Any day, now, an updated poem of the old kids’ chant will start. Such as:
Vance and a woman in an office that’s free
k-i-s-s-i-n-g,
First comes love, he’s married, of course,
Better act quick or there could be divorce.
The Vance is freshman GOP Rep. Vance McAllister (La.), who ran as a conservative Christian. He now has to explain away why he was caught on video in his office kissing a woman who wasn’t his wife:
Freshman GOP Rep. Vance McAllister (La.) – who ran as conservative Christian – has been caught on video in a romantic encounter with a woman believed to be on his congressional staff just before Christmas.
The Ouachita Citizen, a newspaper based in West Monroe, La., posted a Dec. 23 surveillance video purportedly from inside McAllister’s district office in Monroe.
he video shows McAllister kissing a woman identified by the newspaper as a congressional staffer for the first-term lawmaker. Federal payroll records show she is a part-time aide who began working for McAllister the day after he won his seat last year.
It turns out McAllister who in a Nov. 16 special election. His district is overwhelmingly Republican and according to The Politico he won “by playing up his conservative credentials, including his Christian faith and his 16-year marriage.”
But, of course, since he ran on that platform, he had the guts to be at his office to take questions from the press, didn’t he?
Weeellllllll:
McAllister’s Washington office door was locked on Monday. He issued a statement in the afternoon apologizing for the incident and asking for forgiveness.
McAllister also asked for privacy as his family deals with the fallout from the scandal. McAllister and his wife, Kelly, have five children.
“There’s no doubt I’ve fallen short and I’m asking for forgiveness. I’m asking for forgiveness from God, my wife, my kids, my staff, and my constituents who elected me to serve,” McAllister said in his statement.
“Trust is something I know has to be earned whether you’re a husband, a father, or a congressman. I promise to do everything I can to earn back the trust of everyone I’ve disappointed.”
In reality, no matter what he ran on, many constituents now have politicians pegged. But his wife is another matter. She is the REAL victim.
McAllister added: “From day one, I’ve always tried to be an honest man. I ran for Congress to make a difference and not to just be another politician. I don’t want to make a political statement on this, I would just simply like to say that I’m very sorry for what I’ve done.
While I realize I serve the public, I would appreciate the privacy given to my children as we get through this.”
He’ll likely survive.
But he may have to lower his pious meter a tad.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.