Hypocrites

[George]

Surprisingly, we don't have this topic yet on the Board, because we've missed so many opportunities. Better late than never, and this guy is a great start.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the ... l/?print=1

Rep. DesJarlais admitted to affairs with two patients during divorce trial

Things just got a whole lot worse for Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.).

According to a new report from the Chattanooga Times Free Press the congressman, who is also a doctor, admitted to sexual relationships with multiple patients and co-workers during sworn testimony at his divorce trial and urged his now-ex-wife to get two abortions, despite campaigning for Congress as an antiabortion rights, family values candidate.

The paper obtained a transcript of his 2001 trial, in which DesJarlais cops to having “had sexual relationships with at least two patients, three coworkers and a drug representative while he was chief of staff at Grandview Medical Center in Jasper, Tenn.,” in the paper’s words. The relationships with patients both occurred in 2000, when DesJarlais was married.

DesJarlais easily won reelection last week despite reports that he had sex with patients and urged one of them to get an abortion. The congressman hasn’t directly responded to questions on the matter since then.

During the trial, DesJarlais said the first time he urged his ex-wife to get an abortion, it was because she was on medication on which she wasn’t supposed to get pregnant. The second time, he said it was because “things were not going well between us and it was a mutual decision.” Both abortions occurred before the couple was married in 1995.

DesJarlais did express regret about the second abortion, in particular.

“I don’t think that it was easy for either one of us,” DesJarlais said at the trial. “I think it was a very difficult and poor choice and I think that there are probably regrets both ways.”

DesJarlais didn’t seem to pay much of a price for the revelations at the ballot box last week, winning reelection with just slightly less of the vote than he took in his first campaign in 2010. He defeated state Sen. Eric Stewart (D) 56 percent to 44 percent.

At the same time, DesJarlais’s medical license could be in jeopardy, since doctors are prohibited from engaging in sexual relationships with patients.

The transcript of the trial confirms earlier reporting that DesJarlais also prescribed drugs to one of the patients he was engaged in an affair with.

During the trial, DesJarlais disputed the idea that there was anything wrong with that.

“I don’t feel real obligated to respond to that. I think it’s ludicrous,” he said. “I’ve never been challenged or questioned in terms of my integrity before.”

Republican leaders have yet to weigh in on DesJarlais’s problems.

[Kelly]

Great topic.

[ApproachingLight]

What a jerk!

So we all want more and bigger government so there is a place for the few remaining hypocrites?

[George]

Government is hardly the refuge for hypocrites - we just hear more about them because there's always someone on the other side of the aisle taking shots. The private sector is loaded, and a quick Google of "celebrity hypocrites" yields a bonanza. My favorite is Barbara DeAngelis, reviewed here at wayneandtamara.com:

You can't sell love. No one can give you the date and time when you will meet the person who loves you above all others. But you can sell relationship books. Take the example of Barbara De Angelis. Barbara has romped all over North America successfully selling her relationship advice.

Barbara is nothing if not experienced. By the end of the last century, she had been married at least five times. One of her husbands was magician Doug Henning, for whom she was the magician's assistant. John Gray, of Mars and Venus fame, was Barbara De Angelis' third husband. Barbara De Angelis was John Gray's second wife. Together Gray and De Angelis sold relationship advice. But they were just another couple selling one of what they didn't have.

John Gray and Barbara De Angelis each claim a "Ph.D." from Columbia Pacific University, a diploma mill permanently shut down by the state of California. They got a "Ph.D." so you would accept their authority and stop your thought process. After they divorced, each continued selling relationship advice. It's just what they do for a living. Televangelist Jim Bakker, now out of prison for fleecing his flock, is in Branson, Missouri producing his latest religious television show. It's also just what he does for a living.

After five attempts, Barbara has finally found someone she can at least live with, but what does that tell you? Judging by her own life, what she is selling has less than an even chance of working."

"

[Matt]

Those family-advocate politicians are always the worst when it comes to following what they preach. Problem is, like with Newt, people keep electing them in. Why? Because simple minds vote for the R and D next to people's names.

[ApproachingLight]

That Barbara De Angelis is a trip. Never heard of her before.

Well said Matt. Most people here are informed, but man i feel there are a ton who are not. Reminded of two quotes. "Choke me in the shallow water before i get too deep." Eddie Brickell. The other..."Once the people realize that they can vote for themselves free things, the republic is doomed." paraphrased Ben Franklin. Our country is in a bad way. Is it moral compass?