Who Says Republicans Don't Have Sex?

Tomorrow, a court in Arapahoe County, CO will release "hundreds of sexually explicit e-mails" that county clerk Tracy Baker exchanged with his girlfriend. Colorado GOP officials are joining county commissioners in calling for Baker's resignation. Sez The Denver Channel:

The e-mails were uncovered during an investigation of the department prompted by complaints about Baker. A report found that 570 of the 622 e-mails were sexually explict or romantic.

Read through to the end of the story; I had thought Baker was just being screwed for making the E-quivalent of too many personal calls to his fuck buddy. But it turns out girlfriend Leesa Sale was actually Baker's assistant; Baker nearly tripled her salary over a three-year period, finagled her $20,000 in overtime for 2002 alone, and billed the county for swanky hotel accomodations when the two took business trips. (Dickensian plot twist: Cuts in the county's 2002 budget included elimination of a program for autistic children.) Baker, a true gallant, said in a statement: "I readily admit my affection for this woman and I publicly state my intentions of love to her once my current marriage is dissolved." Punch line: This scandal broke well before the November 5 vote, but Baker handily won re-election because his only opponent was a Libertarian.

Comments

[Brad S]

Baker should really be proclaiming his love for the county taxpayers for financing his extramarital flings. At least Clinton had the decency not to bill the American public for his philandering.

[tim]

Thanks for the clarification, Walter. An interesting development, given the Republicans' fondness for scapegoating the LP for their own failings.

[Walter in Denver]

Actually, the story broke around Oct. 22nd, a scant two weeks before the election. That left not enough time for serious fundraising and organization required for a winning Libertarian campaign. In spite of that Margeret Denny, the LP candidate, managed 37% of the vote, which is 15 to 20% higher than the average for a LP'er in a two way race around here. If we'd only had a couple more weeks to oganize we could have turned Margaret's 'lineholder' campaign into a winner.

Oh, the LP did win two other county-wide partisan races in Colorado in '02. One candidate, Bill Masters, Sheriff of San Miguel county, is so popular that the Republicans didn't even bother to field a candidate. He won a contested race in a landslide in '98.

[RJ]

Where does this little prick Baker get off?? (Wait, I guess I know the answer already.)

Denverites: Do you see this as more of the same old crap? What is it about the me-first, outta my way, pay no attention to the "Carpool only" signs attitude of people around here. Have you noticed this?