LaTourette's Syndrome

Apologies to anyone who actually HAS Tourette's Syndrome. I'm not making fun of you, but I can't let a big fat fastball right down the middle of the plate like this land in the catcher's mitt....I simply HAVE to hit it:

[Stephen] LaTourette, a member of the Republican class of 1994, a cadre in Newt Gingrich's "revolution," is now running for a sixth term in Congress in Ohio's 14th District, a suburban, mostly working-class area outside Cleveland. A former prosecutor, LaTourette has used conservative social issues to turn the once Democratic district into a marginally Republican one. He is a favorite of the National Rifle Association.



[snip]



LaTourette's affair with a Washington lobbyist was exposed by the Hill newspaper in 2003. The father of four and husband of 21 years voted for President Clinton's impeachment, but he has also joined moderate Republicans on a number of issues, including support for hate crimes legislation. He was blending into the woodwork as a Republican Party regular -- not as extreme as some of his more partisan colleagues but acceptably conservative (the Christian Coalition recently rated his voting record 84 percent favorable) -- when the revelation of his affair made him a poster boy for Republican "family values" hypocrisy.



The Washington lobbyist and her background have gone unmentioned in previous published accounts of the affair. But two sources close to Susan LaTourette, the congressman's wife, have told Salon that the lobbyist is Steven LaTourette's former chief of staff, Jennifer Laptook, whose work as a vice president for the firm Van Scoyoc Associates consists of pushing the interests of various Ohio-based clients before the staff of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, on which LaTourette sits. He is also chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management.



The affair began when Laptook was on LaTourette's staff. Immediately upon leaving his office in March 2003, she was hired for the lucrative business of influencing LaTourette's committee. Touting her qualifications, the Van Scoyoc Web site states: "As chief of staff, Laptook was responsible for advising on all legislative issues, particularly those that came before the committees on which Congressman LaTourette serves. Laptook worked intimately with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee staff, on which the congressman is a senior member."



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Laptook is able to do business as she does because of a loophole in the law. Because she lobbies only the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and not her former boss's congressional office directly, she was able to evade the ban on "direct lobbying" for one year after leaving LaTourette's employ.

So what do we have here? A family values Republican who leaves his wife and kids because he's fucking his assistant who later becomes a lobbyist. Presumably in exchange for sex, he manages to get her clients millions of taxpayer dollars for their projects.



He also sits on the House ethics committee, which is investigating House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, but he has received $16,000 in campaign contributions from DeLay.



I blame the Clenis(TM).