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Last week, the story broke of Republican Congressman Lee Terry's "close conversation with a comely lobbyist" at a Washington D.C. bar where he flirtatiously asked her, "Why did you get me so drunk?" However, what started as a mere illustration of Terry's too-cozy relationship with corporate lobbyists has quickly blossomed into a mini-scandal tainting the entire Republican Party and its hypocritical claims of representing traditional family values.
Washington is abuzz with rumors of late-night partying and of House Republicans inappropriately hanging out with female lobbyists. But not everyone was taken by surprise. Minority Leader John Boehner has been working behind the scenes to address the issue for at least the past year and a half. The Ohio Republican has had private conversations with several lawmakers asking them to curb their inappropriate behavior....
Despite Boehner's effort to head off a scandal, the issue came to the forefront last week when a conversation that Rep. Lee Terry had with a woman at a GOP watering hole became public. "Why did you get me so drunk?" the Nebraska Republican asked a women sitting next to him at the Capitol Hill Club during President Barack Obama's June 15 speech about the Gulf Coast oil spill, according to a source who overheard the conversation.....
Boehner said he had spoken to several Members over the past year and a half who, he believed, had done something or came close to doing something unethical....Boehner spokesman Michael Steel declined to comment on the specifics of Boehner's intervention with individual Members. "We aren't going to comment on rumors, and any conversations Boehner may or may not have had with other Members are private," he said in an e-mail.
Several Republican lobbyists said the Terry incident is part of a larger concern involving a group of House Republicans and lobbyists, including Glenn LeMunyon of the LeMunyon Group, who regularly party with female lobbyists.
"On the Hill, there's a lot of older men that just go home when they're done with votes," said the longtime Capitol Hill Club member who overheard Terry's remark. "Then you have a smaller group that likes to knock back a few and have a good time."
This is now "the Terry incident." It's attracted enough attention that, according to Roll Call, new identification requirements may be adopted at the Capitol Hill Club to prevent other Congressmen from being caught in similarly compromising positions. If this were just a one-time instance of Lee 'Good Time' Terry having a little bit too much to drink and a little bit too much fun, that might be appropriate. But, there's every indication that Terry's behavior is nothing new - from him or an entire culture of overgrown Republican frat boys he's come to represent.
As stated in the followng segment from MSNBC, "Terry is one of several...junior Republican members who have been kind of notorious for being out late at night and partying."
I don't know what's worse - that Terry is still considered a "junior Republican member" after 12 years in Congress or that he's "notorious for being out late at night and partying." One probably has a lot to do with the other, going a long ways in explaining his weak position and few accomplishments in Washington D.C.
The banner on Terry's campaign website heralds his "Trusted Leadership for Nebraska's Families." But, trust begins at home. In Lee Terry's case, it's hard to believe that trust hasn't been broken - with those he loves and with those he represents. That includes the voters of Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District and - yes - even his fellow Congressional Republicans who've seen their hypocrisy exposed by Terry's hard-partying ways on the peoples' time and on the corporate lobbyists' dime.
