Oh, just vomit. GOP Rep. Pat Meehan, whom we learned over the weekend spent thousands in taxpayer dollars to settle a sexual harassment complaint leveled against him by a former staffer, is now trying to somehow excuse his behavior by saying he'd grown to believe the aide was his "soul mate"! Even more amazingly, he insists he's running for re-election, and he even has a fundraiser scheduled for next week.
But the House Ethics Committee—which, ironically, Meehan was a member of until Paul Ryan removed him after the harassment report surfaced—has now launched an investigation into the matter. And between this unfolding horror story, plus the fact that Meehan's ultra-gerrymandered seat in the Philadelphia suburbs is about to vanish in a puff of redistricting, his odds of serving in Congress next year are swiftly approaching zero.
And about that horror story …. It's honestly a little bit hard to summarize what Meehan said in a new interview he conducted with the Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday, his first substantive comments since the New York Times broke the settlement story on Saturday, so we'll just reproduce a few choice bits here:
Meehan denied any harassment, and said any anger in the office was driven by stress around high-pressure votes last year over the Affordable Care Act. […]
He also said he felt "invited" to express his feelings to the younger aide, whom he had invited out for ice cream after a tele-town hall, according to texts shared by his camp. He said he hoped that by expressing his feelings the two could be aware of it and prevent it from becoming inappropriate. She had texted that she wanted to be a "touchstone" for him and that she can "bear the stress and tension."
"I started to talk to her about my reaction to (her new relationship) and you know, selfishly I was thinking about what this was going to mean to me," Meehan said, "that she was leaving and that this was going to change the dynamic which was very special in my office and also somebody that I was emotionally close to by virtue of the time that we spent together in seven years."[...]
Meehan said he told the aide "that I was a happily married man and I was not interested in a relationship, particularly not any sexual relationship, but we were soul mates. I think that the idea of soul mate is that sort of person that out go through remarkable experiences together."
Oh yes, Obamacare made me treat my own subordinate like crap! Also, we went out for some ice cream, so that made it okay for me to dump all my inappropriate feelings on her! And I was happily married but we were soul mates! This might be the most beyond-clueless statement from a politician in the entire #MeToo era, but what’s even more stunning is that Meehan is a former district attorney and U.S. attorney, so if anyone ought to know better, it’s him. Ugh, it's just all so revolting. For the rest of the grossness, though, you're going to have to visit the Inky.