Conservative Babylon

See the main page for John List

See all entries for John List

New York Times has the death notice; “America’s Most Wanted” has a feature article.

See the main page for Scooter Libby

See all entries for Scooter Libby

The bad news is that if he can’t practice law, he might have enough free time on his hands to write another revolting porn book about horny bears and prostitutes-in-training. Bleck.

See the main page for Robert A. McKee

See all entries for Robert A. McKee

Full story:“Investigation of items seized from home of ex-lawmaker McKee continues“

Claims to fame: Republican Florida House representative (District 8/Orlando) since 2001; anti-gay (rated 0% by the HRC in 2006), anti-choice (rated 0% by NARAL in 2003), hardcore “family values” man; adulterer; divorcé

Moral apex: Mr. Sanctity of Marriage dumped his wife of ten years — who was suffering from retinitis pigmentosa — for a younger woman.

After becoming “close” with 23-year-old staff assistant Danielle “Dee Dee” Michel, gave Michel the position of campaign finance director. About a year after Keller started taking overnight trips with Michel, Keller and his wife, Cathy, separated. They divorced in 2003, and Keller married Michel in 2005.

Memorable observation:

One of the main efforts of the week was to rally people to urge their elected representatives to support the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage in the Constitution. During the week, however, only Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., signed on as a co-sponsor of the amendment. (There are 97 co-sponsors for the measure, which was introduced in the House by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo.)

— Tom Musbach
[Marriage Protection Week]
protected marriage very little
Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network
October 17, 2003

Memorable quote:

I believe we should send people to Washington with sound moral character.

— Ric Keller
2000 campaign ad

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Keller:

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

— Matthew 7:5

Claims to fame: Lakewood, Colorado, Republican radio personality; host of KRCN-AM 1060’s “Business for Breakfast”; winner of “various news awards from the Colorado Broadcasters Association, Associated Press and the Radio/Television News Directors Association”; would-be Internet predator; registered sex offender

Moral apex: Engaged in a sexually graphic online chat with what he believed was a 12-year-old girl — who was in reality an undercover Fort Collins police detective, working an investigation of Cortelyou that had begun in August, 2006.

Busted: Arrested at the radio station after finishing his morning show, on January 23, 2007, for using the Internet to lure a child into a sexual relationship.

Arrested a second time on January 31 for suspected Internet Sexual Exploitation of a Child “at his Conifer home Wednesday afternoon following an investigation into an Internet ‘chat’ conversation with an undercover police officer that is alleged to have occurred in August 2006. According to court documents, Cortelyou engaged in more than one sexually graphic Internet conversation with a person he believed to be an underage child. This matter is alleged to have occurred in a different jurisdiction and before the incident that prompted his arrest by Fort Collins investigators January 23.”

Ultimately: On April 23, 2007, he pled guilty to Internet Luring and Attempted Internet Sexual Exploitation of a Child, both class five felonies.

On July 24, 2007, Cortelyou was sentenced to 18 months’ probation (”Intensive Supervision Probation”).

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Cortelyou:

His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;

Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:

Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

— Job 20:11-14

Claims to fame: Republican Elyria, Ohio, city councilmember; owner, Master Pizza; convicted sex abuser

Moral apex: Asked a 15-year-old who worked for him for sex, twice, and touched three more underage female employees on the butt.

Convicted of: Two felony counts of importuning and three misdemeanor counts of sexual imposition, in 2007.

Sentenced to: Three years’ probation, plus either a $9,000 fine or a $7,500 donation to a domestic violence shelter.

What happened next: Resigned from the city council, sold his pizza parlor… and failed to pay his fine. So the ridiculously lenient judge ordered him to make payments of $100 a month, or spend two days in jail for every payment he misses.

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Monteleone:

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

— Romans 6:12

See the main page for Chuck Rosenthal

See all entries for Chuck Rosenthal

Story at the Houston Chronicle.

Claims to fame: Former New York City Council member (Queens); investigator, State of New York Crime Victims Board; Regional Coordinator, New York State Assembly; Executive Assistant to State Senator Serphin R. Maltese; former Chief of Staff to former Minority Leader, Council Member Thomas V. Ognibene; member, Executive Committee of the Queens Republican Party; former president, Midville Civic Association; member, Juniper Park Civic Association; member, Middle Village Property Owners and Residents Association; former member, Catalpa YMCA Board; activist, Greater Ridgewood Youth Council; CYO Coach, St. Margaret’s Sports Program; manager, Ridgewood Glendale Middle Village Little League; member, Mario Lanza Lodge Order Sons of Italy; member, Glendale Kiwanis; member, New York State Senate Veterans Advisory Council; member, New York State Senate Consumer Protection Advisory Board; husband; father of three; drunken sexual abuser

Moral apex: We’ll let Gallagher tell it his way: “On Sunday, July 8, 2007, while I was intoxicated, I intentionally and forcibly touched intimate parts of the complainant and subjected her to sexual contact without her consent.”

When he said it: March 17, 2008, as he pleaded guilty — and simultaneously announced his resignation from the City Council — to two misdemeanors, “admitting that he sexually abused a woman in his district office in Middle Village, Queens … a position in contrast to his earlier claims that they had consensual sex after meeting in a bar.”

What he got: “Prosecutors in the office of the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said the plea deal required that Mr. Gallagher enter and complete an alcohol treatment program … [and] pay a court surcharge of $160. He was not required to register as a sex offender, officials said, and he will not serve jail time.”

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Gallagher:

Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

— Romans 13:13-14

Claims to fame: Republican; chairman, St. Petersburg, Florida, City Council; husband; father of five; divorcé; apparent multiple-child molester; suicide

Moral apex #1: Sexually molested his two teenage adopted daughters, as well as his family’s barely-legal nanny.

Moral apex #2: Committed suicide just hours after turning in his resignation from the city council.

Anything else? No, that’s about it.

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Bryan:

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

— 1 Corinthians 6:19

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Bryan’s enablers, who should have spoken up, but didn’t:

But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

— Matthew 5:37

Claims to fame: Delegate, 1972 Republican Party National Convention; former House Delegate, Maryland General Assembly; member, Ways and Means Committee; sponsor, Child Protection from Predators Act; sponsor, bill to collect DNA samples from sexual predators; sponsor, various other child-protection bills; executive director, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County; former chaplain, Hagerstown Jaycees; trustee, community services chairman, First Christian Church; chair, Lincolnshire School Citizens Advisory Committee (1980-84); treasurer, Washington County Mental Health Association (1980-87); president, Little League of Halfway (1980-85, 1992-94); secretary, Parent and Child Center Advisory Committee (1985-88); leading child advocate; suspected kiddie-porn addict

Moral apex: Busted January 31, 2008, after sheriff’s deputies acted on a tip that McKee was in possession of child pornography in his Hagerstown home. Washington County Sheriff Doug Mullendore said computers, videos and “printed material” were seized in the raid.

Family man? Nope. McKee is unmarried, and has no children.

To his credit: McKee decided to cooperate with the investigation, and to get treatment.

What happened next: McKee resigned as state delegate, and from Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Memorable quote:

For me, this is deeply embarrassing. It reflects poorly on my service to the community.

. . .

My primary focus is to get well and stay well. I know this can happen only with the support and prayers of my family and friends and the help of professionals.

— McKee, statement faxed to news agencies

Bible reading for Mr. McKee:

And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and enquire of the LORD by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease?

— 2 Kings 8:8

Claims to fame: Republican mayor of Green Oaks, Illinois, 1993-2006; chairman, county Republican Party, 2002-2004; Internet kiddie-porn suspect

Moral apex: Arrested in July, 2006, after police traced child pornography sent via email (under three different screen names) to an undercover police officer back to a computer in Adams’ home.

Where he is now: Awaiting trial, scheduled to begin April 21, 2008, on “multiple counts of dissemination and possession of child pornography.” Conviction of a single distribution charge carries a mandatory prison sentence of at least four years.

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Adams, until a verdict is reached:

Recall the past for me: let us argue together; declare thou the case for thy innocence.

— Isaiah 43:26

Story:

Victim Sues Ted Klaudt, Wife, KELO

Foster Child Sues Abusing Ex-Lawmaker, AP

In case you can’t tell, Sanchez is on the left.

Claims to fame: Hardcore right-wing, pro-war blogger; U.S. Marine reservist implicated in the Scott Thomas Beauchamp controversy; self-described “Hispanic, a Marine, a nontraditional … Ivy League student and a 100 percent flag-waving red-blooded Reagan Republican”; gay-porn star and male prostitute with a female wife; amnesiac (more…)

We haven’t finished researching this sinner yet. (Remember, we’re talking about Ann Coulter — one of the most hateful demons ever to emerge from the depths of Hell and stain the face of the earth. It’s going to take some time.) In the meantime, check out this lovely demonstration of Ann Coulter’s character, at Think Progress.

We haven’t finished researching this sinner yet. In the meantime, we suggest you visit Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O’Reilly, International…

…an organization dedicated to the dissemination of information that exposes Bill O’Reilly for what he is: an ego-driven, biased individual who spreads fear, hate and misunderstanding. While he sees himself as a culture warrior, his views are firmly anchored to the political right. He works tirelessly to enrage Americans and pit them against anything he considers “liberal” or, worse yet, “secular”. Mr. O’Reilly uses highly manipulative forms of presentation, phrasing and, yes, “spin”. Also, he’s completely nuts.

He: Kay Bryson

Claims to fame: Former Utah County Attorney; schlemiel; divorcé

She: Katherine “Kathy” Bryson

Claims to fame: Former Utah state legislator (R-Orem, UT); adulteress; divorcée

Moral apices:

She had a longterm extramarital affair, and was also suspected of fooling around with another Utah legislator.

He installed a surveillance camera in the condominium she owned, and was renting to her son.

She accused him of misusing county property (the camera, which belonged to the county) and personnel (a Utah County sheriff’s deputy) to install the camera.

He said he had the camera installed to see if somebody was stealing stuff from his son’s residence.

She accused him of invasion of privacy, alleging that he had the camera solely to catch her in flagrante delicto.

He did indeed catch her, via the hidden camera, with another man.

She withdrew her 2004 re-election bid — but not before testifying “during a floor debate involving a domestic violence bill … [telling] fellow legislators that she, too, had been the victim of non-physical domestic violence and intimated that Kay Bryson was responsible.” [Deseret Morning News, October 7, 2004]

He “responded with allegations of improper use of family finances, saying that Katherine Bryson had forged his name on loan documents” [ibid.], and threatened to release the tape of his estranged wife’s clandestine meeting with the other man.

The outcome:

They divorced. Of course.

No charges were filed against Kay Bryson; “prosecutors announced that there was not sufficient basis to file any criminal charges in the case.” [Deseret Morning News, November 29, 2004]

Divine fallout: Their very messy and very public divorce was blamed for various Republican losses in state and local offices in 2006 — but that’s a “some say” kind of rumor, so make of it what you will.

One thing’s for sure: In April, 2006, Kay Bryson, seeking his fifth term, “was ousted by Jeff Buhman, one of his own employees, who garnered 69 percent of the vote.” [Desert Morning News, May 1, 2006]

Kay Bryson won — if you can call it “winning” — a mere 12% of the vote.

Suggested Bible reading for Mrs. Bryson:

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

— Exodus 20:14

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Bryson:

And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

— Matthew 18:9

Claims to fame: Former Utah state legislator; real estate broker, Prudential Utah Real Estate; co-owner, T.L.C. of Kids daycare center; former president, Utah Private Child Care Association; husband; father; grandfather; would-be john

Moral apex: Busted September 30, 2003, for soliciting sex — offering a measly $40 — from an undercover (female) cop posing as a hooker in downtown Salt Lake City.

But: The public didn’t know anything until the following May, when the Deseret Morning News found out about the incident, and made it public.

And then: Bird resorted to the ol’ third-person, in-denial, non-apology apology: “I wish this had never happened.”

And then: Bird resigned his state house seat.

The plea: After telling everyone who would listen that he wasn’t guilty of anything untoward — “This was a huge mistake. I should have known better than to pull over and talk to the lady. No improprieties happened, but the offers were there. It was really dumb,” he told the Deseret — he ultimately pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of sex solicitation.

The punishment: Sentenced to a year’s probation and completion of the Johns’ Program, which requires would-be johns to complete a 10-week class, after which the offender’s record is expunged.

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Bird:

They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.

— Ezekiel 16:33

Claims to fame: Utah state legislator; former Speaker of the Utah House of Representatives; former LDS Stake President; dairy farmer; father of four; adulterer; divorcé

Moral apex: In 1998, blew a 42-year marriage (which produced four children) on an affair with an intern, one Jill Kitchen, 27 years his junior.

Anything else? Just something about accepting an undisclosed $230 check from a lobbyist for U.S. West, who said he was helping Brown get a cell phone; in truth, they were discussing Brown’s “career options” with the company. It is interesting that after Brown’s political career was sidelined for a while, he became a lobbyist himself.

The consequences: Other than an expensive divorce? Politically, not much. The business about the cell-phone check was investigated by the House, and Brown was cleared.

But for his extramarital affair, he was excommunicated from the Mormon Church.

Where he is now: Although he gave up a re-election bid after the scandal broke, he’s been back in the Utah state legislature since 2006 (albeit from a different district). Oh, and he married the legislative aide he was shagging on the side.

Suggested Book of Mormon reading for Mr. Brown:

In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees;

And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this border of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage];

And if he does not, he cannot obtain it.

He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase.

— D&C 131:1-4

Claims to fame: Republican U.S. Senator from Utah (1896-1897); failed contender for state attorney general; successful Salt Lake City lawyer; serial adulterer; divorcé; homewrecker; bastard sire

Moral apex #1: Started an affair with one Isabel Cameron, daughter of a Michigan state senator; left his wife (and his own daughter) for his bit-o’-fluff only after the affair became public. He finally married Cameron and fathered a son by her.

Moral apex #2: After settling with his second family in Salt Lake City, the 53-year-old Brown took up with 23-year-old Anne Bradley, wife and mother of two, active participant in a number of respected women’s clubs, charter member of the city’s First Unitarian Church, secretary of the Fifth Ward Republican Committee, and secretary of the State Republican Committee. When they weren’t shagging in Salt Lake, he was taking her along on out-of-state trips, introducing her as his wife.

Ultimately, Bradley left her husband, and Brown filed for divorce from his second wife — who promptly put a private investigator on his philandering tail. Mrs. Brown filed an adultery charge against her husband, and, in September, 1902, both Brown and Bradley were arrested.

Mrs. Brown offered to drop her adultery complaint if her husband dropped the divorce. He wouldn’t, so she didn’t — and Brown and Bradley were arrested a second time the following January.

“The illicit affair,” wrote Linda Thatcher for History Blazer…

…continued with all parties involved in a dramatic confrontation in a Pocatello, Idaho, hotel where Isabel Brown … threatened to kill Bradley and intimidated Arthur by ordering him to open the door to his hotel room or she would “mash it in.” The former senator did. The combatants spent the night accusing each other of all sorts of indiscretions, and Brown, according to Christensen, gave Bradley a revolver as protection against his wife.

Bradley apparently believed matters had been settled. Brown would make a financial settlement with his wife, secure a divorce, and marry her. When Bradley returned to Salt Lake, however, she found the couple had reconciled. She was three months pregnant with a second child she claimed Brown had fathered. Brown promised to arrange matters to give Bradley and her children “the protection… necessary.” When Isabel Brown died of cancer on August 22, 1905, a solution seemed at hand. Bradley obtained her divorce and expected a quick marriage to Arthur, but he was in no hurry to gain legal access to what he had enjoyed illicitly, postponing wedding dates and evading all attempts to pin him down about marriage or his promise to set her up in business.

In December 1906 she followed Brown to Washington, D.C., where she found letters to him from Annie Adams Kiskadden, mother of the famous actress Maude Adams and an actress in her own right. Enraged by the letters and believing Brown and Kiskadden planned to marry soon, Anne Bradley confronted Brown in his hotel room and shot him.

Arthur Brown died in the hospital five days later, on December 13, 1906.

What happened next: Tried for his murder, Bradley claimed temporary insanity, and was acquitted.

Suggested Bible reading for… Oh, heck, they’re both dead now, so there’s no reason to bludgeon their corpses with their own Bible.

Claims to fame: Former legislator, Utah House of Representatives; former president, Cache County Board of Education; former president, Utah School Boards Association; former director, Utah Dairy Commission; former director, Western General Dairies; former board member, Intermountain Dairy Cooperatives; former director, Cache County Farm Bureau; former board member, South Cache Water Users Association; former member, Utah State Realtors Association Standards and Ethics Committee; licensed agent, Brent Parker Realty; lifelong farmer; American Farm Bureau Federation’s “Outstanding Young Farmer in the Nation,” 1973; husband; father of six; grandfather of six; pillar of the Mormon community; closet homo; would-be john

Moral apex: Busted in Salt Lake City in 2003 for soliciting sex from an undercover cop posing as a male prostitute, whom he offered twenty bucks, and then tried to fondle. The cop gave him a ticket and released him at the scene.

What happened next: He resigned from the state legislature.

What stinks: According to the police report, when Parker asked the cop if he was a cop, the cop said no.

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Parker:

Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

— Psalm 44:21

Claims to fame: Former Schenectady (New York) County and City Republican chairman; former Republican county elections commissioner; family man; child molester

Moral apex: Groped a 14-year-old girl while watching a Star Wars movie with her at his home, in 2005.

Charged with: Three misdemeanor counts: third-degree sexual abuse, forcible touching and child endangerment.

Who comes out looking like the real schmuck of the story: Tebano’s lawyer, Peter Lynch.

Why? Well…

After Republicans “called on Tebano to resign his $75,000-a-year position as the county’s Republican elections commissioner and his unpaid duty as city GOP chairman” …

Said Lynch: Tebano had “no plans of leaving public office.”

But then: On June 1, 2006, Tebano announced his resignation as county chairman.

Tebano’s plea: Initially, not guilty.

Said Lynch: “[T]he evidence in the case is going to show plainly and simply that these allegations are false. Armando is an innocent guy.”

But then: In February, 2007, Tebano struck a deal, pleading guilty to second-degree harassment.

Said Lynch: Tebano’s guilty “had absolutely nothing to do with any inappropriate sexual behavior.”

The so-called punishment: “Under the plea bargain, Tebano pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment, which carries no time in jail. City Court Judge Guido Loyola also fined Tebano $250, plus court-related costs and ordered him to complete 250 hours of community service. He was also ordered to stay away from the girl, now 16, and give a DNA sample.” [Albany Times Union, February 8, 2007]

What’s worse than the slap-on-the-wrist outcome: This wasn’t the first time Tebano was suspected of child molestation: “Before the plea deal was struck, Loyola rejected an attempt by special prosecutor Jeb Conboy to enter into evidence four separate cases dating to 1996, where Tebano allegedly engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct. In one incident, Conboy alleged Tebano took ‘nearly nude’ pictures of three underage girls after luring them to a relative’s business.” [ibid.]

Said Lynch: “[T]he old cases were all lies.”

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Tebano:

And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.

And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

— Leviticus 26:17-18

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Lynch:

He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.

— Proverbs 18:13

Claims to fame: “Prosperity Gospel” Pentecostal senior pastor, Shiloh Institutional Church of God in Christ, Fort Worth, Texas; voodoo priest; accused rapist and abuser

Moral apex: There’s just so much to choose from… but if pressed, we’d have to say anally raping a church member with a wooden club — although the constant beatings of this woman, and more than 20 other members of his flock (according to the alleged victims) over the course of more than two decades run a very close second.

(You realize we have to say “alleged,” right, until he’s actually been convicted of something? Not that that means we don’t believe it’s all true; we just don’t want to get sued for libel.)

Julie Lyons of The Dallas Observer has, so far, covered the whole revolting and downright weird story better than anyone.

What’s worse: Over more than two decades, numerous complaints were made to the Church of God in Christ about Allen’s behavior, and nothing was done.

One victim explained why she put up with Allen’s abuse: “I really felt like he was doing what God told him.”

Where things stand now: Allen was suspended from his “pastoral duties” — and promptly began fighting the suspension; he says that his church had was never officially a COGIC church, so he doesn’t have to abide by COGIC “discipline.” He’s also fighting lawsuits by a couple of his victims.

What does Allen have to say about the allegations against him? Of course, he denies everything. He won’t talk to the press, his lawyers consistently decline to comment, and he pleaded the Fifth (to every question) in a recent deposition.

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Allen:

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

— 2 Peter 2:1