Conservative California legislator gives pornographic account of his multiple affairs (including a lobbyist) into open mic

Back in July, Michael Duvall, a second-term California assemblyman who "is the vice-chairman of the legislature's commerce committee and a member of its ethics committee, are married with two children and are known as a staunch defender of conservative family values" was to appear on a televised committee meeting. Not realizing his mic was already live, he began to brag about his sexual conquests.

Make sure your microphone is OFF before bragging about and giving disgustingly lewd details of your affair with a much younger woman who is also a lobbyist whose clients have business before your committee, and also laughing about the fact that you are simultaneously cheating on your wife and your mistress with yet another woman...
Not content with mentioning the fact he was having an affair, which would have caused problems enough, Duvall -- who I am now officially christening "Open Mike" -- launched into explicit details, many of which are too nasty to reprint here, and all of which were captured by his microphone. (Among them: tiny underwear, spankings, and the 19-year-age difference....

It gets better:

"She wears little eye-patch underwear," said Duvall, who is married with two children. "So, the other day she came here with her underwear, Thursday. And  so, we had made love Wednesday--a lot! And so she'll, she's all, 'I am going  up and down the stairs, and you're dripping out of me!' So messy!"...
During his political career, Duvall has unabashedly espoused conservative  principles and is known as a partisan Republican with a knack for theatrics:  He has noisily driven his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to functions. In 2008,  Duvall blasted efforts to condone gay marriage. Legislatively, he has  proposed bills to aid the insurance industry and government contractors  feeding off the state's massive transportation kitty.
  He has offered a law to alter the First Amendment rights of Americans by  banning anti-war activists from putting the names of fallen soldiers on  T-shirts with messages such as "Bush lied" on the front and "They died" on the back; he observed that the dead soldiers fought to protect freedom, and "opportunists" should not be allowed to "exploit" the sacrifices with political messages opposing war. 
Such thinking impressed certain constituencies. Earlier this year, the man who never graduated from high school received "100 percent" approval scores  by the California Republican Assembly, the state's leading conservative outfit, and the Capitol Resource Institute (CRI), a fierce guardian of traditional family values. 

And best of all? He's refusing to resign (though he's taken to actually running away from reporters).

Open Mike Likely to Close Out Legislator's Career

OC Assemblyman In Bed With Lobbyist . . . No, Literally In Bed

Update: He resigned.

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noen

I think it’s amazingly hypocritical how the right wingers suddenly get all metropolitan and open minded when one of their own gets caught in one of these affairs. It’s almost like to them, morality is for other people. Naaawwwwww.
mccrum

@29, JB NicholsonOwens,

I’m an independent as well for pretty much the same reasons, the system seems to be broken and neither party is fighting for the citizens, they’re just fighting for control. I’m quite sure there are individuals at all levels of government that truly want to make things better for people but they are overshadowed by the party system that just wants to punish the other team.

I may be getting more despondent as we go along, but I’m not sure being independent or affiliated with either party is doing any of the citizenry any good. They seem to listen only to the far ends of the spectrum and ignore the middle. Sigh.
Fang Xianfu

JB NicholsonOwens, #30: Your argument is a bit fallacious though – you’re supposing that nobody cares about who he sleeps with, enough so that they’d collectively rather he stay in office where he can be coerced. But in a world where nobody cares, he can’t be coerced because nobody would care if his secret were revealed.
Phikus

Freeyourcrt@~77: If you listen, you will find folks who will discuss the issues intelligently and with facts. Many of them comment here frequently. I haven’t seen much of that coming from the conservative side of the aisle since Reagan took office, and it’s been especially in a drought for the past 8 years. It seems the MO is to sucker-punch folks with alarmist rhetoric designed to circumvent the logic circuit; painting knee-jerk straw men and then trying to make their frame stick by echoing it loudly across the airwaves without an iota of truth.

If your argument is that those who have been pedaling “family values” ad nauseum are even, generally speaking, anywhere close to practicing what they preach, I don’t think the facts fit your assertion. If fact, the record (cited by Brainspore to recap) would seem to show quite the opposite.

This is my grenade and it only hurts those who backstab from the shadows.
farrago

@30 “So I figure it makes more sense to use his embarrassing circumstance against him by making him vote as I would like him to vote.”

I presume that’s exactly what the lobbyist for an energy company was thinking while she was sleeping with the much older, fat, balding, man whose even cheating on his mistress with another mistress. Oh and he just happens to be on the committee that regulates her industry. Coincidence?

That is why he should resign irrespective of whether you think his “private affairs” should have any affect on his public persona. A clear conflict of interest and lack of honesty and trustworthiness.
mdh

Shouldn’t the lobbyist be charged with prostitution?

I almost applaud her for taking the money out of politics.
Osprey101

I think people are being a little unfair here. For a change, the Republican involved was diddling a) someone of the opposite sex and b) over the age of consent. Progress!
Moriarty

Since the default assumption is that the vocal anti-homosexual demagogues are just self-hating closet queers, the fact that he would be having a sleazy affair with a woman is the only surprising thing. Maybe he was making it up. Or at least switching pronouns?
Takuan

one down.
Anonymous

Cheating on your wife, womanizing, and mind-boggling hypocrisy are traditional family values that are dear to the hearts of conservatives. I don’t see why he had to resign.
PaulR

I’m glad to see that I not the only one who’s creeped out by the fact that this pol was sleeping with “a .. woman who is also a lobbyist whose clients have business before your committee”?

And that
“the man who never graduated from high school received “100 percent” approval scores â€¨by the California Republican Assembly, the state’s leading conservative outfit, and the Capitol Resource Institute (CRI), a fierce guardian of traditional family values.â€¨

“Assemblyman Duvall has been a consistent trooper for the conservative causes,” CRI president Karen England announced in March. “For the last two years, he has voted time and time again to protect and preserve family values in California. We are grateful for his support of Californiaâ€¨ families.’”

Yes, a beacon and a shining example to the world…
Waterlilygirl

Pigs must grunt.
Anonymous

Paulatz @ #17 Well one suspects that the Italian politician that he’d be most interested in is Ciccolina.
Ugly Canuck

Agreed, Phikus: the rightists have been applying the findings of the social sciences and of psychological research as a means to mislead. Or to put it another way, “for effective advocacy in public fora of otherwise unpopular measures”.

Don’t be fooled….there is nothing “old-fashioned” about them. Nor indeed “conservative”.

These people are radicals.
Phikus

Undergroundbastard@~56: I did not originally get your reference. Now I do. My sincere apologies.

Canuck: Thanks. Ready for them to trot out the biggest excuse to ram their agenda down everyone’s throats again tomorrow for a special day of fun?
Uncle_Max

@freeyourcrt #83:

Does this incident mean that this legislator somehow misrepresented his constituents?

Cheating on his wife and mistress by themselves don’t, but the fact that at least one of the mistresses is a lobbyist for clients that he had business involvement with. I’d say it’s pretty damn likely that he wasn’t following the will of his constituents.
freeyourcrt

A few quick points:

When the article describes this legislator as known to be “staunch defender of conservative family values” I am not sure what that means. Seems like sleaze-ball-guilt-by-association journalism to me,

I watched the news clip and the news station hides the identity of the person he is talking to? Further, this post makes no mention of the identity of the legislator “Open Mike” was talk to. Why?
elix

@Antinous #11:

His particular “conservative principals” were in favor on small government, low taxes, etc.

So…when you say ‘low’ do you mean ‘high’, and when you say ‘small’ do you mean ‘large’?

Snark mode on. I’d say those are completely consistent ‘conservative’ principles.
Anonymous

Well, now we know what lobbyists do for a living. The question is, will the rest of the legislators disassociate themselves from this group quickly enough?
Phikus

Undergroundbastard@~56: Nice false equivalency, dude. You might as well have jumped up and yelled “You lie!” for all the use we can get out of that comment. I could up the ante and talk about getting drunk and shooting someone in the face (and not reporting it for over 24 hours) and having him apologize for it, but then where would we be?
jphilby

And there’s a capsule example of all the challenged Americans who are holding the rest of us back …

smug, self-satisfied blusterers prattling about their ‘values’ while they prove to be filthy and ignorant pigs in their daily lives. Over and over and over and over…
Baldhead

Seems like traditional christian family values to me: all’s fair as long as you don’t get caught.

he got caught. caught himself, really.
Brainspore

freeyourcrt #64:

When the article describes this legislator as known to be “staunch defender of conservative family values” I am not sure what that means.

It means that self-described conservative organizations like the Capitol Resource Institute said that he “voted time and time again to protect and preserve family values in California” and gave him a 100% rating.
freeyourcrt

@89 Brainspore

“They would if his opinions on social justice centered around stopping other people from sleeping around.”

But did Rep. Duvall ever author, promote or otherwise support legislation centering around adultery? “Family values” is a broad brush and can include a wide range of issues like parental rights, taxes, private property etc,. Rightly whether this letchislator likes to kiss and tell will never change many of his constituents opinion as to their rights as parents. All this post does is provide fodder to misrepresent others and their priorities. It’s what passes for journalism and news today I guess.
freeyourcrt

@ #80 Phikus

But this post doesn’t aid in any discussion (nor is it wonderful). It’s just salaciousness, and schadenfreude rolled up into one. Again, it’s not a left vs. right thing. Do revelations about JFK’s adultery speak the validity of his opinions on social justice or economics? Does this incident mean that this legislator somehow misrepresented his constituents?

If someone wants to report this as “news” then I would think who he was talking to is also newsworthy information. Otherwise the whole thing smacks of a hit-piece, deserved or not.

Out of curiousity, does anyone know how was he not hearing what was apparently an open mic?
JB NicholsonOwens

#36: No, this is not an all or nothing game. I’m guessing that most people will continue on as they have been in the past: choosing to point and laugh while issues of greater importance pass them by. I need only a few organized people talking to some hundreds of others to make large social changes.

Also, just to be clear, I don’t need anyone to think that his cheating is unimportant. I wouldn’t recommend that either; I’m sure it’s of great importance to his family. I would like to see a few organized people in his district think that his cheating is less important than what he can be pressured into by telling him that they’re still willing to work with him so long as he votes according to socially-minded goals.

I figure that this is what corporations do every day apparently to great effect on their behalf. I wouldn’t be surprised to know that Sempra knew about his cheating and didn’t care until it was used to remove Duvall from power (so he can’t benefit Sempra anymore). I’d figure Sempra thought that was just another bit of ammo in their pocket they could use when needed.

It’s time the public do something mutually beneficial for themselves in an organized way and clearly pointing at or embarrassing the cheater isn’t saving anyone from poverty or getting them affordable, reliable health care that isn’t tied to a job. I’d drop this idea if I saw people coming up with other plans. Instead I see people gloating over his cheating and no plans on how to work on convincing legislators to vote in accordance with what the public wants (which is not more corporate involvement in their lives).
freeyourcrt

@#66 BRAINSPORE

Thanks for the info.

My point, of course, was to call attention to the implication that a legislator with a particular voting record on certain issues who is seemingly “exposed” as some kind of fraud or hypocrite has somehow discredited the ideas or value of those things they have come to be associated with. If you need to, try putting switching out this legislator with one of your heroes du jour.
Ugly Canuck

sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.
fight fire with fire…
undergroundbastard

@82 Phikus: Undergroundbastard@~56: I did not originally get your reference. Now I do. My sincere apologies.

No worries. Was just getting ready to hyperlink you an explanation when I saw this last post. Verily, ’twas breaking my heart you thinking me a lout insofar as I was/am agreeing with your takes in this conversation. :-)
Ugly Canuck

Or, if you prefer: he that lives by the sword, shall die by the sword.

Nothing to pity here.

move along…
freeyourcrt

#90 Uncle Max

“Cheating on his wife and mistress by themselves don’t, but the fact that at least one of the mistresses is a lobbyist for clients that he had business involvement with. I’d say it’s pretty damn likely that he wasn’t following the will of his constituents.”

Agreed.
Jim Terr

“OPEN MIKE” – excellent, Cory! I never would have thought of that.
freeyourcrt

@ #94 Uncle Max

If you want to see how this selling out your constituents thing works on the other side of the aisle us Californians don’t have to look far:

http://www.metroactive.com/feinstein/
missamo80

He actually did resign, late today: http://www.duvallforassembly.com/resignation.html.
Antinous / Moderator

We might need a botfly larva chaser.
zikman

looks like he just resigned
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/breaking-news/orange-county-gop-boss-calls-o/
zikman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7u0eox2eR4
noen

Shouldn’t the lobbyist be charged with prostitution? I think a case could be made that she traded sexual favors for his votes on legislation she wanted. Does that count as prostitution? Does it make her firm her pimp?
Daemon

Chances ar he’ll find god (probably under his bed) and be back in politics inside a year.
Antinous / Moderator

Heh. Even pixelated, the guy who he’s telling the story to looks like he’s cringing.
ESQ

I’m just posting because I thought this thread really deserved a pot #69.
IWood

EPIC. Just epic.
Cicada

Makes sense. Look at it this way– if you came into a country where they had strict laws against molesting livestock, where they preached against it in their churches, where children were strictly warned against the practice, and where the subject caused almost hysterical condemnation it’s not because you’ve run into a country of animal-rights activists. You’ve come to a country of sheepfuckers.
People who are really concerned about “sin” have sin on their minds…a lot…
_kevitivity

His particular “conservative principals” were in favor on small government, low taxes, etc. But I’m glad this class-A shit-head is gone.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  His particular “conservative principals” were in favor on small government, low taxes, etc.
  
  So…when you say ‘low’ do you mean ‘high’, and when you say ‘small’ do you mean ‘large’?
  
  “Legislatively, he has â€¨proposed bills to aid the insurance industry and government contractors â€¨feeding off the state’s massive transportation kitty.â€¨ He has offered a law to alter the First Amendment rights of Americans byâ€¨ banning anti-war activists from putting the names of fallen soldiers on â€¨T-shirts with messages such as “Bush lied” on the front and “They died” on the back; he observed that the dead soldiers fought to protect freedom, and “opportunists” should not be allowed to “exploit” the sacrifices with political messages opposing war.â€¨”
robcat2075

It would be hysterical if he is getting nailed for something he just completely made up.

But that tape is so unintelligible he might have gotten away with claiming he said something else.

“like to spank her”?

No, I “biked to thank her”!
Dan

I don’t think I like Conservative Family Values. They seem pretty dysfunctional.
ackpht

I guess you have rise to the level of governor or senator before you can just stonewall these things and get away with it.

At least this creep knows when to quit.
Brainspore

@freeyourcrt #68:

My point, of course, was to call attention to the implication that a legislator with a particular voting record on certain issues who is seemingly “exposed” as some kind of fraud or hypocrite has somehow discredited the ideas or value of those things they have come to be associated with.

One scandalous legislator can’t discredit an entire cause, true. For that you’d need quite a number of that cause’s leaders to get caught waddling through the deepest pits of hypocrisy.
Cowicide

Theocratic dystopia in found in action once again inside the republican gomarrah… how quaint…

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/4/republican_gomorrah_inside_the_movement_that
AirPillo

At least some of the rotten ones are merciful enough to be very stupid.
slgalt

Lobbyists are dirty.
daev

@7 Cicada:

I’d like to formally nominate your sheepfucker statement for “Comment of the Decade”.

I will be doing my part to make sure the entire world is familiar with that statement.

Thank you for making my year.

(and you owe me a new keyboard. I’ve got beer and mayonnaise running out of my nose)
Anonymous

@#11: What gives you the idea that republicans think there’s a connection between taxes collected and public spending or that there is any purpose to (and thus a need to control the use of) the subsidies?
gabu

At least he said “made love.”

Heh.
blacksquare

“I don’t see what the problem is. Middle-aged men, married, with two children cheat on their wives with the first hot 20-year old secretary that comes along. That sounds like ‘traditional family values’ to me. It’s about as clicheed as you can get. Boring!”

Pay attention to the story before you comment, please. The issue is *not* about a private affair. There are two larger problems here. 1. This man espouses legislation that determines the constitution of other peopleâ€™s families, while he does not feel personally bound to any of the conservative ideals he enshrines into law. 2. One of the people he is apparently having an affair with is a lobbyist for an energy company with business before his committee. So there are at least two ways that he is cheating the state of California. This is not only about personal morality; it is a violation of the public trust.
deckard68

@46 – Exactly! This wasn’t an affair, it was bribery. The companies that were pimping the escort — or “contracting with the lobbyist” — were violating laws.
wizardofplum

# 7- CICADA The prerequisite for a sheep shagger is wearing a pair of Wellies.Since this blabber-mouth seems to suffer from ‘foot in mouth’ disease he has either tiny feet or a huge mouth.
paulatz

Oh well, now that he’s resigned he can just learn Italian and come over here: I’m sure he’ll go along very well with Berlusconi.
Cicada

@16- Well, we don’t know the size of his feet, but the latter we can be utterly sure of.
mdh

So he’s all set for a career in Washington now?
freeyourcrt

@ #70 BRAINSPORE

Guilt by association is a two way street that winds through all parts of town. We ignore the merits and validity of ideas at our own peril. I am one of many who are tired of this fashion of news making. Further, I don’t see too much that is wonderful about it.
MadMolecule

From the omniscient and infallible Wikipedia:

The conservative Capitol Resource Institute gave him a 100% rating, calling him “a consistent trooper for the conservative causes” who “voted time and time again to protect and preserve family values in California.”

You stay classy, Duvall.
infinitemptythoughts

This Republican sophomoric blabber about his infidelity is a non-issue, the unknown is how the
State got the shaft while he worked for the public enemy.

According to CBS, the man was openly bragging to his cohorts in the California Assembly for along time! just wondering how many other are siting this one out till the smoke clears.HHM
mdh

But this post doesn’t aid in any discussion (nor is it wonderful). It’s just salaciousness, and schadenfreude rolled up into one.

it’s only schadenfreude when poor people do it.
mdh

It’s only guilt by association when poor people do it.
Brainspore

@freeyourcrt #83:

Do revelations about JFK’s adultery speak the validity of his opinions on social justice or economics?

They would if his opinions on social justice centered around stopping other people from sleeping around.
Yamara

Takuan @#39

one down.

This would be mildly comforting if it were not for his graphically descriptions of his efforts to make more of him.

gah, where’s that wall of fluff
Phikus

Thank you, Brainspore. =D

It is sad that, with our media so cowed and controlled these days, such a sloppy admonition seems the only way to expose the method used in greasing the wheels of the machine. Only when one does not think and follows orders in lockstep does one get a 100% rating from one’s party. Only by lobbing in grenades of truth from the sidelines can we possibly start changing the course.
Ugly Canuck

A gentleman never tells.
ackpht

“Well if your doing it, you can answer that, if not, you really don’t know do you.”

Years ago I found out that a former friend had been cheating on his wife- openly, repeatedly, and without remorse. I spoke to him about it and he offered (all of) these excuses:
*you can’t judge me
*it just happened, it’s nobody’s fault
*you can’t say you’d never do it, because either you’ve done it, or you haven’t and thus don’t know
*my wife has been doing stuff too (a lie)
*I’m still my wife’s “best option” (his words).

Self-serving BS, then and now.
mdh

Only by lobbing in grenades of truth from the sidelines can we possibly start changing the course.

We might win by ‘own goals’ at this rate.
mastercontroller

Again, I say:

For most people it’s only a dream…

for others, it’s just another weekend.

Or, uh, wednesday for the campeadores.
Brainspore

@freeyourcrt #71:

Guilt by association is a two way street that winds through all parts of town.

And the “Family Values” crowd has been taking it to the Red Light district.
automaton_be

I don’t see what the problem is. Middle-aged men, married, with two children cheat on their wives with the first hot 20-year old secretary that comes along. That sounds like ‘traditional family values’ to me. It’s about as clicheed as you can get. Boring!
freeyourcrt

@73 Phikus

Was this post “a grenade of truth?”

By lobbing grenades I only see that you get a whole of grenade lobbing, not much truth, and certainly less intelligent discourse.
Brainspore

Everybody who’s been paying any attention at all knows that

Family Values Politician = Sleeping Around, Likely With Other Dudes.

Newt Gingrich himself was getting his knob polished at the same time he was trying to run Clinton out of office over the Lewinski thing.
ackpht

Infidelity may not be the only issue, but it most certainly is an issue.
Rindan

To be honest, I don’t give two shits who politicians shag. Billy Clinton getting a little under table treatment from whatever is in grabbing distance and has a pulse is annoying because it would be nice to have politicians who could pretend to be role models, but I can tolerate it.

What really pisses me off is when you have self righteous pricks trying to shove morality down the throats of all of the other citizens at gun point with the power of the state, all the while not even putting on the pretense of attempting to practice what they preach. You have anti-gay republicans diddling other men and “family values” pricks like this jerk banging lobbyist. You would think at some point when they have their prick half in of whatever it is that suits their pleasure (and these “family values” folks seem to have a rather wide range of tastes) and they would stop and think, “Hey, I am kind of acting like a hypocritical ass, maybe I need to stop one of these two activities”.
Cicada

@24- Ummm…if he continues to be a hypocritical ass, he gets _both_ activities. If he stops being hypocritical, he has to give up one. Sounds less fun.
DWittSF

‘Drippy’ Duvall was also a big Prop 8 backer, defending the sacred institution of marriage. I guess paid whores like Heidi DeJong Barsuglia don’t count, because its ‘bidness.’

I’m looking forward to AG Jerry Brown digging into Drippy’s affairs–Duvall claims now he was making it up, but we’ll see what happens under oath.
Anonymous

â€œFamily Valuesâ€ California state assemblyman representing Orange County, Republican Michael D. Duvall, resigns for apparently not cheating on his wife. Well you have to take his word for it, or maybe believe that hypocrisy has been bred in. In my opinion the Republican Party has been taken over the most extreme religious right (people who love to push their beliefs on others while trying to take away rights of those they just hate) and thatâ€™s who they need to extract from their party if they real want to win. Good Luck, because as they said in WACO, â€œWe Ainâ€™t Coming Outâ€. He is just another name that can be added to the list of Republican 2009 summer of love: Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), SC Board of Ed Chair, Kristin Maguire.
Anonymous

It’s a shame he resigned so quickly. I would have loved to see him try to hang on to his job, the mud raked up would have made for some truly spectacular road accident theatre.
Oren Beck

Woe betide us if evil in government becomes any less fumbling than what we’ve seen here… The starkly incomprehensible things to me? It’s not just that his 100% approval rating is honestly true for his supporters. It’s that it will go up due to his martyrdom at the hands of Evil Liberal Media. The Truth has set him free.
Pyros

Michael D. Duvall is living proof that money and power are all that is needed to get a fat old white guy laid.

After this pig, and the Joe Wilson comment, my visceral for dislike for Republicans is once again boiling to the surface. I mean, they really are vile.
SamSam

On http://www.duvallforassembly.com/resignation.html

Assemblyman Duvall Denies Reports that he Had Affair

“I want to make it clear that my decision to resign is in no way an admission that I had an affair or affairs. My offense was engaging in inappropriate story-telling and I regret my language and choice of words. The resulting media coverage was proving to be an unneeded distraction to my colleagues and I resigned in the hope that my decision would allow them to return to the business of the state.”

Why does one suddenly hear the sound of 10,000 eyes rolling?
Anonymous

Oddly enough, at the time Cory posted this, Duvall had already resigned – 9.5 hours earlier.

Now he’s saying that the affairs never happened, but that he is guilty of being a “story-teller.”

Please feel free to use this official campaign photo in all future discussions of this fine fellow: http://twitpic.com/h4hp0
Papa Ray

I love this…If I was in government I would be screwing everybody that I could. Especially lobbyists. It is only fair don’t you know. Lobbyists are the lowest of the low so they should be rewarded with lots of screwing over.

Married? That means nothing in the USA or the world anymore. More married people are getting it on outside of marriage than single people ever thought or dreamed about.

Is it good or right. Well if your doing it, you can answer that, if not, you really don’t know do you.

Nothing is free, everybody pays.

Papa Ray
West Texas
undergroundbastard

Well, at least he didn’t rape and murder a young girl in 1990…
undergroundbastard

@96 Daev / @7 Cicada:

Ditto.

That comment wound up inspiring its own blog entry:

http://undergroundbastard.blogspot.com/2009/09/another-one-bites-dust.html
Category

@nithya – Hello!
MrJM

You Californians are sooooooo groovy.

– MrJM
JB NicholsonOwens

I think it’s a Pyrrhic victory to run politicians like these out of office. Celebrating his departure from politics is trading away an ace in the hand for a bit of schadenfreude or righteous indignation.

I don’t care who he has sex with (I figure however much that angers his partner and children that’s not my concern) but I do care how he votes on issues I care about because I care about the people affected by those votes. So I figure it makes more sense to use his embarrassing circumstance against him by making him vote as I would like him to vote.

Essentially tell him straightforwardly, publicly (this should not be a blackmail campaign), and without remorse that if he wants to stay in office (remain in power) he had better vote properly or we’ve got the ammunition to run him out on a rail.

Clearly politicians aren’t going to quit having sex outside their marriages and propping up corporatocracy. Corporate rule is a life and death issue and therefore a far more important issue than who cheats on whom. It’s time the public organized by using the power of self-inflicted wounds like these to stop increased corporate influence in their lives.

@Pyros: Democrats are no better because they draw from the same corporate coffers for campaign funds. So they report to the same masters and therefore support the same policies. Consider the most recent national elections on a couple big issues to illustrate: the war was supported by both major parties and “debate” was decided on how best to manage invasion, occupation, and killing (remember Kerry and Obama’s campaigns?), not how quickly we can stop invading, occupying, and killing. The recent health care “debate” is about how to best fund the HMOs and pharmaceutical corps while making it look like the public is in charge, not a serious pursuit of what polls indicate most Americans want–universal single-payer health care (Pres. Obama’s turnaround on this issue is a great example of this). I believe Democrats and Republicans are a false dichotomy in politics on all the big money issues which is why I’m independent.
Ian70

I can’t say anything nice about this story.. so I’m not going to say anything.
Notary Sojac

Rindan @ 24: “To be honest, I don’t give two shits who politicians shag….. but I can tolerate it.”

I agree. What really pisses me off is politicians voting to raise my taxes while they cheat on their own.
Anonymous

@#32, Shadowfirebird: “While we’re at it, who turned on the mike?”

Um… I think you meant “mic.”

Mr. Duvall made it abundantly clear what the answer to “who turned on the mike?” is.
shadowfirebird

Shame we don’t have video of this. Not because I want to hear what the idiot said. I want to see the expression on the face(s) of the other guy(s).

Did they know the mike was on? Were they frantically making shushing motions, or sitting there smugly knowing that the idiot was shooting his career in the head in front of them?

While we’re at it, who turned on the mike?

I guess we’ll never know.
gothicgeek

what a cretin!

:)
doggo

Typical. The more vociferous the Conservative is about specific issues, the more likely they are to be engaging in them. It should be a journalistic investigative guideline.
mastercontroller

^^ He ran himself out of office.

Much like gravity acting upon his seed, his own actions foretold of his ignominious end.

He was a man damned by his own bad manners — even cowboys know not to shoot where people eat — and, admittedly, liquefaction.

I’m sure most don’t want to renounce his humanity, it’s just really funny that a guy in a position of authority talked about his semen and spanking on TV. And now it’s hilarious that he claims that he was making it all up, after he quit his job.

Hopefully, given the eyepatch thing, he lands a job replacing those damn Quebecois from the freecreditreport.com commercials.

Or was that last one a bit of a reach?