Free Republic

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio's attorney general has resigned amid the scandal of a sexual harassment investigation in his office and his extramarital affair. Marc Dann has been under pressure of possible impeachment and announced he was stepping down on Wednesday. The 46-year-old Democrat at first refused to resign, despite demands by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and others within his party. Dann admitted May 2 to an extramarital affair with an employee that he said contributed to an atmosphere leading to sexual harassment claims against a top aide. Three aides were forced out in the harassment investigation, which showed managers encouraged...

An exquisitely sleazy scandal in the Ohio Attorney General's office could ripple through the November election with potentially disastrous consequences for the Democrats' national ticket. The tawdry unfolding story involves Democratic Attorney General Marc Dann and a pair of close associates who share an apartment in Columbus. The three men all are married and also have residences in Youngstown, which is three-plus hours from Columbus. There are several tentacles to the saga, but the core of it involves alleged sexual misbehavior on the part of Dann's chief of administrative services, Anthony Gutierrez. At least two female employees in the AG's...

Paterson's greatest sin is not that he was horny. Rather, he's cheap. It's as if he were in competition with New Jersey's deposed gay governor, Jim McGreevey, who engaged in sexual ménages à trois with his wife and his hot, male driver following dinner at that fine wings-and-skins emporium, TGI Friday's. Paterson's tastes were so low-rent, he made up with his wife, Michelle, with an intimate liaison at the same Manhattan Days Inn where he met with various women whose names escape. Days Inn, David? Was Motel 6 booked? There is one more thing you need to know about New...

"If you are in a relationship, and it is 'doing absolutly [sic] nothing' for you, makes you feel bad about yourself of situations, just causing unessesary [sic] drama, and ruining things that you may actually care about . . . why would you want that in your life?" She wrote, "Surround yourself around people that [sic] are making moves, and doing what 'they want and love' with their lives, positive energy . . . that's what life all about . . . living." I feel a tear coming on. Two alternate pictures are emerging of Ashley. In one, she's a...

A call-girl has been ordered to testify about her tryst with Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced New York Governor, as prosecutors investigate whether he used campaign funds for his meetings with prostitutes. Ashley Alexandra Dupre , also known as Ashley Youmans, has received a subpoena to appear behind closed doors before an investigating grand jury hearing the case against the Emperors Club VIP prostitution ring, her lawyer said in court this week. The struggling singer was caught by an FBI phone-tap talking to an accused madam about her $4,300 encounter with a man identified as Client 9, now named as Mr...

CNBC, no friend of Elliot Spitzer for his investigations of business just interrupted news programming for this announcement. They note Spitzer is married with children No link yet

A top official in the Patrick administration has been placed on unpaid leave because he was arrested in Florida and charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old male in a steam room at a $500-a-night Gulf Coast resort. Carl Stanley McGee, 38, assistant secretary for policy and planning, is scheduled to be arraigned next week for sexual battery in Lee County, Fla. McGee helped draft Patrick's casino bill, life sciences legislation, and his plan to bring broadband Internet service to the farthest reaches of the state. According to police reports, McGee was arrested Dec. 28 and accused of performing oral sex...

The debate dominatrix knows how to rattle Obambi. Mistress Hillary started disciplining her fellow senator last winter. She has continued to flick the whip in debates. She had to do it again in Vegas, this time using her voice, gaze and body language to such punishing effect that Obama looked as if he had been brought to heel. Other guys, like Rudy, wouldn’t even be looking for a chance to greet Hillary, as Obama always does. Other guys, like Rudy, wouldn’t care if she iced them. But she can tell that Obama does care, ...that he responds to the sort...

So Craig is disqualified from being a U.S. senator for another reason – the biggest reason of all – not knowing the Constitution. Am I angry about Craig? You bet. He has been a completely undistinguished member of Congress for years. He's not a leader. He most recently let the American people down by supporting President Bush's amnesty program. The man is hopelessly out of touch with the American people and his own constituency. It's time for him to go. Not on Sept. 30. Not if he is unable to clear himself from the embarrassing charge of soliciting sex in...

Now his flip-flopping about resigning demonstrates once again the man has no guts. He's a spineless weasel who doesn't know what to do even about matters in his own life. Does someone like that belong in the U.S. Senate? Please don't tell me it's a den of thieves. I know. But it's a den of vipers and thieves because we allow it to be. At some point you have to start cleaning up the house that Harry Reid built one body at a time. I don't care if they are Democrats or Republicans, the corrupt, the malefactors, the sociopaths, the...

Craig chose his words carefully during his resignation speech Saturday in Boise, according to a voice mail message he mistakenly left on a stranger's phone. In that message obtained by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, Craig tells a man named "Billy" that his choice of language is deliberate because it leaves the door open for him to stay in office. Craig made the call just minutes before his speech. "We have reshaped my statement a little bit to say it is my intent to resign on Sept. 30," Craig said. "I think it is important for you to make...

WASHINGTON — Idaho Sen. Larry Craig will resign from the Senate Saturday after pressure from fellow Republicans to step down after an arrest in a men's room sex sting, according to a report. Craig decided to resign with plans to make the announcement on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. Craig will hold a news conference in Boise on Saturday, his spokesman, Dan Whiting said, but he would not say whether the three-term senator planned to step down. Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, however, appeared to have settled on a successor: Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, according to several Republicans familiar with...

Can the U.S. Senate do better than Larry Craig? Can the USA do better than Larry Craig? Can the state of Idaho do better than Larry Craig? He's been pampered in the U.S. Senate for the last 17 years. According to his own official biography, he has spent nearly his entire adult life in politics. He never worked for a living. He never had a job outside of his family's ranching business, where it is doubtful he ever got his hands dirty. But that doesn't stop Sen. Larry Craig from getting his hands and knees dirty on the floors of...

Sen. Larry E. Craig said he had retained a lawyer to examine his case, suggesting that he may attempt to withdraw his guilty plea. That may be possible in some circumstances, legal experts say, but he would risk having more serious charges reinstated and the public exposure of other details of the restroom incident that has imperiled his congressional career. Ordinarily, Minnesota law allows defendants to withdraw plea agreements in limited situations where there has been "manifest injustice." Courts have interpreted that narrowly -- where prosecutors have not upheld their end of a plea bargain, for example, or where a...

August 30, 2007 Finance chief toppled by sex scandal (VIVEK PRAKASH) Jin Renqing: had an affair with the mistress of another senior official Jane Macartney, China Correspondent A sex scandal has claimed the job of the man who has overseen China’s economic boom for the past four years. Jin Renqing, the Finance Minister, has been forced to step down after having an affair with the mistress of another senior Communist Party official. Mr Jin’s dismissal reflects growing concern in the Communist Party about the behaviour of senior party members. The decision was taken as the party prepares for its five-yearly...

UPDATE: Murphy resigns political posts; cooperating with police in apparent criminal investigation Party chair says in letter resignation was for "business reasons" By LARRY THOMAS The chairman of the Clark County Republican Party — who last month was elected president of the Young Republican National Federation — has resigned both posts, apparently in the wake of a criminal investigation. On Tuesday afternoon, Glenn Murphy Jr. e-mailed media outlets a letter announcing his resignation from both positions, citing an unexpected business opportunity that would prohibit him from holding a partisan political office. However, the Clark County Sheriff’s Department on Friday began...

A former principal of Canberra's Daramalan College has been accused of failing to act after three teachers warned him over the practice of a teacher who took boys home for weekend visits. The Australian reports that the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are considering whether its head of education should stand down following controversy over his former role as principal of a school that is now reeling from a pedophile scandal. Fr Denis Uhr was principal of Canberra's Daramalan College from the late 1980s to the late 1990s, a period during which teacher Paul John Lyons later confessed to have...

Just Breaking

Fox News just announced that the D.C. Madam is expected to make a statement concerning her black book of customers. So who gets "outed" and who doesn't? Or does the madam chicken out -- for the time being? Enquiring minds want to know, and can opine here.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told department heads this afternoon he is seeking counseling for alcohol abuse, sources familiar with the meeting told The Chronicle. Newsom told members of his administration that the help he is seeking would not require him to step aside even temporarily as it might if he entered a residential rehabilitation program, according to the sources.