Yesterday, Christopher Lee resigned from Congress. I have to admit, I was astonished. I thought that at the age of 88, he had better things to do. Then I remembered him from “Attack Of The Clones” and “Revenge Of The Sith,” and decided that he really didn’t have anything better to do. But I was still puzzled — for one, I think I’d have heard if Count Dracula had been elected to Congress, and for another, Sir Christopher is a British subject — which makes him ineligible to serve in Congress.
Then I found out that the “Christopher Lee” in question was American, barely half Sir Christopher’s age, and a New York Republican.
Chris Lee is married, has a son, and was in the middle of his second term when he was caught looking for a little… er… “variety” through Craig’s List under an assumed identity. Note I say “identity,” not “name” — because he sent out shirtless pictures of himself to prospective paramours under his real name, and one of them used this new-fangled doohickey called “Google” to recognize that he was not a single, former lobbyist, but a married Congressman.
At which point Lee set a new record for shortest time between “scandal breaks” and “resigns in disgrace.”
I don’t think I’d even heard of this doofus before, and I don’t think I missed much. I’m glad he’s gone. No, not for the “scandalousness” of his conduct — yeah, he’s a swine and needed to be smacked down — but because he was so stupid about it. The idiot used his real name while trolling for trollops, and for that alone he should be gone. And he is.
But he brings up an interesting point about political scandals. When caught with their hands in the cookie jar, there is a difference in how Democrats and Republicans generally react.
When caught, the Republicans tend to resign. The Democrats tend to stick it out, saying “they will let the voters decide.”
Yes, there are exceptions. David Vitter comes to mind. But on the other hand, there’s Paul Jack Ryan, Mark Foley, Rick Renzi, Tom DeLay, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, and a host of others who either resigned or didn’t run for re-election — they left office voluntarily.
On the other hand, there’s Charlie Rangel, William Jefferson Clinton, Jim Traficant, Bill Clinton, Rod Blagojevich, Jack Murtha, Ted Kennedy… none of whom left office willingly, if at all.
The left rejoices in these sorts of scandals. When they hit Republicans, it’s obviously because they’re hypocrites — the Republicans are the “family values” party, and it’s fun when they get caught with their pants down. In fact, it’s far more serious than when it’s a Democrat.
But they never look at the converse argument. Of course it’s less serious when it’s a Democrat — we pretty much ought to presume they’re scumbags from the outset. We don’t — and shouldn’t — expect anything better from them. And before one can “resign in shame,” one has to have some shame in the first place — and Democrats are infamous for having no shame.
So, this nobody no one had ever really heard about got caught being an idiot. And he is gone. Good riddance.
But I’d take a dozen doofuses like Lee if that meant we could get rid of Charlie Rangel.
