In principle there’s nothing wrong with sex with another person. Or, particularly, about bragging about it. Not even if you’re married, assuming your marriage partner is ok with it. Not even if your sex partner(s) are married, assuming it’s ok with their partners. There’s even nothing wrong with it even if you’re a California State Assemblyman.
Yeah, it gets a little iffier if you’re a California State Assemblyman with a 100% approval rating for “family values” voting from a subsidiary of the right-wing Focus on the Family, although it might not sit well with FoF to learn you’re actually an adulterous braggart.
There is a problem, however, if you’re a California State Assemblyman, and the chair of the Utilities and Commerce committee and your sex partners are paid lobbyists for an energy company your committee regulates! That’s the real story in the following video clip.
The real scandal? “The Assembly Legislative Ethics Committee is looking into the reports about Duvall’s alleged relationship with the lobbyist, a source close to the committee said this morning. “
Now we’re getting somewhere! People have sex. Sex is messy. Some people think messy sex is sexy. Other people think their way of doing sex is great and everyone else’s is gross. That’s not going anywhere.
What does need to go somewhere, though, is that he was doing these things with lobbyists. Because even if Duvall’s marital partner knew and approved, and even if his sex partner’s husbands knew and approved, it would still be a scandal that he was having sex with lobbyists for a company his committee has jurisdiction over.
It wouldn’t just be scandalous in terms of exchange of favors (which is how a lot of people seem to be reading it with their “little more than prostitutes” quips.) It would also be scandalous in terms of sexual-harassment-type power differentials between people seeking changes in legislation and someone in a position to make those changes.
Meanwhile people around the web seem to be focusing on the sex part. And the Focus-on-the-Family hypocrisy part.
But yes, by all means, go all knee-squeezy because someone had sex. Gag and heave all you like about his explicit language. And yes, definitely, absolutely take him to task for being the slimy hypocrite he is. But first put this man out of his chairmanship, off the committee, out of the Assembly, and, if possible, in jail for the real scandal of being that intimate with lobbyists or allowing them to be that intimate with him.
Those of us on the left are even more likely than those on the right to stop at twittery about sex at the expense of substance.
Update: According to the L.A. Times Duvall is resigning (emphasis mine)
“I am deeply saddened that my inappropriate comments have become a major distraction for my colleagues in the Assembly, who are working hard on the very serious problems facing our state,” he said in a statement posted on his website. “I have come to the conclusion that it would not be fair to my family, my constituents or to my friends on both sides of the aisle to remain in office. Therefore, I have decided to resign my office, effective immediately, so that the Assembly can get back to work.”
No, he’s not deeply saddened about his comments. He’s instead deeply hoping that knee-squeezing twittery about having sex with another decision-capable adult will trump the substance of potential criminal wrongdoing of a decidedly non-sexual nature. It’s not his inappropriate comments, or the specific sexual activities he was describing when he made those comments. It’s that he was literally in bed with lobbyists for an energy company his committee is supposed to be regulating.
Oh, and while I was Googling around for a post I’m writing up at my place I found a note at SF Gate that the energy company may have instead hired the lobbyists specifically because of her prior sexual access to him. In which case not only should he face trial and jail, so should the lobbyists and the corporate staff that hired them.
(I first found out about the Duvall story from Pam Spaulding.)
