Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Par For the Courser

Scum:

"Mich. lawmaker may face expulsion" Associated Press  September 09, 2015

LANSING, Mich. — The top lawyer for the Michigan House recommended Tuesday that one state lawmaker be expelled and another censured for misconduct stemming from an attempt to hide their extramarital affair.

Brock Swartzle, general counsel for the Republican-led chamber and chief of staff to the speaker, said GOP Representative Todd Courser of Lapeer should be expelled in part because he has shown ‘‘little true remorse,’’ instead writing ‘‘mini-manifestos’’ on social media to deflect blame.

He said a censure would be appropriate for Republican Representative Cindy Gamrat of Plainwell, whom he described as contrite and more of an accomplice in the ‘‘bizarre’’ coverup attempt.

Courser has admitted he arranged for a phony, sexually explicit e-mail to be sent to GOP activists and others that said he had been caught having sex with a male prostitute.

He said the tale would make the affair less believable if it was exposed by an anonymous blackmailer who was sending him and fellow freshman and social conservative Gamrat text messages demanding that he resign.

I recognize the hypocrisy, too.

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"Michigan House may expel two lawmakers over affair" Associated Press  September 10, 2015

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan House was at a standstill Thursday over whether to expel two social conservatives who admitted to misconduct in covering up their extramarital affair.

Sixty-seven members supported expelling Republican Representative Todd Courser, six short of the two-thirds majority needed under the state constitution.

Republican Representative Cindy Gamrat also faces expulsion.

‘‘These two members have obliterated the public trust. They’ve obliterated the trust of their colleagues. And each day that they continue here they reduce the public trust in this institution,’’ said Representative Ed McBroom, a Republican from Vulcan in the Upper Peninsula who chaired a disciplinary panel that urged the expulsions.

That was likely long ago, before these scapegoat scum arrived. 

The $y$tem is fine, fine I tell you!

Courser, 43, has admitted sending an ‘‘outlandish’’ phony e-mail to GOP activists and others in May claiming he was caught with a male prostitute. The e-mail was intended to make his affair with the 42-year-old Gamrat appear less believable if it were exposed by an anonymous blackmailer.

The self-smear e-mail called Courser a ‘‘bisexual porn-addicted sex deviant’’ and ‘‘gun-toting Bible-thumping . . . freak’’ and Gamrat a ‘‘tramp.’’

Shit all over 'em from what I can smell.

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"Mich. legislator expelled, another quits after affair coverup" Associated Press  September 12, 2015

LANSING, Mich. — One socially conservative Michigan lawmaker was expelled from office and another resigned Friday after they rocked the Legislature with a botched attempt to conceal their extramarital affair with a fictional, sexually explicit e-mail.

Republican state Representative Cindy Gamrat became just the fourth legislator to be kicked out in state history.

Earlier Friday, GOP state Representative Todd Courser resigned when it became clear that there were enough votes to ask the attorney general and State Police to investigate the lawmakers.

Both were immediately escorted from the chamber.

‘‘I put everybody through a whole bunch — across the state, my own family, the constituents, the people in this room,’’ Courser told reporters.

Gamrat, who was expelled on a 91-to-12 vote, declined to comment as she left the Capitol with her son, her sister, and her attorney at the end of a drama-filled, 16-hour session.

‘‘I have done everything I can to redeem the situation,’’ she said in her speech asking for a censure, which would have let her stay on the job with restrictions.

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