Yet Another GOP DUI: Bonus Stripper, Hypocrisy & Irony

Meet Robert Mecklenborg, Ohio State Representative, champion of the most restrictive anti-abortion legislation, draconian voter ID laws, and anti-collective bargaining law. A self described "Catholic boy" and family man, Mecklenborg's inner demons got the best of him last April when he went on bender fueled on booze and Viagra at Concepts Lounge, a strip club in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. These private moments were interrupted when he was pulled over by a State Trooper as he was driving around with a 26 year old stripper with an out headlight (the car's not the stripper's). Footage of the traffic stop was recently released by State Police for your viewing pleasure:



Though the incident occurred several months ago, details of the incident have only just become public knowledge. While Mecklenborg has spoken with reporters, when questioned about the incident, he prefers to focus solely on the DUI itself and not why he was driving around with a stripper in the car with Viagra in his system. When pressed, he has responded thus:

The emphasis on this being personal matter is not lost upon pro-choice activists who have seized upon this statement as a pinnacle of hypocrisy. Not only did this "pro-life" politician endanger the lives of others as he drove around intoxicated, but his anti-choice politics strip away the privacy of individuals seeking such options and violating their rights over many would consider a "personal matter".

But the political ramifications of this DUI don't stop there. Mecklenborg is set to introduce an even more restrictive voter ID law (Ohio already has one), but seeing as he's lost his own license, he could become a victim of his own legislation. The new law would require a state issued ID in order to vote. Of course, Mecklenborg could get a non-driver ID issued, but his DUI exposes a major flaw in the law itself, what if he'd had his ID revoked just a day before an election? And what would happen if non-driving voters lost or misplaced their ID's before an election?

As of yet, there have been no calls among his fellow GOP lawmakers for him to resign.

Plus don't forget the fact that jeebus loves him and he can always confess his sins(he is catholic) and the slate is wiped clean(just ask 3 time divorcee newt about his protection of the sanctity of marriage).


Apparently having god on your side trumps actually following your own moral code you are trying to shove down everyone else's throat since you can always have a "personal" talk with the lord and be forgiven.

I care about the DUI, but I don't give a shit that he took viagra (why would I) or was with a stripper (26 or not) at all. I'm sick of the salacious bullshit overshadowing the important shit. People cheat, old dudes take viagra, people espouse things publicly and do differently in private. I'll attack his policies, but not the fact that he was trying to get some on the side.

Even though it pretty much contradicts everything the man stands for as a social conservative who is trying to legislate morality based on those values as a social conservative?

yup.

Even if he were a perfect saint, legislating against reproductive rights would be wrong. And that is what i care about...not the fucking around.

I think you're missing the point here. The Republicans screamed about Weiner showing his wiener, where no one was in a spot for potential physical harm and no laws were broken (well, perhaps harassment for the unsolicited pics). This guy is probably going to give the "I have sinned!" speech, and be forgiven by the party for his indiscretions.

First, did you miss the part where I said that i DID care about the part where he broke the law and put people in harms way? That's what he should be punished for. I don't care about the legal shit, no matter how titter-worthy it is.

Second, The democrats were the ones who forced Weiner to resign. His party should have stood behind him. I don't see any way it was The Republican's fault that Weiner bailed. If the Republicans or this guy's constituents back him, after he is punished for the DUI, that's on them.

My point is that both sides (and we) should probably start focusing on something else. Like the policies, not the hypocrisies. You're free to care, but I'm not going to anymore. Meh, maybe I'm just in a bad mood. Tired of dead toddlers and twitter pictures.

I agree. But, until guys like this stop taking the moral high ground, and then proving the don't practice what they preach, I'm going to point and laugh.

To me it's just a point of weakness. His hypocrisy is a crack into which attacks can be wedged. Enough wedges and he can be toppled. I have no problem using his inability to live his life by their own standards against them, because he wants to make me and mine live our lives by his standards. He lost the right to private morality when he legislated his morality into our lives.

We are a republican controlled state (for now), who the hell is going to pressure him to resign?

They're too busy selling off prisons to private companies, eliminating the estate tax (which will burden small cities), trying to sell our turnpike to the highest bidder and just absolutely not caring what the population of Ohio thinks about their actions.

Hell half the GOP lawmakers were probably happy that he was the only one that got popped with the DUI that night.

I hope she still got paid.

To me this just indicates further that sex scandals are really the only thing politicians need to worry about in this country that threaten their careers. we are a country that craves sex scandals on a regular basis and the media is more than willing to oblige. But when politicians break the law and/or endanger other peoples' lives it's, ho hum, borrrrrringgggg.

I'm not saying that Weiner is saint but why is what this man did not just as deserving of scorn and our judgment?

Because Weiner showed nudity.

In 'merica indecent exposure trumps reckless endangerment so long as your in the public eye like a politician.

Because the right, as a general rule, doesn't eat its wounded. The left hungers for nothing else.

And that's what has got pols like Bachmann and Santorum doubling-down signing crazy pledges, they keep trying to purify the party by turning flames up higher, but in the end they always seem to end up getting burned.

Except he didn't

Edit: If I am mistaken spoiler the proof, please

You have to remember, even implied nudity falls under that category when it comes to the sensationalist media and the purity fascist conservatives.

Well, that's strikes me as part of the problem: hypocrisy topples him, not the ideology. Since I'm much more concerned about getting them to stop passing ever-more restrictive socially-conservative laws than I am laughing at some Rep. I hadn't heard of before 5 minutes ago, this strikes me as an ideal "eyes on the prize"-type situation.

Mneh. Political will is circular, to a degree. Politicians lay out a platform based on what they think their constituents want, and constituents organize around the platforms that have been laid out. So preventing a politician from engaging in that process has the net effect of promoting alternatives to his platform, because he's not around (or has reduced influence) to organize constituents under his own banner.

I mean, consider Anthony Weiner. He was a really loud, really persuasive voice for Democrats (if nothing else, in terms of maintaining the political will and confidence of the left). That voice is gone, now. That it was silenced by stupid Twitter hijinks doesn't matter in relation to promoting the causes he supported--what matters, in that context, is that he's lost the ability to promote them.

It'd be nice if politics could be purely about ideologies. But one could probably find evidence that that wasn't the case in the US even during the composition of the Declaration of Independence. It certainly hasn't been the case at any point since then.

The problem is non of them practices what they preach. In fact I believe non on either side know how to do anything but preach. But that is the problem when you have a system built on choosing its people based on popularity. I doubt many prom kings and queens turned out to be to much outside of the movies and even if they did, would you let them run your country? But what do I know.

D.

While I relish the opportunity to disapprove of the disapproving based on their own criteria, I don't like the reinforcement of those criteria as reasonable. Can we not find a sex positive way to make their double lives difficult?