Lacking in Judgement

Posted on | February 19, 2012 | 2 Comments

I will preface this by saying I know very little about Paul Babeu.

I know he is a Republican. I know he is tough on border security. I know he has been doing good work trying to shine a light on Operation Fast & Furious. And I know Paul Babeu has poor judgment. Why?

Because this picture exists.

No one with a functioning judgment chip takes these type of pictures, let alone expecting them to remain private. I don’t care who he intended the pic for. If a photo like this of Mitt Romney* surfaced and he told us it was a private picture intended only for his wife of 42 years, I would say it was proof that Romney lacked judgment. I would believe he meant it only for his wife – but I would still say it was a HUGE blunder.

The New Slimes article proves little of import. We learned that he is gay, something that is of no consequence. We learned he had a bad break-up with an impulsive, vindictive person. We learned that, given the opportunity to respond, the Babeu office prevaricated and stalled.

What seems likely from the article – as well as the pictures and screen caps – is that Babeu was posting on various websites looking for hook-ups. Again, whether those hook-ups were with men or women is irrelevant. The fact that a man serving in public office, and running for an even higher one, would exhibit such behavior shows horrible judgment. The type of behavior that sets a person up for blackmail – or an exposé in a sleazy local journal.

What is alleged but not proven: That Babeu’s lover was an illegal alien, that during that relationship Babeu continued to solicit casual hook-ups with others, that Babeu or his attorney threatened the lover with deportation after the break-up.

What was mentioned in a different article is that Jose left one of those inflammatory comments on eNewsAZ. After deleting it they contacted the Sheriff’s office for a comment and were told that Babeu has a mentally ill sister who has been leaving those comments. If that is true, it means the sheriff was willing to throw his sister under the bus despite knowing who was really behind the offensive comments.

To have any understanding of the internet and still take and post those pictures is political suicide. If you pay any attention to the news, which I expect elected officials to do, you could not have missed the careers that have previously been derailed by just such pics. (Chris Lee, Anthony Weiner,….) It would take a serious bit of self delusion to convince yourself that YOU are so different.

As I said earlier, tell the truth about your relationships. Tell the truth about your behavior. Your constituents don’t care if you’re gay, but they sure as heck care if you are a liar. They care if you have good judgment. They care if you own up to your mistakes.

And, if they are anything like me, they care if you are trawling the internet for random sexual encounters.

* I chose Mitt Romney because he was the most clean-cut, non-undie-pic politician I could think of

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