Pages

Saturday, September 12, 2009

O Lord, Not Another Republican Family Man?

Assemblyman Mike Duval, a good, staunch married “Family Values” Kinda Guy, from conservative Yorba Linda, in Orange County has resigned. He was caught yakking and yukking it up during a legislative hearing when he thought his microphone had been turned off, telling his fellow committee member, during a break in the meeting, about his “sexual escapades with a woman he says is 18 years younger,” who also happens to be a lobbyist, as reported by Juliet Williams of the Associated Press.

Sounding more like a Valley Girl than an Assemblyman, the story details his conversation: “I’m getting into spanking her,” sez our Assemblyman, the guy who “received a 100 percent rating from Capitol Resource Institute, a conservative advocacy group, for his votes on legislation considered pro-family during the 2007-08 legislative session.” And “She goes, ‘I know you like spanking me.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s ‘ cause you’re such a bad girl.’ . . . “ Oh, she is not! I talked to her yesterday. She goes, ‘So are we finished?” I go, ‘No, we’re not finished.’ I go, ‘You know about the other one, but she doesn’t know about you,’” referring to yet another woman in the Assemblyman’s stable.

Well, like, OMG! So after Mike was caught with his mic open, here’s what he said as he resigned: “I am deeply saddened that my inappropriate comments have become a major distraction for my colleagues in the Assembly, who are working hard on the very serious problems facing our state. I deeply regret the comments I made in what I believed to be a private conversation. This is a private matter and I ask that everyone respect the privacy of all involved.”

And here’s what our own Sam Blakeslee, the Assembly Minority Leader, Republican from San Luis Obispo, had to say about our man Mike: Mr. Duvall recognized his inappropriate comments would be an endless source of distraction for this institution, and out of respect for his colleagues and love for his family decided to resign. I respect his decision to put his family first during this difficult time.”

Hmmm, let’s see. A lobbyist screwing an elected official, a lobbyist who’s in Sacramento to get laws passed by elected officials, perhaps even the one she’s screwing, and this is just a private matter? Naw, Mike. This went public when you crawled into bed with a lobbyist. Next time, stick with “civilians.”

And here’s what Our Man Sam should have said, “Mr. Duvall recognized he violated ethical standards consorting with a lobbyist and violated his moral standards in committing adultery and demonstrated himself to be a hypocrite in maintaining the public outward appearance of an upright Family Values man, while in private he was just acting like another phony horn dog. The good citizens of Yorba Linda deserve better.”

And the best, and most typical, is old Mike himself. He doesn’t regret his behavior. He doesn’t regret violating his marriage vows. He doesn’t regret his hypocrisy. Nope, not a bit of it. He only regrets that he was caught with both his mic and his fly open and that his comments went public.

Ah, sigh, the days The Putting Of The Paper Bag Over The Head In Shame are clearly long, long gone.

Also Long Gone

Congressional shouter, Joe Wilson, he of the yelled out “YOU LIE” to President Obama during his recent address to Congress is also another of those No Paper Bag Of Shame For Mike public figures. He apologized for his boorish behavior but instead of being shunned as if he had B.O. and resigning in utter humiliation, he’s gathering lots of happy wingnut supporters, including tons more campaign money from the health insurance industry, which, no doubt, accounted for his verbal enthusiasm during the president’s speech? Ya think?

Well, no paper bag for Joe, either. But maybe he’ll turn out to be a bellweather in our toxic political climate. Maybe we can look forward to other Republican corporate shills turning Congress into the House of Commons wherein backbenchers heckle and call out questions and holler British Snark at the Prime Minister during his Q&A sessions.

I sincerely hope that isn’t the future. The British have a long history of truly educated snark. Americans have neither the education nor the gift of the withering rebuke. They’re just embarrassing and would soon turn Congress into a bigger joke than it already is.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you Ann for confirming that you are just another smut hack...

This morning's offal might have been shocking had it been about a local "woman" who, after several very public affairs, ran away from her husband and children to shack up with a bankrupt local guy while having her love child by who knows who the biological father really is... We wonder why you never wrote about her political nymphomania...???

...but we have come to expect Calhoun's Can(n)ons to be entirely one sided... sort of like the transparency of the payment of the PZLDF "agreement"...

Unknown said...

..another "Republican" family man...

hmmmm... Bill Clinton, Jack Kennedy, Bobby, Ted... hmmm... really upstanding "Democrats" and family men who couldn't keep their pants on, but then they were/are the superior "Democrats"...

...a local tart or a national cigar smoker... they can't keep their pants on, but we're supposed to listen to them as leaders...????

Alon Perlman said...

Well it's a good thing that that kind of stuff won't happen here, in lil old Ossoberg.
And I think that in such a small town where all is known already, and practiced tongues wag like metronomes, and where the clean and dirty laundry has been on the lines several overnights maybe that isn't absolutly necessary. And Hypocracy, well you are right, but nobody is clean in this town, nobody. Because the little one's dont fit into the flack Jackets is why. and I'm really hoping to not return to this. and unlike others I do think Honor does exist deep in the Hearts of my neigbores, even "Them".
Word verification; prooder

I give them out as the ghost in the machine spits them out, with some judicious selection.
Love thy neigbhor and forgive them for their misspellings as you would have them onto you.
Dagnabbit Now I'm late for sweet springs and my second dose of Poisen Oak this month. Check out my big red monster Gazoline eating machine at Baywood later this Afternoon. Yeae Baby.
Word verific#2
It's all grivi baby

Ron said...

Ann, I watched Craig Ferguson do this the other night, and I thought of Mother Calhoun, and laughed my a-- off.

Ann wrote:

"...his mic and his fly open..."

or, more accurately, his mic "hot," and his fly open.

Ann wrote:

"... (Joe Wilson’s) gathering lots of happy wingnut supporters, including tons more campaign money from the health insurance industry, which, no doubt, accounted for his verbal enthusiasm during the president’s speech?

Just what the Republican party needs, for fringenuts. (Damn, I thought I might have just invented a great word -- fringenuts -- but then I Googled it... damn.)

Also, what an interesting way to raise campaign funds:

INSURANCE INDUSTRY: Hey, Congressperson X, during the President's State of the Union Address, when he gets to the part where he talks about stuff that's going to cost our industry a lot of money, scream, "You lie," and we'll give you a million bucks.

CONGRESSPERSON X: Uh, o.k.

Imagine what the State of the Union Address will now sound like. It'll be worse than NASCAR.

(And, speaking of funny... Mike, your takes are so over the top, that they're comical. They make me laugh.)

Anne R. Allen said...

The difference between Duval and a Clinton or Kennedy or even our own LO queen of bad choices is--as Ann clearly states--that Duval's career is based on his "family values" holier-than-thou smugitude.

I agree that Sam's comments were mighty weasely. But political power is often based on one's ablity to weasel. Unlike Duval, Sam's an honorable man.

This country is in desperate need of real conservatives like Blakeslee and John McCain. I'm a progressive, but I know we need conservatives to put on the brakes to make the system work.

Unfortunatly, the Republican party has been taken over by corrupt, cynical, fear-mongering neo-fascists, and they scare the hell out of me. I'll bet Sam's scared too. Anybody who isn't hasn't studied history.

Aaron Ochs - Managing Editor of The ROCK said...

Irony:

"Family Rights" Mike Duvall talks about his sexcapades on a hot mic.

"Mr. Finance Reform" Sam Blakeslee screwed a lot of people out of their life savings with his Blakeslee & Blakeslee family business.

Stay classy.

Mike Green said...

Well It's been a while.
Been up exploring the Klondike, Sea travel, such stuff...
There are small, very important, lessons I've learned, most where you would least expect them.
"There is no human excellence in politics"
Jon Arcuni told me that, I didn't believe him of course, because I'm not dead yet and maybe before I die I'll find that excellent politician, yea right.
A lesson learned where I least expected it.
It's not particularly perplexing to me that career politicos will say or do anything to stay employed, after all, that's what sells, and sell (themselves) is what they do.
I'd like, just one time, for someone to get elected on the promise that if they failed, on the issues that they got elected on, that they would hoist themselves on their own petards and resign.
Sarah Palin is a touchy subject in Alaska.
Can't say I blame them.

Churadogs said...

Anneallen sez:"The difference between Duval and a Clinton or Kennedy or even our own LO queen of bad choices is--as Ann clearly states--that Duval's career is based on his "family values" holier-than-thou smugitude."

Exactly right. Mike, bless him, has trouble with comprehension, I think. Certainly with not-so-subtle subtexts. It's also beyond coincidence that so many "family values" kinda guys are crashing and burning. Makes you wonder if there's some sort of weird karma force going on here, or maybe just the natural consequences of hubris at work.

Mike Green sez:""There is no human excellence in politics"
Jon Arcuni told me that, I didn't believe him of course, because I'm not dead yet and maybe before I die I'll find that excellent politician, yea right."

Actually, Henry Waxman comes to mind, chugging away year after year to expose and fix corruption and other "capitol games." He has always struck me as a guy who knows how the system is SUPPOSED to work, but, alas, often doesn't and I think he genuinely wants it to work properly. I don't think a fair minded person would call Dennis Kuchinich (sp?)or Olympia Snow? Or . . ??? dozens of others, corrupt or not excellent? Politics is the art of the possible. So by its very nature it involves compromise. And all compromise isn't necessarily bad, though some compromises are better than others. What we've seen with the wingnut faction of the Republican party taking over the whole party are idealogues -- not plodding, practical, get-r-done compromisers -- who ran that party off into the ditch. And with the Bush regime, incompetent idealogues at that. Always bad, left or right.

Unknown said...

Compromise... such an interesting "concept"...

Any thoughts on why Lisa and Julie will never "compromise" on their "move the sewer" agenda with those who actually had a Plan... or even with the County Planners ...???

Every time those 2 plod before the BOS they make Tri-W sound better than putting up with the "uncompromising" complainers with no realistic Plan...

Keep writing Ann, write about dogs and birds and recipies, but don't ever explain why you never paid your portion of the bogus PZLDF legal fees...

Why were the taxpayers again stuck with a legal bill to no where... Do you even comprehend that you as a signer to that lawsuit that you were also signing the agreement to pay your portion fo the legal fees...??? Why haven't you paid your portion Ann....??????