Posted by
Young Republican on Monday, March 10, 2008 4:03:11 PM
Why, oh why, can't politicians just take Nancy Reagan's common sense to heart? She only wants the best for them with her immortal "just say no" saying. Mocked by the elites as naive, over simplistic and full of false nostalgia what was lost on them was the fact that she was dead right. And while she was talking about drug use, the saying also applies obviously to a vice of any kind. With names just recently like David Vitter, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Elliot Spitzer (today's addition), Bill Clinton (within the last five minutes adding to his resume) and well known in my hometown of metro-Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick, just to name a few, the list of politicians who haven't mastered the art of zipper control grows longer.
Any Republican in the 90s remembers getting into an argument over the Clinton impeachment. They played on Republican moral ADD, bringing the conversation back to defending immorality instead of that little matter of perjury. It worked. In Detroit, for those outside the Motor City let me fill you in.
It seems our dear Mayor had an affair with his female chief of staff, Christine Beatty. The city found out because it seems that the famously young Kilpatrick instead of sending love notes texted his beloved mistress. Did he do it on his own phone? No, he used the city phone where all text messages are stored by the city. Silly boy, text messages are for kids. Regardless, the affair leaked and Beatty resigned. But just a year before, the city had a whistleblower lawsuit, involving two police officers who said they were fired for finding out about the mayor and his girlfriend. So under oath, Beatty and Kilpatrick both said that neither of them had an affair. They now both say they did. They were asked if they text messaged each other, regarding their sexual relationship under oath. They said no, they now say they did. Both of them have not even denied they have committed perjury, a nice change.
But Kilpatrick, who's list of ethic infractions grows with every headline, some related to the "Sex and Text" scandal others not. His press secretary got arrested for domestic violence and then was paid with tax money for a position that did not exist. Additional texts show him giving government contracts to friends purely because they donated to his campaign. An exotic dancer who "preformed" on the Mayor, and was slapped by his wife at the Mayor's never confirmed ghetto version of a Gatsby party was killed by someone placing a hit on her. Shot over forty times, she was killed by a police issued firearm.
And what about the whistleblower suit? The mayor then agreed to an out of court settlement giving the two officers, $8.4 million dollars in tax money as long as they turned over the text messages. Not only did he use hush money, he used taxpayer money from the citizens as his hush money. This all sound like some grand conspiracy theory, right? What if everything could be confirmed with court transcripts? Yes, we now have the court transcripts that confirm everything about the affair and the hush money with an on going investigation with the murdered dancer.
Kilpatrick who has always been hated by the white suburbs is now hated by a vast majority of minorities outside and inside the city. The Wayne County prosecutor will decided on charges within the week, with back room deals being worked on as I write this. The city council will vote on whether to seek Kilpatrick’s dismissal early next week and our Governor can fire Kilpatrick at any moment, while he stubbornly says he won't quit.
All of this makes for great reading and horrible leadership. Kilpatrick's story seems to be the most colorful (although Spitzer's is sounding competitive) but all of this leads to one last person who needs to be talked about, Nicolas Sarsoky, president of France.
Sarsoky and his wife, Cecilia were widely reported to be estranged on the campaign trail, with her out right saying she wasn't going to perform any of the duties of first lady. France elected him over Segolene Royal (who incidentally spilt with her husband about the same time due to his infidelity). After a few months the Sarsokys divorced and he later courted and married Carla Bruni. While the tabloids were happy about the event, the French people replied, "Come see, comme say". Rather bored by the event, almost all accepted it. Which brings to me to this, if one can't say no, simply say yes to a full relationship like Sarsoky did. Don't cause this scandals, simply divorce and remarry and while morally you may look less the stellar simply accept who you love and honor the one you don't by being honest with them in all manners. And the challenge to us as citizens is to accept when a politican comes out either with their sexuality or their relationship with another. It really then, is none of our business. Scandals oui, relationships non.