I considered resurrecting an old GOP thread for this, but political scandals really transcend parties and I have high hopes for the longevity of this thread. I read up on this little beauty a few weeks back, but forgot to post about it. It’s a pretty fun one.
Michigan State Representative Todd Courser was elected earlier this year as a Tea Party conservative. Cindy Gamrat, previously a stay-at-home mom who homeschooled her kids, was elected at the same time as a religious conservative. They had never really known each other before, but they shared an office and at least part of an ethos, and… well, love blossomed between them.
But it was a FORBIDDEN LOVE as they were both married with Brady-Bunch numbers of kids and at least one of them had run on a family-values platform.
And - sadly for the pair - their secret love was discovered and was pretty much bound to get out. Gamrat claims that she was receiving blackmail threats to expose the affair.
Sensing that this illicit relationship was going to get out sooner rather than later, Courser did what I imagine every one of us would do if in that spot: He arranged for fake emails to be leaked about him and a male prostitute.
No seriously. Here’s his logic: If there was an easily-disprovable story about him being gay and hitting up a man-toy-for-cash (“bi-sexual porn addicted sex deviant”), then the mundane story of him having an affair with a family-values co-worker would get practically no air-time and perhaps be scoffed at as another fake.
Amazingly, this brilliant scheme quickly fell apart and Courser was exposed as a heterosexual, run-of-the-mill adulterer. One who tried to concoct an elaborate cover-up using government equipment while being paid by Michigan taxpayers.
Today, Courser and his finely-honed political compass realized that even though two votes to have him expelled failed (mostly because the Democrats were demanding a full investigation that the Republicans would rather didn’t happen), maybe it was time to go. So he resigned. Cindy Gamrat had some hopes that she would simply be censured rather than ejected, but it was not to be. She is only the forth Michigan state representative to be kicked out of the General Assembly in the state’s history.