Pavement Princesses in North Carolina
North Carolina’s Ethics Commission has just come out with a statement that lobbyists can hire prostitutes to service politicians and don’t even need to report the expense–because sex has no monetary value. Seriously.
Truly, how would you suggest we assign monetary value to sparking with this guy —
North Carolina State Representative Charles Jeter
Or this one —
North Carolina Speaker of the House Tim Moore
Maybe this one —
North Carolina State Representative Jonathan C. Jordan
Honey, I know approximately 20 million woman who say they wouldn’t do that for damn free.
I know this information is going to come as big news to the good folks at Miss Maudy’s Bawdy House in Reno, Nevada. I don’t think they have a North Carolina Free Friday on their fee list.
Thanks to Elizabeth for the heads up.
Prolly prefer their women with four legs and a stump handy. For free. Publicity included.
1Republican family values at their finest.
2Isn’t it against the law to hire a prostitute? It’s a crime isn’t it? So how can a legislator accept criminal activity without violating ethical standards?
Republicans put the moron in oxymoron.
3It ain’t a crime if they say it ain’t a crime. They figure boys will be boys so this way they can beat back the evangelicals by making prostitution legal.
4Thank you, Miss Juanita Jean for giving several casino owners, hopefully including Shelly Adelson, massive coronaries. Purely for economic, not moral, reasons prostitution is not legal in Clark and Washoe Counties, home to the cities of Las Vegas and Reno. No doubt the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office thanks you, too. The P_ssy Posse will be on double over time chasing the imaginary ladies back across the county line to Douglas County.
As for North Carolina? Even for first class air fair and a triple stipend, it is doubtful the ladies of Nevada would entertain the freight of NC politicians. They have their standards, unlike lobbyists.
5Hate to disagree, but that’s not the way I read the opinion. Looks like they are saying that if the lobbyist or “lobbyist principal” has consensual sex with a “designated individual”, then it doesn’t have to be reported. “However, a lobbyist or lobbyist principal’s provision of paid prostitution services by a third party to a designated individual could constitute a gift or thing of value, albeit an illegal one, depending on the particular facts. You have not provided any information that this is an issue in this situation.” The commission acknowledges that prostitution services would be illegal, but that’s not what the person who submitted the request asked about. Still, it’s skeevy.
6Can those guys ever get their heads out of the whatever? Or is this their preferred way of getting out of honest work!
7Does “prostitute” include people who sell out their constituents’ health and safety for lobbyist $$$?
8I still never cease to be amazed with the Republican Party and their absolutely total obsession with sex, sex, and more sex.
9I think the idea is to ignore the possibility of sexual harassment, as well as the possibility of a quid pro quo arrangement where the exchange is bartering a vote for some “friendliness.”
Consider the position of a female lobbyist who is solicited by one of the men cited above for a “consensual” relationship. Classic sexual harassment of someone in power coercing consent from the less powerful – right? Now consider a female lobbyist who does not sleep with Congresscritters noticing that said critters tend to vote the way that another, less picky female lobbyist suggests.
Either way, it’s a sad commentary on the competence of the ethics board that their analysis stops at whether cash changed hands…
10Those guys couldn’t pay enough to get a respectable sex worker to get close enough to them to perform an illegal act. Now if you’re a lobbyist….
11Not for a million dollars if we both had bags over our heads.
If the GOP would get their collective attention out of everybody’s underpants, they might be a respectable political organization.
12Maybe.
Some of them.
The less reality-challenged ones.
Okay, not really, but it would be an improvement.
looks like a bunch of gop weenies to me
13If prostitution has no monetary value then any money given to prostitutes must be a gift and therefore non-taxable.
14All the prostitutes in SC will be glad to know that the money they get is tax free after-all.
15Back in the day when I was a registered lobbyist in Illinois, more than a few lobbyists, both male and female, were “available” for “meaningful relationships” with legislators. Lobbyist Hanky, let me introduce you to Senator Panky!
Obviously, it is impossible to prove in a court of law that sex is specifically traded for political influence. Say that a lawmaker is bunking with a business lobbyist and subsequently votes for legislation that favors the business interests. In court, a clear link would have to be established for a bribery charge to stand. Did the two explicitly agree on a deal? Or was it implicit that the legislator’s future access to nooky depended on his vote? It’s murky and messy. Even moreso with one guy we knew as Senator Whips and Chains.
What we all laughed about more often was how guys from the Windy City were renowned for having “Chicago wives” and “Springfield wives,” often when they “befriended” a young, luscious, poorly paid legislative staffer. At least during my time, the women legislators to the best of my knowledge had a pretty unblemished track record, although one liberal representative sent many conservatives into a tizzy by insisting on nursing her newborn in the House chamber. Times have changed in that respect.
16This is family values?
17Gives me the shivers. Except for that lady who nursed her baby at work. Good for her. You think those guys know that breasts are really for feeding babies? Great national resource. Shivering again.
18@OldMayFly:
yes. yes it does.
19Old Mayfly, you have zeroed in on the more serious problem, members of Congress prostituting themselves and the people they represent for financial or political gain. They are the true whores.
20Just to be safe I ALWAYS report the expense when I hire prostitutes. And just let my tax lady figure out the paper work.
21Whose got money for prostitutes?
22e.p.o – was that rhetorical, or are you taking up a collection?
23Are the NC lawmakers acknowledging their occupational kinship to prostitutes?
24You’d think,that if nothing else, for Reptilicans the time alone would have some value. T them,but the time invested by the working lady would have some value though the act might be worthless to them.
25You’d think a sex worker could cut a deal with a factoring company that would let her offer credit to her customers. Thereafter she could sell the A/R at 90-95% of face value to the factor and let the factor collect the face value of debt, keeping the discount as there fee.
26there = their. I’m reasonably literate but I can’t type so good.
27It’s Charles, Tim and Jonathan. The Three Stooges of North Carolina!
28daChipster-I am always willing to accept small 7 figure checks for my favorite charity-Me. 🙂 I’n beyond the 3rd trimester of my life-try weakly.
29In a previous professional incarnation I represented clients before our state’s Ethics Commission and have read a sufficient number of formal opinions to think this is a send-up.
30The question may have been raised by some fool but the answer was drafted by an attorney with his or her tongue firmly in cheek. (Note the repeated disclaimers about facts not supplied in the question, etc.)
So let me get this straight, if the equivalent of Salma Hayek in her prime (or heck now) offers to have sex with me then I can accept knowing full well she is out of my league. As I long as I don’t ask who paid then I have committed no crime or broken any ethics rules? Thus, it is the equivalent of buying a new IPhone for five bucks on the side of the road. Would the few female GOP reps from that state be okay with a Bradley Cooper facsimile or would they need a quip pro quo?
31Those guys? You couldn’t pay me enough.
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