Nashville News Blog

Good question RHR

For those looking to turn this into a democrat vs. republican issue or liberal vs. conservative, I think the biggest difference between sex scandals between the two parties is the hypocrisy issue. People cheat on their partners all the time, that's not a political issue and for the most part I'm in favor of it being a thing for families to sort out and deal with privately. BUT when your party and you personally (as is the case in so many of these scandals) put yourself out there as a voice of morality and try and legislate the privacy and rights of others when it comes to "family values", you better make sure your own house is in order or deal with the consequences. This isn't about how it's ok for democrats to have affairs and fuck interns and it's not ok for republicans, to me it's about how so many of these republicans make judgements and argue laws on the basis of protecting families when their own family lives turn out to be well crafted lies.

And in the case of Paul Stanley and his disgusting waste of time and money to ban adoptions by single parents (i.e. GLBT folks) while he was busy fucking an intern and paying off her boyfriend to keep it all quiet, this scandal really couldn't happen to a better person.

I knew this would immediately pull out the "Well, what about..." response that dittohead morons are convinced is an unanswerable and clever retort for any Republican misdeed.

Thanks RedHatRob for being so predictable.

Of course, what others do or have done is irrelevant to what Paul Stanley has done. RedHatRob suggests that something Bill Clinton did more than a decade ago in Washington somehow immunizes Paul Stanley from any sort of criticism or accountability. Of course, that is stupid.

RedHatRob also suffers from the collective mental illness of right wingers who inherently just cannot perceive their own hypocrisy. His attitude: "Well, you never said anything about Clinton, so you must be a hypocrite." Put aside the curious idea that no Democrat ever criticized Clinton's conduct; that's simply not so. But, ebven putting that aside, RetHatRob, being an idiot, does not consider the flip side of such an assertion:

RedHatRob, you were so disgusted with Clinton, why are you not equally disgusted with Stanley? Doesn't that make YOU a hypocrite?

Ryan B - I couldn't agree more

So, what is really a "threat" to marriage? A lying, hypocritical predatory heterosexual adulterer in public life? Or two lesbians getting married, living together, and minding their own business?

To be fair to Stanley (which pains me to do, the bigot deserves anything he gets), it sounded like he was just talking about being the victim of the blackmail attempt and hence he couldn't say much because of the pending case on that part of things, not that he was necessarily claiming to be the victim in the whole scandal or denying responsibility as that goes.

I doubt that. He went on to say that not only was he a victim, but that this was all a misunderstanding and that he was looking forward to clarifying things once the investigation had been concluded.

My guess is that he wanted to get those photos into the hands of the cops so that they'd be part of the investigation and therefore not easily obtained by the press. If our little blackmailer actually wanted to expose Sen. Stanley for the finger-wagging blowhard hypocrite that he is, then these pictures would be in the hands of the Commercial-Appeal right now. But since the TBI has them, they're considered "evidence."

That's probably the best that Stanley could make of the situation, near as I can cipher.

Tenn Rod -- It looks like Red Hat Rob wrote that he agrees Stanley should resign -- his point was the hypocrisy of liberals who defended Clinton's actions with an intern ,but are now calling for Stanley's resignation for an elicit relationship (we assume) with an intern.

As for Stanley, he should resign, but his failure as a husband and father should not diminish the correctness of his policy positions. If so, then shouldn't Obama be called out for sending his children to private schools while he publicly opposes school choice? What about a politician who supports abortion rights, but would not allow his or her child to receive an abortion -- is that fair game?

Rico, you're a moron. For many reasons, but in particular, this comment:

"but his failure as a husband and father should not diminish the correctness of his policy positions"

Yes, yes it does, when you consider his "policy positions" include discriminating against loving couples AND individuals while extolling the superiority of the ONE TRUE WAY, heterosexual marriage. His (repeated) infidelity demonstrates the fallacy of his argument.

Aunt B, I agree. If indeed sex was had between the intern and Stanley, he should resign or be ousted. The if is not a very big one because why would he resign his chairmanship if he wasn't guilty? I also agree with Ryan. I also agree that it was a wonderful way to hide the pictures by calling in the TBI. And, the Governor from SC should be ousted because he lied to his staff and was unavailable when he should have been working. As for Clinton & Lewinsky, I lost any respect I had for Hillary for putting up with Bill but I never had any for Bill to begin with. If a representative for The People will lie and cheat on their spouses and family that they supposedly love, they will lie and cheat their constituents. I lean more toward the Repulican party for various reasons and I have been saying consistently that the problem with the Republican party is that most of the leaders put themselves up on a pedestal with no where to go but down. Don't preach morality and principle's to me when you are just a human yourself and not willing to walk the walk. I was disgusted that the assistant to Sen. Black wasn't fired. Wonder if that self-righteous Robin Smith would be throwing Stanley out of the party or making excuses? Glad she's gone. At least that's one right step for the TNGOP.

Betsy, thank you for this post. I had a similar experience at my first job right out of college. I was green and starry-eyed and worshiped my (married) boss. Said boss spent the better part of two years manipulating me into a sexual relationship. Let's just say it didn't end well, and I spent years trying to recover from the experience.

It's abusive for someone in a position of power to enter into a relationship with any subordinate, let alone a much younger one. Period.

Hootie -- Your post is the second reference I've read to an alleged prior affair with another legislator's assistant. The other one was from someone commenting on another blog that she had served as an intern.

Paul is not the sharpest knife in the drawer and being the Mama's boy that he is, has an inflated sense of self.