Still more on Gaetz

Sources said Gaetz was part of a group of young male lawmakers who created a "game" to score their female sexual conquests, which granted "points" for various targets such as interns, staffers or other female colleagues in the state House. One of the targets of the scoring system was a group the lawmakers had heard were "virgins," according to a source.  [Ed: This was during his time at the Florida state house, not US, but we don't know if he's done it there, too.]

[...]

One source said Gaetz was often spotted trying to pick up young women at 101 Restaurant, a once-popular watering hole in Tallahassee for some lawmakers and students from nearby Florida State University.

[...]

Upon his arrival to Washington, sources said Gaetz was often seen with young women at various social events, including at the Trump Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue.

  ABC

Gaetz made quite a name for himself by making the most out of every opportunity to take the GOP’s agenda viral.

[...]

A faithful soldier ready to take up whatever former President Donald Trump needed done and whatever the right’s agenda demanded, Gaetz was always there for the GOP, so animated you couldn’t take your eyes off him even if you wanted to very badly.

Like the time he took up ridiculing the rising stardom of his colleague from the Bronx, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and trolled her, baited her using misogynist language. You couldn’t tell if he hated her progressive politics or was infatuated.

[...]

Or, the time when Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, facing jail time, was spilling the beans, and Gaetz, a lawyer, tried to intimidate him just before he was to appear before an open session of the House Oversight Committee to testify.

Gaetz suggested in a tweet that Cohen had cheated on his wife, Gaetz knew all about it and was ready to tell. And so, he entered into witness-tampering territory, prompting a Florida Bar investigation.

[...]

The Florida Bar didn’t do a thing to him for threatening Cohen, too politically risky.

Likewise, a 2008 DUI arrest after leaving the Swamp, a nightclub on Okaloosa Island, was dismissed. He had refused a Breathalyzer test, yet didn’t have his license suspended as Florida law demanded. Who suffered? The officer who arrested him was forced to resign.

[...]

It’s hard to believe that a servant to Trump and to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as reliable as Gaetz would be put in this [alleged sex trafficking] position if there wasn’t something to the allegations.

[...]

And, unrelated to the probe, CNN reported Thursday allegations that Gaetz bragged about sexual encounters and showed photos and videos of naked women he slept with to fellow members of the Freedom Caucus.

  Miami Herald

Yes, so let's see if we can identify the rest of that "group of young male lawmakers."

I'm sure it was planted. Probably by the same people trying to "extort" him.

And Eric Greitens is running for the Senate.

..but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

The Daily Beast, meanwhile, reported that advisers were pleading with the former president to keep quiet. Trump was reported to have said the affair seemed “really bad”, though he also thought the allegations could be a “smear” against Gaetz.

  Guardian

Pleading. Good luck.

Gaetz’s spokesman, Luke Ball, has resigned.

[...]

Part of the investigation is examining whether Gaetz, 38, had sex with a 17-year-old and other underage girls and violated federal sex trafficking laws, sources told the AP, adding that federal agents suspect Greenberg may have enticed the girls and introduced some to Gaetz. Investigators are reported to be examining whether the two men had sex with the same girls.

"And other underage girls."

UPDATE:

Oopsie, Matt.  What was that you were saying about only paying for flights and hotel rooms for "girlfriends"?

UPDATE: Gaetz is in deep doodoo.

Delusional Donald

Or, more likely, just a liar.

President Donald Trump huddled with House Republicans on Tuesday night, ostensibly to rally support for the compromise immigration bill being pushed for a vote Thursday by Speaker Paul Ryan and the rest of the GOP leadership team. But Trump had something else on his mind: Mark Sanford.

Trump asked whether the South Carolina Republican, who lost a primary last week largely due to his willingness to publicly criticize Trump, was in the room. Upon being told Sanford wasn't in attendance, Trump ran him down as a "nasty guy," according to sources in the room.

Trump asked whether the South Carolina Republican, who lost a primary last week largely due to his willingness to publicly criticize Trump, was in the room. Upon being told Sanford wasn't in attendance, Trump ran him down as a "nasty guy," according to sources in the room.

  CNN

Now they need to stand up to the lying monster and take him down.  Until then, I have no sympathy.

UPDATE:

Three House Republicans ripped President Donald Trump on Wednesday for saying that lawmakers laughed and applauded when he criticized Mark Sanford, a South Carolina Republican who lost his re-election bid after the president blasted him on Twitter hours before the polls closed last week in the state’s primary.

[...]

Rep. Ryan Costello (R-Pa.) also denied Trump’s claim that Republicans were cheering about his Sanford comments at the GOP closed-door conference on Tuesday night.

“Categorically false,” Costello tweeted in response to the president’s post.

Costello announced earlier this year that he would not seek reelection, in large part because of the partisan political environment. He has also said that all he does “is answer questions about Donald Trump rather than health insurance or tax policy.”

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) told POLITICO on Wednesday that Trump’s tweet was wrong, and that there were “crickets” when he made the comment.

[...]

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) responded that that lawmakers were instead “disgusted.”

  Politico

"Sacred Life" Update

In his first public statements since he was accused of pressuring a woman with whom he’d had an affair into getting an abortion, U.S. Congressional Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) claimed that the woman turned out not to be pregnant.

[...]

“I don’t mind telling people that there was no pregnancy, and no abortion,” he said in an interview. “But I also don’t mind telling people that this was a protracted two-year divorce back in 1999 and 2000. There was some difficult times, for sure.”

The phone call transcript came to light in papers pertaining to the divorce in 2001 of DesJarlais, a former physician, and his then-wife, after the congressman admitted to affairs with at least four women. The woman in the phone recording was a former patient. The date of the call is unclear, but according to the transcript, DesJarlais can be heard admonishing the woman for not having taken steps to terminate her pregnancy.

“You told me you’d have an abortion, and now we’re getting too far along without one,” he said. “If we need to go to Atlanta, or whatever, to get this solved and get it over with so we can get on with our lives, then let’s do it.”

He also seemed to blame the woman for becoming pregnant, saying, “You lied to me about something that caused us to be in this situation, and that’s not my fault, that’s yours.”

“Well, it’s your fault for sleeping with your patient,” she replied.

DesJarlais’s campaign called the charges “old news.”

  Raw Story

Now they're bringing up more old news on the rep.

In 2010, allegations surfaced that the congressman threatened his ex-wife with a gun, and once spent three hours with a gun in his own mouth threatening suicide during a marital dispute. At first DesJarlais denied these allegations citing the lack of a police report. However, an off-duty officer who responded to the scene had filed a report, forcing the congressman to admit that he’d lied.

DesJarlais told the Nashville Scene, “I felt like I was being set up,” because the officer knew his ex-wife.  ”This is like ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ when the officer breaks out someone’s light and then writes him a ticket.’”

Exactly like that.

Really, it's his personal life and shouldn't be public.  Except that he got his political position by pandering to the anti-choice crowd on the grounds that all life is sacred. 

And really, I wouldn't be surprised if he is re-elected in spite of it.  Because the sacred life shit is just that.  What Tennessee GOP voters are really about is being pro-misogyny.  And this guy fits the bill.

Three hours with a gun in his mouth "threatening suicide?"  Really?  Three hours?  Let's phrase that correctly, " and once spent three hours with a gun in his own mouth holding his wife hostage to a violent, if empty, threat with a deadly weapon during a marital dispute."  "I'll kill myself if you don't do what I want." 

More Republican Family Values

The Huffington Post reported Wednesday that Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), a former physician, had an affair with a patient that resulted in him pressuring the unidentified woman to get an abortion in September 2000.

Earlier this year, DesJarlais denounced fellow Republican Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) over Akin’s “legitimate rape” comments. However, DesJarlais has not backed away from his support of the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” co-sponsored by Akin and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the GOP candidate for vice president.

“I have been a consistent supporter of pro-life values,” DesJarlais told The Chattanooga Times Free-Press in August. “This bipartisan bill simply prevents taxpayer dollars from being used to perform abortions. Human life is sacred and taxpayer funding of abortion is counter to the values a great many Tennesseans hold.”

  Raw Story

”Human life is sacred.” Right. Until it's your mistress that's pregnant. 

That type of hypocrisy is almost prerequisite for being a Republican.

But the man was a doctor. He had an affair with a patient which resulted in pregnancy. Isn't there a legal issue there?

I remind the assembled that this goober is a United States Congressman. Who is running for re-election. Who likely will be re-elected.

  Charlie Pierce

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  http://youwillanyway2.blogspot.com/2012/10/sacred-life-update.html