Remember Congressman Chris Lee? Odds are you don't, although you might recall the New Jersey Republican's buff physique.
It was only four months ago that Lee, a married father of one, resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives after it was revealed he sent flirtatious e-mails, including a bare-chested photo of himself, to a woman he met on Craigslist.
Lee's indiscretion seems chaste when compared with the freewheeling social media lifestyle of New York congressman Anthony Weiner, who admitted on Monday that he sent the now-infamous photo of his underwear-clad genitals to a Seattle college student. Weiner, who had previously suggested that his Twitter account was hacked, also revealed sexually explicit exchanges with five other women over the last three years.
Florida Republican Mark Foley blamed political opponents, not a hacker, when reports surfaced in September 2006 of solicitous emails and sexually charged instant messages sent by the congressman to teenage boys who had served as congressional pages. Foley, chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, eventually resigned under pressure and the ensuing fallout helped Democrats wrest control of Congress that fall.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick lost more than his office when text messages sent to his former chief of staff were ordered released by a U.S. Circuit Court judge in 2008. The correspondences revealed an extramarital sexual relationship between the two, often in graphic detail. More damaging were the descriptions of how they used municipal funds on romantic getaways and evidence they conspired to fire Detroit's deputy police chief.
Kilpatrick eventually resigned after being charged with 10 felony counts, including perjury and obstruction of justice, and was sentenced to up to five years in prison in May 2010 after he violated terms of his probation.
Then there's Ralph Reed, whose political career appeared over after emails linking him with convicted influence peddler Jack Abramoff thwarted a bid to become Georgia's lieutenant governor in 2006.
Though never implicated in any criminal wrongdoing, emails sent by the former Christian Coalition head contradicted a previous assertion he had "no direct knowledge of their [Abramoff's law firm's] clients or interests."
Five years later, Reed has re-emerged as a Republican power broker, attracting every GOP presidential candidate save for Newt Gingrich to a recent conference sponsored by his Faith and Freedom Coalition.
Weiner, meanwhile, hopes he won't need to stage a comeback, saying he has no intention of resigning from Congress.
About the Author
