Craigsdissed

I don't know whether Christopher Lee should have resigned for cheating or for being stupid.

Either way, he's what he should be today: an ex-Congressman.

Lee, the Republican from New York, is the doofus who answered an ad on Craigslist---using his real name and personal e-mail address---under the category "Women for Men" and sent a photo of himself, shirtless, to a woman, declaring himself divorced and 39 years old.

Lee is married and 46, with kids.

Well, he has kids. The married part is rather tenuous right now.

Lee, observers say, had himself a bright future. He was young, up-and-coming within the party, and had landed a seat on the powerful, tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

And there's that wife and kids thing---which is in of itself a blessing.

Now it might all be gone, because of Lee's cheating and/or stupidity.

It's a chicken-or-the-egg thing.

Is Lee more guilty of cheating, or of being a moron?

In other words, is he any more in the right if he had chosen to be more anonymous?

The reflex answer is to say no---Lee's indiscretion is the real crime here, not one of being less than smart about it.

It just goes to show, I suppose, the hubris some public figures have, which can certainly be confused for stupidity.

"I can do ANYTHING I want and it won't come back to haunt me!" he or she with the hubris seems to say.

Again Washington has a broken family and an embarrassed public official on its hands.

It didn't take Lee long to submit his resignation, by the way. In fact, he was a same day resigner, quitting the same day the website Gawker released the photos and let the cat out of the bag.

He issued his short statement---the one that we've heard before, that thanks the constituents and bids adieu as if nothing is truly wrong.

Like he just resigned because the mood had struck him.


Former Rep. Chris Lee, before and after he lost his mind


You'd like to say that a lesson has been learned here, but has it really?

You really think that the Christopher Lee cautionary tale will be the end of it?

It's not that we have cheating Congressmen. It's that we have cheating men, and always will.

It's like pasta.

Not all pasta is spaghetti, but all spaghetti is pasta.

Now just substitute "men" for pasta, and "cheaters" for spaghetti.

Oh, I know there are cheating women, too---but not nearly as many, and they're much smarter about it, to boot.

For now, the late night comedians have more fodder---they barely have to do any writing---and the Internet will be abuzz for a few days.

But no real lessons have been learned here. Just stay tuned and wait for the next tale to be revealed.

You might not even have to wait very long.

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