A fool too late bewares when all the peril is past. – Queen Elizabeth I
It seems that politicians just can’t help making asses of themselves; yesterday I discussed three such cases who probably still don’t realize how stupid they look to rational people, but today we’ll look at one who destroyed his reputation and his political career through actions which appear to display a complete inability to foresee the totally foreseeable. Of course, that would presume than Congressman Chris Lee was thinking with the big head rather than the little one, which he obviously wasn’t. Here’s the story, condensed and paraphrased from one which appeared on Gawker last Friday (February 25th):
Three hours after Gawker’s February 9th publication of a photo of Chris Lee standing in the mirror shirtless, along with the story of the married Republican congressman from New York’s attempt to pick up a woman via the Craigslist personals, he had resigned. His sudden exit took many people by surprise, but apparently Lee’s rapid retreat may have been intended to cover up something more scandalous: two D.C.-area transgender women contacted Gawker, each with a separate story about exchanging emails with Lee. One produced an ad that Lee allegedly posted on Craigslist in search of trans women; the other sent us a never-before-seen photo that she says Lee sent her after they started chatting by email. The first report came from a pre-op transgender woman from Arlington, Virginia whom Gawker called “Fiona”; she said she had replied to a “casual encounters” ad on Craigslist in mid-January and used the “e-mail this posting to a friend” function to send a copy to herself:
Sexy Classy guy for passable TS/CD – m4t – 39 (Cap Hill)
Date: 2011-01-14, 8:55PM ESTNew to area. Very fit classy, successful guy. 39, 6ft 190lbs, blond/blue. smooth hard body. Looking for a sexy ts/cd that i can spoil. I promise not to disappoint.
Craigslist personals are removed within seven days of posting, but since Google caches Craigslist index pages Gawker was able to confirm that an ad with precisely the same headline was posted on the evening of January 14. The headline and ad itself are similar to the previously-revealed flirtation, such as the words “fit” and “classy”, and dates to the same evening; it also featured the same shirtless Blackberry picture, though cropped to hide Lee’s face. Yes, that’s right: a member of Congress posted a personal ad seeking transsexuals and crossdressers and even included a picture of himself, all without thinking twice, apparently. Like the woman in the first incident Fiona is 34 and black, and she discovered his identity in the same way the first woman did: “I copied and pasted his email into Facebook, and that’s when his picture of him and his wife and his little boy showed up. Then I clicked on the link and realized he was a politician from New York, and I was like OMG.” She emailed him a few more times before telling him in an email on January 21 that she knew who he really was, and he never replied. But that same day, Lee sent an email to his staff saying that his Gmail account may have been hacked.
The second report came from a transvestite prostitute Gawker called “Holly”, whose Craigslist ad Lee allegedly answered. “Holly” demanded money from the site for email transcripts, but did provide a new picture before backing out of the deal. This photo clearly resembles Lee; the man in the photo has the same physique, is standing in the same pose and is holding the same red Blackberry, although the photo was clearly taken in a different setting and he’s wearing different pants.
Lee has not yet spoken publicly about the incident, except to say in his letter of resignation that he made “profound mistakes” and “regret[s] the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents.” But if Lee was using the Internet to meet up with transsexuals and cross-dressers his rapid resignation makes sense; he may have thought if he quit immediately he could avoid having his kink exposed.
