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Loading ...Tenn. state senator quits after affair with intern
07.29.2009 9:21am EDT
(Nashville, Tenn.) A Tennessee lawmaker resigned from the state Senate on Tuesday after his extramarital affair with a 22-year-old intern was revealed by an investigation into an extortion case.
“Due to recent events, I have decided to focus my full attention on my family and resign my Senate seat effective August 10,” Republican Sen. Paul Stanley wrote in his resignation letter.Court records show that Stanley, 47, told agents investigating a blackmail case that he had a sexual relationship with intern McKensie Morrison. Her boyfriend, Joel Watts, is charged with trying to extort $10,000 from Stanley in April. Investigators say Watts demanded the money in exchange for not releasing to the media explicit photos of Morrison that Stanley had taken in what appears to be Stanley’s apartment.
The senator, a married father of two who represents suburban Memphis, had signaled he would remain in the legislature, but he said Tuesday that he decided to step down about an hour before submitting his resignation letter. Stanley, who was elected to the Senate in 2006 after serving six years in the state House, had resigned last week as chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee.
A special election will be held to fill the seat in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Stanley’s legislative proposals were largely focused on pro-business issues, but he also sponsored failed measures to ban gay couples from adopting children. He also spoke out against funding for Planned Parenthood because he said unmarried people should not have sex.
“Whatever I stood for and advocated, I still believe to be true,” he said during an interview Tuesday with Memphis radio station WREC-AM. “And just because I fell far short of what God’s standard was for me and my wife, doesn’t mean that that standard is reduced in the least bit.”
Morrison’s phone numbers are redacted from her legislative internship application, and efforts to reach her were unsuccessful Tuesday. Her father said he didn’t want to talk about the situation.
“It’s a family matter, and I’m going to approach it that way,” Will Morrison said.
According to court records, Morrison is married to a man who is serving a seven-year prison sentence in Florida but that he has filed for divorce.
Watts said in an interview with a Nashville TV station last week that he blamed Stanley for taking advantage of Morrison
One more antigay politician falls and bites the dust.
another Hypocrite bites the dust!
but of course he’ll be in church and begging for forgiveness, etc. they’ll forgive him and then go right back to hating on us!
“nothing more important to this country then to protect the sanctity of marriage”
What BULL CRAP!
@Drewski
As I’m sure you know, the local churches (preferably evangelistic and fundamentalist) are exactly where the next candidate will come from. That way they are guaranteed a base when the local preachers tell their congragations who to vote for from the pulpits (Meanwhile, all the local liberal churches are afraid to do the same because the will get reported by some fundie and lose their own tax exempt status).
Well SteveMD,
Christian morals?
I am a Christian and I am not running from person to person.
Yep…it’s all about family values. I’ve been with my partner eight years this December and never cheated on him.
We still plan to make it a lifetime thing. Too bad we’re not recognized as a “real” family by the government I defended for ten years in the Infantry and that we still support with our taxes.
Christian morals in action.
If his church was anything it professed to be, it would throw him in a public disgrace on the national news.
But no, they want the power and the money
So…does this mean the Tennessee GOP will scour every Baptist church in the area to find a new candidate? Maybe they should just cut to the chase and check truckstops, gay bars, and the bookstores so they can find their next candidate.
Is this tool gonna drag his wife and kids through the mud with himself, in an attempt to salvage his political career?
Well, I guess he stood by his rules about non married people not having sex. He’s married and simply had sex with everyone.
… I think the worst (best?) part of this was not only was he having an affair, but that he was the other-OTHER-man, as the woman already had both a husband AND a boyfriend.
““And just because I fell far short of what God’s standard was for me and my wife, doesn’t mean that that standard is reduced in the least bit.” — Republican Sen. Paul Stanley
Actually it does — a group is judged by the behavior of its members (no pun intended). All these hypocrites in the GOP having illicit (and therefore immoral) affairs while condemning the morality of others? Talk about unmitigated gall!
At least he had the good sense to resign as opposed to Sanford from S.C. and Ensign from Nevada…hypocrites all!
You took the words out of my mouth, Alan.
Mr. “Do as I say – not as I do ……
“spoke out against funding for Planned Parenthood because he said unmarried people should not have sex”
This leads me to conclude that only married people can have sex with whomever they want to as long as one of them is married to somebody. But it doesn’t have to be with who they are having the affair with. Does this moron belong to the C-Street Boys Club?
Who knew there were this many heterosexual politicians in the Republican Party? I am utterly amazed by all these affairs that are coming to light?!
Do as I say not as I do. What a hypocrite.