Republican House Member Resigns Over Sexual Impropriety, Er, Making Republicans Look Bad

Representative Christopher Lee has resigned from Isengard Congress after a shirtless photo of him was posted on Gawker "along with e-mail exchanges that reportedly took place between him and a 34-year-old woman from Maryland who had placed a personal notice in the 'women seeking men' section of Craigslist."

Lee, who is married, is a Republican, so even if he and his wife are poly or have an open relationship or have an understanding or whatever, getting caught wasn't going to fly with the "Moral Values" party.

At least not when they're in the majority and don't want anything to distract from their agenda of ruining the country. If Lee wanted to fuck around, he should have done it last year.


[Transcript below.]

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This evening, the congressman, now former congressman did make it official releasing a statement saying that he has -- he deeply and sincerely apologizes to people. He made profound mistakes and he says he promised as hard as he can to work to seek forgiveness and he said the challenges though so hard in this country that he is going to resign effective immediately and shortly thereafter this was read on the floor of the House -- John.

JOHN KING, HOST: Oh, it was read. I'm sorry. I thought I was going to hear the sound of them reading that in the floor of the House. And so Dana, he's in his second term. He's from upstate Western New York near the Buffalo area, somebody who was just a rank and file back bencher or an important member of the Republican majority?

BASH: To be honest with you, a rank and file back bencher. You said it right. He is really relatively new. He had just started -- it was in the first month effectively of his second term. But he is certainly a House Republican and for the House Republican majority this is something even the possibility of a scandal like this they did not want. Now we do know, John, that the now former Congressman Lee did inform the speaker's office that he was going to resign his seat.

The speaker's office and other leaders are not saying what kind of conversations, if any, happened in private but I did bump into one senior Republican congressman in the hallway after we reported this who said, look, this is the kind of thing that if it is true and if as in his statement he says mistakes, plural, mistakes plural were made by him with regard to his personal life, that this was a no-brainer. That this is something that he felt that he had to do.

But, look, this is something that in terms of the allegations that are on the Gawker Web site still he has not been specific in confirming any of it and none of his staff as far as I know and people who are close to him really do know if any of the specifics are actually accurate, but it is clear that something -- he did something that he felt that he had to resign for.

KING: And he certainly did. Dana Bash for us on Capitol Hill, we should note for our viewers that is his picture on Gawker. Dana is right -- his staff has not confirmed any details of this nor the now former congressman. But that is his picture on Gawker and a bit more from Congressman Chris Lee's statement tonight announcing his resignation.

"I regret the harm my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents. I deeply and sincerely apologize to them all. I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness."

Again, there is the congressman on the left, the picture on Gawker on the right of the shirtless now former Congressman Chris Lee of upstate New York resigning abruptly tonight after this gossip Web site posted this link and some e-mails in which the married congressman posed to be single and was trying to line up a date.