GOP Congressman Resigns Over Scandal

New York Rep. Lee Resigns

Jonathan Weisman
Wall Street Journal
February 9, 2011

Rep. Chris Lee, an upstate New York Republican, abruptly resigned from the House of Representatives Wednesday evening after the gossip website Gawker published flirtatious emails he sent to a woman on Craigslist while he was professing to be a divorced lobbyist.

There was no indication Mr. Lee, who is married and has a son, ever met the woman. The woman sent to Gawker the emails and a shirtless picture she said Mr. Lee had emailed her, the website said.

Mr. Lee, a second-term congressman from a district that stretches east from Buffalo along Lake Ontario to the Rochester area, announced he would step down "effective immediately."

"I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents," Mr. Lee said in a statement Wednesday evening. "I deeply and sincerely apologize to them all. I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness."

The abrupt departure came on the same day the story broke.

According to emails posted by Gawker, Mr. Lee answered a "woman seeking man" ad on Craigslist on Jan. 14. The woman asked why men on the popular website all "look like toads."

"Hope I'm not a toad. i'm a very fit fun classy guy. Live in Cap Hill area. 6ft 190lbs blond/blue. 39.. Lobbyist. I promise not to disappoint," Mr. Lee wrote, according to the email posted on Gawker.

Mr. Lee appeared to shave seven years off his age. He is 46 years old.

Why is it that when Republicans get caught, the almost invariably step down, but when a Democrat gets caught, doing much worse (can anyone say bribes and tax cheating) they hang on for years - remember Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana? Caught with 90,000 in his freezer? Or Charlie Rangel's scandalous tax cheating, among other things?

dblboggie wrote:Why is it that when Republicans get caught, the almost invariably step down, but when a Democrat gets caught, doing much worse (can anyone say bribes and tax cheating) they hang on for years - remember Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana? Caught with 90,000 in his freezer? Or Charlie Rangel's scandalous tax cheating, among other things?

They hang on because their constituents keep re-electing them. DeLay got the boot by his own folks. Rangel could commit a felony ad still be holding office.

TexasBlue wrote:

dblboggie wrote:Why is it that when Republicans get caught, the almost invariably step down, but when a Democrat gets caught, doing much worse (can anyone say bribes and tax cheating) they hang on for years - remember Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana? Caught with 90,000 in his freezer? Or Charlie Rangel's scandalous tax cheating, among other things?

They hang on because their constituents keep re-electing them. DeLay got the boot by his own folks. Rangel could commit a felony ad still be holding office.

Makes one question the sanity of voters who are Democrats. I know I wouldn't vote for a Republican who'd been caught in such a scandal. Character matters, no matter what liberals say to justify people like Clinton, Jefferson, Rangel or Geithner. Imagine, the Treasury Secretary, the senior person over the IRS, being a common tax cheat, and still holding that post to this day. It's disgraceful.

As I'm sure some Democrats would question the sanity of Republicans who would want Sarah Palin as a Presidential candidate

It wouldn't be me. She won't run anyhow. If she did, she wouldn't make it out of the primary for the GOP nomination.

Either way, she'll never get that far.... unless she turns into a socialist.

Well she might, she CAN see Russia from her house

My point is that I'm sure there are plenty of Democrat voters, activists and paid members who are not happy with Obama's administration and never wanted him, so to call into question the sanity of all of them is to tar them all with the same brush, the same sort of tarring the right complains about when they all get labelled as religious zealots.