Bay State Sex Scandal

Word has it today that for the first time in what seems like forever (well, a decade or so), a Democrats is in hot water over an alleged sexual tryst, instead of a Republican. When was the last time we had a good such scandal plaguing someone on the left? If memory serves me correctly, I believe his name was Bill and he occupied a certain large white building located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. Am I missing anyone since then?

This time, a staffer in the Massachusetts governor's office has been placed on unpaid leave after he was arrested in Florida on Dec. 28 and charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old male in a steam room at the pricey Gasparilla Inn & Club in Boca Grande. Carl Stanley McGee, the 38-year-old assistant secretary for planning for Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, will be arraigned next week. I won't get into all the sordid details here. You can read them for yourself here in the Boston Globe.

But you can see the police report and McGee's mug shot here. According to the police report, McGee was booked at 1:37 a.m. on Dec. 29 at the Lee County Sheriff's Office for a felony assault on a victim over 12 years old, "physical force, no dmg," the report says. He was released at 1:32 a.m. on Dec. 30 on a $300,000 surety bond.

The GOP may be jubilant. It's been their members who, in recent history, have gotten caught for such alleged activity. Former Rep. Mark Foley, F-Fla., resigned in September 2006 after reports that he was IMing sexually explicit messages to current and former pages. Copies of those chats hit the Web and it for sure provided some sultry reading for many following the story. I had to actually stop reading the exchanges myself after bile rose up in my throat.

Then Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, departed Congress on Sept. 30, 2007, after coming under fire for his June 2007 lewd conduct arrest in which the police alleged he attempted to solicit a man in an airport restroom.