Apparently, I have a gay governor.

[camwyn]

Or a gay ex-governor.

N.J. governor resigns; admits homosexuality

New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey announced his resignation today, acknowledging that he is homosexual, and that he had an extramarital affair with a former male aide.

“I am a gay American," McGreevey said. "It makes little difference as governor that I'm gay," he said, but added: "Given the cicumstances of the affair .... my decision is to resign."

McGreevey said the resignation would take effect Nov. 15.

@whee. Call me when I've had more than a few hours' sleep and I might have more to say on this.

Comments

[zed42.livejournal.com]

apparently, not any more :)

[ymfaery]

Whoops, not a registered user. Oh well.

So he resigned because he had an affair that did damage to his political career or something?

[camwyn]

Well, it's more that he resigned because his closest friends and fundraisers were just brought to heel in a HUGE scandal involving hookers and blackmail. And because several of his administration officials resigned. And because there's a lawsuit pending against him. And then because he had a gay affair (which I think is related to the lawsuit). But for all that America's got a homophobic streak a mile wide in places, it's less likely to get him hammered in court if he admits to being gay than if he admits to being part of one or more of the other scandals.

[ymfaery]

Ah-ha. Lesser of the evils to resign then.

Seems like the more infamous political scandals involve hookers in some way. ^_-

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

I went to read up on the details about all this, saw all the other problems his administration has had to cope with--plus the lawsuit aimed straight at him. I think resigning may well have been his best bet, if only to allow the state government to be handled by someone who wasn't up to his shirttails in alligators.
It's a shame that so many people will reduce this to "He resigned because he was gay", and I fell for him and his family [especially his kids] having to sort through all this in the glare of publicity.

[camwyn]

Yeah. I mean, geez, it sucks that he couldn't at least divorce his wife quietly before having the affair, but considering how many other things are going on in state government, I totally believe that the gay part is the absolute least important aspect of the whole mess.

[starwatching.livejournal.com]

But stuff like blackmail? There's no steamy hawt headlines in that.
We want shock value, we doessss, precious. At least we want cheap
thrillses.

[camwyn]

Oh, but this was blackmail with hookers. So there were lots of gorgeous headlines about it, at least in New Jersey. Alas, the governor himself was not involved in the blackmail, nor did he have anything to do with the hookers- that was his buddy and fundraiser, but not him. So...

"OMG G0V3RN0R MCGR33V3Y IZ T3H G4Y!!!!!!11!!1"

... feh. At least he should be slapped for what he allowed to be written into law when he signed the Highlands preservation bill. Fast-track approval for developers damn near everywhere else in the state. But nooooo.... t3h g4y.

[starwatching.livejournal.com]

/hides from Eviiil! Netspeak\

*eyeroll*

Yes. I so don't think we have the right approach to election criteria
sometimes. Russian Roulette would have less likelihood of a bad outcome.

[camwyn]

What we really need are a couple of good Mongol hordes to storm the national and state capitals every so often and carry off any legislators they can find to be their slaves. Just to thin things out a bit.

[starwatching.livejournal.com]

Slaves have to be capable of doing actual work.
Anyway, we'd have to pay the Mongol hordes to take them.
I don't know about you but if I want to shell out money on
lost causes, I'll hire H&R Block at tax season.

[camwyn]

True enough. Ah, well, it was a lovely idea, but exposed to the cold light of reason it withered and died as have so many others...

[starwatching.livejournal.com]

...reason?

Me?

Hmph. And I now have a mental picture in my head of Bill Clinton on the auction block.

...if I write Slave!Bush fic, or Slave!Mulder, your name is so going in the title.

[northstar83.livejournal.com]

this issue is big in the gay boys community right now. You Americans take up so much space on my friends page. He's gay, his wife is gay, his lover is blackmailing him...

On this weeks episode of Gays of Our Lives...

http://www.livejournal.com/community/gay_boys/4393894.html

[camwyn]

His wife is gay? I hadn't heard that. Jeez, no wonder he called his parents into the Statehouse before making the announcement...

[northstar83.livejournal.com]

yeah...anyway can someone say drama queen. Your political system scares me dear, it really really does.

[camwyn]

It still beats the Italians, though. They've had what, fifty governments since World War II?

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

Good old New Jersey. We don't often get into the National news, but when we do, we make sure its a doozy of a story.

I read that last post about all 'Teh Evil' of McGreevey. I have no idea if all that is true. Sounds like conjecture to me, but then I don't pay that much attention to politics. I don't even remember hearing the stories about the hookers and whatever. I really need to read news besides The Guardian Online.

Politicians are weird.