“Political partisans on both sides have demonstrated recently that they believe accusations of sexual misconduct, but only when it’s politically expedient and doesn’t hurt their own interests.”
Partisan mendacity all round on the part of their defenders/enablers.
If “partisan medacity” is “all round on the part of their defenders/enablers”, how do you account for the fact that many folks on both sides of the political spectrum are saying that they believe the accusations of sexual misconduct even when it isn’t politically expedient and does hurt their own interests — the liberals condemning Senator Franken and the conservatives condemning soon-to-be Senator Moore?
I’ll grant you that there is more than enough tribal loyalty to go around, but you are drawing too bright a line, Stephen.
I doubt it’s the first case of consensual sexual activity in an Ohio rep’s office. Were the others forced out?
Wesley Goodman wasn’t forced out. He quit.
The man had no political future at all going forward, after spending his entire political career portraying himself as a staunch and unyielding champion of “family values” and a staunch and unyielding opponent of LGBT rights at every turn, he was exposed as a raging closet case, a fraud and a liar.
That’s why he quit. Good riddance to him.
What I find difficult to believe is how Goodman imagined that he wouldn’t be exposed, sooner or later, given his persistent pattern of reckless conduct.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
Why is it any business of Ohio’s Republican legislative leaders whether this state rep was “gay and not faithful to his wife”? Maybe it’s the business of his constituents, maybe it’s God’s business, but not the House Speaker’s.
The Ohio Senate has a 24-9 Republican composition, the Assembly a 66-33 Republican composition. It seems that the legislature’s Republican leadership learned that Wesley Goodman might well be a political time bomb waiting to explode, and questioned him about it. He lied to them, apparently.
It isn’t unreasonable (intrusive, yes, unreasonable, no) for Republican leadership to try to assess a potentially damaging political time bomb, no matter what David Boaz may think about it. And particularly so a few months back, when Republicans still made a pretense of supporting moral values.
And now the time bomb has exploded, and all sorts of folks, from Tony Perkins on down (up?) are being called out for hiding Goodman’s behavior and protecting him.
The scandal that Republican leadership tried to evaluate and avert has exploded in their faces.
Shit happens.
posted by Jorge on
What I find difficult to believe is how Goodman imagined that he wouldn’t be exposed, sooner or later, given his persistent pattern of reckless conduct.
I agree.
t isn’t unreasonable (intrusive, yes, unreasonable, no) for Republican leadership to try to assess a potentially damaging political time bomb, no matter what David Boaz may think about it. And particularly so a few months back, when Republicans still made a pretense of supporting moral values.
And now the time bomb has exploded, and all sorts of folks, from Tony Perkins on down (up?) are being called out for hiding Goodman’s behavior and protecting him.
The scandal that Republican leadership tried to evaluate and avert has exploded in their faces.
Shit happens.
I agree even more.
It saddens me that I learned one good thing about the Family Research Council, in that they swept one and more prior incidents under the rug publicly and kicked him out privately (a decision I firmly agree with, with the caveat that it’s not up to political organizations, any more than it is up to colleges, to report secondhand information to the police if the victim does not wish to do so), and it still turned to ashes when Goodman defied Tony Perkins to run and win anyway.
No, I am deceiving myself. It’s not just the attempt to convince him to do the right thing that saddens me. It is realizing that they must have known one of their members was gay, and they tried to treat him with the same honor system they would have anyone else.
Had they simply kicked him out for being gay–excuse me, gay lifestyle gay or openly gay or whatever they’re really against, had he agreed to go the ex-gay route, either way, a scandal would have been avoided. Instead he went into the closet without any peer support, without any type of precedent or moral guidepost. This served him rather badly.
……the FRC has dealt with gay people in its midst before. That has to be the case. That’s all there is to it. (Or do you think it’s about sexual impropriety in general?) But you can’t control other people’s behavior. Only your own.
posted by Lori Heine on
Both “major” political parties are, at this point, beyond reform. Look all the way down both benches and you’ll find nothing but trash.
This was why–with millions and millions of people in this country–we “had to settle” for Turd Sandwich vs. Giant Douche in the 2016 presidential election.
It will be no different from now on.
As long as the sheeple remain content to sit in the pricey stadium, on their fat butts, and mindlessly root for the Yankees or the Red Sox, there never will be anything different.
4 Comments for “Oh what a tangled web we weave…”
posted by Tom Scharbach on
“Political partisans on both sides have demonstrated recently that they believe accusations of sexual misconduct, but only when it’s politically expedient and doesn’t hurt their own interests.”
Partisan mendacity all round on the part of their defenders/enablers.
If “partisan medacity” is “all round on the part of their defenders/enablers”, how do you account for the fact that many folks on both sides of the political spectrum are saying that they believe the accusations of sexual misconduct even when it isn’t politically expedient and does hurt their own interests — the liberals condemning Senator Franken and the conservatives condemning soon-to-be Senator Moore?
I’ll grant you that there is more than enough tribal loyalty to go around, but you are drawing too bright a line, Stephen.
I doubt it’s the first case of consensual sexual activity in an Ohio rep’s office. Were the others forced out?
Wesley Goodman wasn’t forced out. He quit.
The man had no political future at all going forward, after spending his entire political career portraying himself as a staunch and unyielding champion of “family values” and a staunch and unyielding opponent of LGBT rights at every turn, he was exposed as a raging closet case, a fraud and a liar.
That’s why he quit. Good riddance to him.
What I find difficult to believe is how Goodman imagined that he wouldn’t be exposed, sooner or later, given his persistent pattern of reckless conduct.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
Why is it any business of Ohio’s Republican legislative leaders whether this state rep was “gay and not faithful to his wife”? Maybe it’s the business of his constituents, maybe it’s God’s business, but not the House Speaker’s.
The Ohio Senate has a 24-9 Republican composition, the Assembly a 66-33 Republican composition. It seems that the legislature’s Republican leadership learned that Wesley Goodman might well be a political time bomb waiting to explode, and questioned him about it. He lied to them, apparently.
It isn’t unreasonable (intrusive, yes, unreasonable, no) for Republican leadership to try to assess a potentially damaging political time bomb, no matter what David Boaz may think about it. And particularly so a few months back, when Republicans still made a pretense of supporting moral values.
And now the time bomb has exploded, and all sorts of folks, from Tony Perkins on down (up?) are being called out for hiding Goodman’s behavior and protecting him.
The scandal that Republican leadership tried to evaluate and avert has exploded in their faces.
Shit happens.
posted by Jorge on
What I find difficult to believe is how Goodman imagined that he wouldn’t be exposed, sooner or later, given his persistent pattern of reckless conduct.
I agree.
t isn’t unreasonable (intrusive, yes, unreasonable, no) for Republican leadership to try to assess a potentially damaging political time bomb, no matter what David Boaz may think about it. And particularly so a few months back, when Republicans still made a pretense of supporting moral values.
And now the time bomb has exploded, and all sorts of folks, from Tony Perkins on down (up?) are being called out for hiding Goodman’s behavior and protecting him.
The scandal that Republican leadership tried to evaluate and avert has exploded in their faces.
Shit happens.
I agree even more.
It saddens me that I learned one good thing about the Family Research Council, in that they swept one and more prior incidents under the rug publicly and kicked him out privately (a decision I firmly agree with, with the caveat that it’s not up to political organizations, any more than it is up to colleges, to report secondhand information to the police if the victim does not wish to do so), and it still turned to ashes when Goodman defied Tony Perkins to run and win anyway.
No, I am deceiving myself. It’s not just the attempt to convince him to do the right thing that saddens me. It is realizing that they must have known one of their members was gay, and they tried to treat him with the same honor system they would have anyone else.
Had they simply kicked him out for being gay–excuse me, gay lifestyle gay or openly gay or whatever they’re really against, had he agreed to go the ex-gay route, either way, a scandal would have been avoided. Instead he went into the closet without any peer support, without any type of precedent or moral guidepost. This served him rather badly.
……the FRC has dealt with gay people in its midst before. That has to be the case. That’s all there is to it. (Or do you think it’s about sexual impropriety in general?) But you can’t control other people’s behavior. Only your own.
posted by Lori Heine on
Both “major” political parties are, at this point, beyond reform. Look all the way down both benches and you’ll find nothing but trash.
This was why–with millions and millions of people in this country–we “had to settle” for Turd Sandwich vs. Giant Douche in the 2016 presidential election.
It will be no different from now on.
As long as the sheeple remain content to sit in the pricey stadium, on their fat butts, and mindlessly root for the Yankees or the Red Sox, there never will be anything different.