Eden’s Curve. Of course, even if Goode had no involvement with the movie, many of the Neanderthals in his district will be none too happy now that they know that Goode has a gay Press Secretary who had a part in the gay theme movie. Goode's district includes progressive areas like Charlottesville, but also some of Virginia's most reactionary and backwards areas as well with many Bible beating fundamentalists. Here are some highlights from Charlottesville's Daily Progress:

*

U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount, said on Wednesday that he had nothing to do with a 2003 art house film that depicts gay sex, violent beatings and drug use. “I never gave any money to that film. Wouldn’t do it,” Goode said. “Haven’t even seen it. Wouldn’t see it.”

*

In a bizarre twist to Goode’s re-election bid against challenger Democrat Tom Perriello, news rocketed across Virginia’s blogosphere on Wednesday that Goode and his wife, Lucy, are thanked in the closing credits of “Eden’s Curve,” a gay coming-of-age film that was inspired by a true story that occurred in Danville during the 1970s.

*

The film is about a young man who goes off to an all-male college and begins to explore his sexuality, eventually engaging in a ménage a trois with his roommate and his roommate’s girlfriend. Afterward, the roommate becomes jealous and savagely beats the protagonist. A poetry professor takes in the injured main character and they begin a sexual relationship of their own. Once their affair is made public, however, the student leaves school and the professor commits suicide.

*

Revelations about “Eden’s Curve” emerged at a Wednesday morning press conference convened by liberal blogger and activist Mike Stark. Stark, a student at the University of Virginia School of Law, is best known for getting tackled by several George Allen supporters in a video filmed at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel in 2006.

*

Stark said he was tipped off about the film’s connections to Goode because Stark is a nationally known antagonist of conservative Republicans. “Eden’s Curve” is relevant to Goode’s re-election campaign, Stark said, because Goode is a vocal opponent of same-sex mar-riage.“When you stick to the facts, there’s a question of hypocrisy,” Stark said. “Virgil Goode sets forth this vision of family values that excludes, in a vituperative way, homosexuals. … There’s enough smoke here. And there’s certainly the fire of hypocrisy.”

*

In 2003, Goode secured a $150,000 federal economic development earmark to help businessman Roy Gignac finance a $3.5 million restoration of the North Theater in Danville. Meadors is the artistic managing director of the theater.

*

Goode added that he was unaware of the subject matter of “Eden’s Curve.” He only knew, he said, that Duncan had a role in “some film.” A spokeswoman of Perriello, Goode’s opponent in the Nov. 4 election, declined to comment. “We just learned about this,” spokeswoman Jessica Barba said. “We’re still trying to process the details. We’re not going to comment on this right now.”