Anti-Gay Republican Called to Resign Over Sexually Explicit Video of Himself

As I have noted so often before, with a few exceptions, it is ALWAYS conservative Republicans - typically the most anti-LGBT and homophobic - who get caught up in sex scandals.   To the list we can now add GOP State Senator Kintner of Nebraska who an investigation found had a sexually explicit video on his state owned computer which starred himself.  Given Kintner's photo above, it must have been beyond grotesque!!  And true to form, Kintner in typical GOP style wore his feigned religiosity on his sleeve.  The Lincoln Journal-Star has details:

Gov. Pete Ricketts has urged state Sen. Bill Kintner of Papillion to resign if allegations are proven true that Kintner exchanged sexually explicit video of himself using his state computer.

Kintner, who was attending an American Legislative Exchange Council meeting in Indianapolis, didn't return calls to his cellphone Friday afternoon.  He told The Associated Press he wouldn't comment "until there is some finding, if any," by the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission, which handles ethics complaints against public officials.

The patrol says it turned over its investigation to the commission in November after consulting with the state attorney general's office. Accountability and Disclosure Commission Director Frank Daley declined to comment Friday, but the commission is expected to weigh in during a meeting Aug. 5.

In a statement issued Friday, Ricketts said he had phoned Kintner last summer and urged him to resign "if the allegations were true." "Due to the ongoing investigation of this issue, I have been unable to say anything publicly," Ricketts said Friday. "If the allegations are true, Senator Kintner needs to resign.”

Nebraska law forbids public officials from using their state computers for nonessential personal activity.

Democrats quickly chided the Republican governor for his handling of the situation.  "It is not enough for Sen. Kintner to resign in shame. Anyone that knew this information and continued to let him sit in office must also resign," said Jane Kleeb, chairwoman-elect of the Nebraska Democratic Party, in a text message. "Did Gov. Ricketts or his staff look the other way so they had (Kintner's) vote in the Unicameral?" 

Investigators haven't described the video or said whether a permanent copy or other evidence was ever obtained.

But another senator said he contacted the State Patrol last fall after a woman offered to sell what she called a sexually explicit video of Kintner.

Considered one of the Legislature's most conservative senators, Bill Kintner once told the Journal Star that his parents "taught me the moral absolutes of Christianity, and I just applied those to everything."

Hypocrisy is one of the most enduring traits of today's Republicans.

National Enquirer Claims To Have A Scoop On Ted Cruz Sex Scandal

Just when you thought the circus that is the Republican Party presidential primary could not get any more bizarre and ugly, the National Inquiry is about to drop a story about Ted Cruz's supposed mistresses.  Some think the story a little bit too convenient and smell the sent of Donald Trump mischief.  Personally, I don't know why anyone of either gender would want to have sexual contact with Cruz - he is repulsive!  The thought of him naked makes me want to vomit.  That said, it should be noted that it is ALWAYS the "family values" Republicans who wear their religiosity on their sleeves and condemn gays that are the ones caught having affairs themselves.  Crooks and Liars looks at the National Inquirer story.  Here are highlights:

The National Enquirer is dropping a big story which claims to have dirt on Ted Cruz and his alleged extramarital affairs with women, some of who are colleagues and others who are not.

According to the tabloid:

“Private detectives are digging into at least five affairs Ted Cruz supposedly had,” claimed a Washington insider.

“The leaked details are an attempt to destroy what’s left of his White House campaign!”

The ENQUIRER reports that Cruz’s claimed mistresses include a foxy political consultant and a high-placed D.C. attorney!

How conveeeeeeenient.

The pictures they weakly disguise are pretty easy to match up with people. The image above suggests that Katrina Pierson is one of his so-called mistresses, as well as others.

It feels to me like Trump dropped a whole lot of garbage over at the Enquirer to discredit Ted Cruz, and that sense is backed up even more by the fact that one of the lovely ladies is supposedly Donald Trump's spokeswoman. That's just a little too convenient.

Still, it certainly seems to have lit up the right wing blogosphere a bit, particularly those who reside in the Trump camp.

Here's the thing. As much as I discredit almost anything coming from the National Enquirer, they are occasionally right when they report this stuff. They were correct about John Edwards, for example.

It's hearsay at this point, but it leaves a nice pile of grist for the rumor mill.

And of course, everyone who goes to the supermarket and actually believes these rags will see that headline splashed across the checkout line while waiting to pay for their groceries.  That could make for an interesting back and forth between Trump and Cruz.

This is the kind of innuendo the right wing usually reserves for the left. Like the story Michael Savage amplified about Scalia being murdered in his bed, for example. Whether or not it's true, they'll just shrug and say, "It's out there!"

At Least One of Dennis Hastert Sex Abuse Victims Named by Family

Hastert and victim

The gay sex scandal swirling around former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert continues to grow as the family of one now deceased victim of abuse has come forward.  The actual individual - who many assume to be yet another Hastert victim - remains unidentified.   In grasping the full hypocrisy of Hastert it is important to remember that Hastert consistently voted against gay rights measures just like former Virginia 2nd District congressman Ed Schrock whom I helped to "out."  In Schrock's defense, at least he wasn't insidiously preying on minors like Hastert.  Schrock was a total hypocrite, but he wasn't a sexual predator. Again, it is noteworthy that it is almost always the "conservative," "family values" Republicans who are the ones that become embroiled in gay sex scandals.  ABC News has details on this development.  Here are highlights:

In Steve Reinboldt’s 1970 high school yearbook, wrestling coach Dennis Hastert wrote that Steve was his “great, right hand man” as the student equipment manager of the Yorkville, Illinois wrestling team. 

But Steve was also a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Hastert, Steve’s sister said Friday in an interview with ABC News. It is the first time an alleged Hastert victim has been identified by name since his indictment for lying to the FBI and violating federal banking laws to cover-up past misconduct. Hastert, due in court next week, has not responded to the allegations. 

In an emotional interview, Steve Reinboldt’s sister Jolene said she first learned of her late brother’s purported years-long sexual abuse at the hands of the future Speaker of the House back in 1979 when her brother revealed to her that he was gay and had been out of high school for eight years. 

Jolene said she asked her brother why he never told anyone. “And he just turned around and kind of looked at me and said, ‘Who is ever going to believe me?’”  

Jolene said that Steve told her the abuse lasted throughout Steve’s four years of high school as he served as team student manager. “Mr. Hastert had plenty of opportunities to be alone with Steve, because he was there before the meets,” she said. “He was there after everything because he did the laundry, the uniforms. So he was there by himself with him,” she added. 

Her brother also spent time with Hastert as a member of an Explorers troop, which Hastert ran. Photos taken by her brother show Hastert with a group of boys on a diving trip to the Bahamas.

Reinboldt’s sister says she has no doubts about the veracity of what her brother told her 36 years ago. 

Jolene said she believes the abuse ended when Steve moved away after his high school graduation in 1971. Reinboldt died of AIDS in 1995. She believes Hastert’s alleged actions irrevocably changed Steve's life for the worse. 

“He took his belief in himself and his kind of right to be a normal person,” Jolene said. “Here was the mentor, the man who was, you know, basically his friend and stepped into that parental role, who was the one who was abusing him… He damaged Steve I think more than any of us will ever know.”

Her anger boiled over when she said Hastert was so “brash” as to show up at Steve’s funeral viewing.

“I was just there just trying to bite my tongue thinking that blood was coming out because I was just… So after he had gone through the line I followed him out into the parking lot of the funeral home,” Jolene said. “I said, ‘I want to know why you did what you did to my brother.’ And he just stood there and stared at me. He didn’t say, ‘What are you talking about?’ you know, [or], ‘What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He just stood there and stared at me. 

“Then I just continued to say, ‘I want you to know your secret didn’t die in there with my brother. And I want you to remember that I’m out here and that I know.’ And again, he just stood there and he did not say a word.”  Hastert got in his car and drove away. Jolene said Hastert’s non-response “said everything.”

[F]or years, Jolene watched helplessly as Hastert basked in fame and power, seated to the left of the president for years in the early 2000s for the nationally-televised State of the Union address.

“I would just watch for a while and then I would just have to get up and leave the room and just, you know, either cry or scream,” Jolene said. “I can’t believe the audacity of that man and how he thinks he will get away with it.”

PHOTO: Dennis Hastert, right, plays cards with members of the Explorer's Club in the Bahamas.

Hastert at State of the Union

It's a sad and disturbing story much like that of priest who abused minors for years - often with the aiding and abetting of the Church hierarchy.   The ultimate irony is that the far right accuses gays of preying on or "recruiting" children and youths.  Gays who are out and open in their lives do not need to prey on youth and those we can intimidate like the Hasterts and predator priests of this world.  It is they, not gays, who are a threat to children and youths.  And, if the "godly Christians" would cease their war on gays, people like Hastert would hopefully not feel compelled to live hypocritcal double lives and there would be far fewer Steve Reinboldts.  Meanwhile, I wonder how many other victims Hastert preyed upon.

How "Public Servant" Hastert Got His Riches

In addition to the surprise over the indictment of former House Speaker that raised the issue of Hastert's past sexual abuse of a male student, many have been surprised at how a former school teacher and coach was in a position to be paying millions in hush money.  The answer, of course, is Washington's revolving door which allows former elected officials to reap millions after retirement to work for lobbying firms and other organizations.  Hastert in more ways than one represents what's wrong with Washington today. A piece in The Daily Beast looks at how Hastert became wealthy as have far too many politicians.  Here are excerpts:

It’s clear that the indictment of Dennis Hastert has raised more questions than it’s provided answers. But I suspect a lot of people are asking the wrong ones. Hastert’s “misconduct” may turn out to be of sexually predatory nature, in which case talk of how much his reputation is worth is picayune compared the nature of crime. But there are questions about what he did that are applicable to the entire industry he represents.

The most obvious question, that’s also the least relevant for most Americans: What is the “misconduct” that Hastert is alleged to have been trying to cover up?

If the conduct was sexual abuse, as sources are saying, then the statute of limitations has run out. It follows that Hastert wasn’t paying hush money to stay out of jail, he was protecting his reputation.

A better question, and one that many Washington watchdogs leapt on quickly: How did Hastert happen to have enough money lying around that paying out $3.5 million was even within the realm of possibility?

Hastert’s ability to participate in the blackmail is, after all, itself a general indictment of D.C.’s “revolving door” money culture, in which former lawmakers move easily from government into lobbying. In Hastert’s case, the ability to profit off of one’s legislative position is especially galling: While in office, Hastert used the earmarking process to turn his investment in some Illinois farmland into a profit of 140 percent when a federal highway project just happened to make its way through those very fields. Indeed, it was this instance of a completely legal form of insider trading that helped prompt Congress to end earmarks.

And, of course, Hastert made even more money once he was out of office. One study found that, on average—and when the information is publicly available—former lawmakers get a 1,425 percent raise when they make the jump from Capitol Hill to K Street. Hastert, who was worth between $4 million and $17 million when he left Congress, was making $175,000 as a representative. His K Street bump would be to almost $2.5 million a year.

And, it’s important to remember, what Hastert was covering up with that hush money was not a “reputation” as an average citizen might conceive of it: something akin to honor or trustworthiness or fidelity. A lobbyist’s reputation, after all, actually hinges on his or her established lack of principles. A lobbying client for someone who is a former member of Congress is paying a premium for that person’s willingness to engage in barely-legal favor-trading. A lobbyist’s prices go up the more corrupt he is. Who wants to hire an honest one?

Mark "I'm Hiking the Appalachian Trail" Sanford Wins SC Special Election

The prior post mentioned the hypocrisy of the far right, especially the Christofascist set which is far too well represented in the South Carolina populace.  How else to explain the win by Mark Sanford - a self-admitted adulterer who ignored his responsibilities as Governor while having sexual trysts - in the special congressional election.  The party of "family values" elects an adulterer to Congress while maintaining its war on women, gays and hard working immigrant families.  The hypocrisy just doesn't get much worse. 

Florida's GOP Lieutenant Governor Denies Lesbian Affair

Usually it's the less than attractive GOP men who are seeking some hot same sex action on the side.  Now, in a new twist of the Republicans yearning for what they condemn on the campaign trial, Florida GOP Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll, is fighting the fallout from a lawsuit in which Carroll is accused of firing a staffer who caught her in "a compromising position" with another woman in her capitol office. News reports naturally cite that Carroll is married with children - as if that proves a damn thing.  Given straight men and their apparent fascination with lesbian sex - just look at Playboy magazines - perhaps male Republicans will overlook the sordid tale.  It is  telling, however, that like closeted male Republicans Carroll has campaigned on an anti-gay agenda.  Here are highlights from The Advocate:

Jennifer Carroll, Florida's lieutenant governor, is accused of firing a staffer who caught her in "a compromising position" with another woman in her capitol office. But Carroll is denying it ever happened in emails sent to her supporters, according to Florida media.

Reuters first reported Thursday that former staffer Carletha Cole is engaged in a lawsuit and that in a court filing earlier this month revealed she had walked in on her boss with her travel aide, Beatriz Ramos, in "a compromising position" — a phrase used by Cole's lawyer in the filing.

Carroll, who is married with children, said in an email to a supporter released by the governor's office that she "will be fighting back." In another, she blames the media for reporting the accusation.

Carroll, a Republican, is a former state legislator and became the first female elected as lieutenant governor when joining Gov. Rick Scott on his ticket in 2010. She is also the first black politician elected to any statewide office. 

She was famously critical of the media in a fiery sermon of a speech before the Faith and Freedom Coalition in September, when she called for a "righteous government."   Carroll did not talk about LGBT rights but did say, "these are very sad times when we allow the minority to poison the minds of the majority. This is exactly what dictators and socialist rulers did. When it comes to our Christianity, there is no gray area. It is either you believe or you don’t believe. And if you believe, you believe with all of your heart, all of your soul and all of your might."

Carroll, a Navy veteran, also told the conservative website Newsmax in September that she didn't agree with President Obama's decision to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. She said the military should have been left alone to decide how to proceed, without noting that the major military leaders actually supported DADT repeal.

Another "Family Values" GOP Sex Scandal

While the GOP claims to be the party of "family values," it sure seems to have an excess of elected officials that just cannot keep their pants zipped up or otherwise stay out of trouble. The latest scandal ivolves New York Congressman Vito Fossella who not only has confessed to fathering a "love child" with a woman who is not his wife, but also just was arrested on a DUI charge in Northern Virginia. How do you say HYPOCRITE? The GOP/Christianists want to meddle in everyone else's sex life, yet they sure as Hell cannot even manage their own. Here are highlights from the Huffington Post:

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Disgraced New York Congressman Vito Fossella broke down in tears on the floor of the House of Representatives today, apparently under the emotional weight of his recent behavior. Fossella acknowledged on Thursday that he had fathered a daughter, now three years old, with a woman who wasn't his wife. News of his adultery came just a week after the Staten Island Republican was arrested for drunk driving in suburban Virginia.

*

He is expected to appear in court next week and could face jail time if convicted for his drunk driving charge. According to the New York Times: "A police report in Alexandria, Va., a suburb of Washington, said that Mr. Fossella ran a red light on Thursday just after midnight and had a "strong smell of alcoholic beverage" when he was pulled over. According to the report, Mr. Fossella told the officer that he was on his way to pick up his daughter, who needed to go to the hospital, although on Friday he said that he had been on his way to visit friends.

Another GOP Hypocrite

The Washington Post is reporting today (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502002.html) on yet another “family values” Republican who definitely did not practice what he preached. Members of the party of sexual repression just cannot seem to get enough sexual thrills - from pornographic pictures of minors in this case. The latest hypocrite to be exposed is Robert A. McKee, a long-serving Republican delegate from Western Maryland who apparently got off on child pornography (it will be interesting to see if the pornographic materials involved young boys). Now there’s an example of practicing good family values for you. The man is a disgusting pig. Worse yet, ala former Florida Congressman, Mark Foley, McKee sponsored legislation to protect minors from sexual predators and served as executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County, Maryland. Here are some story highlights:

Robert A. McKee, a long-serving Republican delegate from Western Maryland, announced his resignation yesterday after authorities, who say they are conducting a child pornography investigation, seized two computers, videotapes and printed materials from his Hagerstown home. The FBI's cyber-crimes unit and the county sheriff's office are reviewing the materials seized from McKee's home Jan. 31, federal and local authorities said. "No charges have been filed as of this time," Sheriff Douglas W. Mullendore said. Mullendore declined to elaborate on what he called a child pornography investigation and said authorities have not searched the delegate's office in Annapolis.

McKee's resignation will take effect at 8 p.m. Monday. He said in his statement that he will cooperate with authorities. "In the meantime, I have entered treatment," McKee said, without providing specifics. "My primary focus is to get well and stay well. I know this can only happen with the support and prayers of my family and friends and the help of professionals."

McKee, who is considered a political moderate, has sponsored bills this year dealing with minors, including the Child Protection From Predators Act and a proposal to collect DNA samples from sexual predators. McKee has sponsored several other sexual offender and child abduction bills in previous years. For decades, McKee has been involved in youth athletics and children's groups, according to his General Assembly biography. He has served in officer positions in two Little League groups and as secretary of a parent and child center advisory committee. He is a former chaplain for the Hagerstown Jaycees and is a trustee and community services chairman at First Christian Church.

House Republicans convened an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss the situation.

Florida's $400,000 Blowjob

This short piece form Dan Savage (http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/400000_blowjob) shows how much the Florida taxpayers will be shelling out for a special election now that park restroom sex offender Bob Allen has resigned from office:

Bob Allen—the GOP state rep in Florida that was arrested after offering an undercover cop $20 and a blowjob in a public toilet—was convicted of solicitation last week, sentenced to six month’s probation and fined $250. Allen has now resigned from the Florida state house, much to the delight of his GOP colleagues, and a special election has to be held to pick his replacement. And guess what? It’s going to cost the state $400,000 to hold that special election. “That’s one expensive blowjob,” says Towleroad.

Well, technically no one got blown—so I’d describe it as one expensive bloverture. But knowing how much it would cost to replace Allen, the GOP might have helped to reestablish its fiscal-conservative bona fides by encouraging Allen to serve out the rest of his term, a la Larry Craig.

Larry Flynt Teases New “Huge” GOP Senate Sex Scandal

If this story proves true, it should be great fun to watch unfold. I do not know if there is any basis to it or not, but there surely has been some gossip locally that the the two Virginia Beach men on trial in Pennsylvania for murder of a rival gay porn producer had been running not only an gay escort service in this area, but also one in Washington, D.C., used by GOP members of Congress. Rumor has it that a "client list" might exist. Since the two lost all their assets (the State of Virginia seized them for alleged racketeering) and are seeking money for their legal defense fund, if such a list existed, it would surely be something Flynt would pay handsomely to acquire:

Larry Flynt, editor and publisher of Hustler magazine, just told FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto that he’s “hoping to expose a bombshell” that will stand “Washington and the country on its head.” Within the next week or two, he says his magazine will expose a sex scandal of huge proportions involving a prominent United States Senator. Flynt refused to comment on the Senator’s political affiliation, but alluded that he or she is a Republican.