Friday, March 4, 2011

Southern Conservatives Reveal Their True "Family Values"

Tom Whatley

Perhaps nothing delights progressives quite like having a conservative Republican proven to be a fraud on "values" issues. It's particularly delightful when a conservative is outed in the deep-red South.

Two such outings have happened in recent days, and I'm so broken up about it that I can't wipe the smile off my face.

First, we have an Alabama Republican who apparently spends considerable time seeking companionship on a Web site called Adult FriendFinder. Then, we have an anti-gay pastor in Louisiana being arrested for masturbating at a park near New Orleans. Yee haw!

Tom Whatley, a state senator from Auburn, Alabama, reportedly has been a busy boy on the racy Adult FriendFinder site, which has the theme "Real People, Real Sex." How did this come to light? The Opelika-Auburn News explains:

Some top state political figures have received packets in recent weeks purporting to show that freshman state Sen. Tom Whatley, R-Auburn, was active on the racy Internet site Adult FriendFinder early this year, according to interviews with several people in and out of the Legislature.

Top Republicans defended Whatley and characterized the materials as a personal attack against the new senator, who ousted longtime Democratic state Sen. Ted Little for the District 27 seat in the Republican tidal wave that swept the Alabama Statehouse in November.

Whatley, who is not married, issued a short statement: “I do not comment on anonymous attacks of a personal nature.”

Should we cut Whatley some slack because: (a) He is single; (b) He apparently was seeking to "befriend" women, unlike Republicans from the Larry Craig toe-tapping wing of the party? Nah. It's too much fun to pile on when the opportunity arises. After all, it looks like Whatley was begging to step in doo-doo:

The packets contain an anonymous cover letter, photographs and copies of e-mail exchanges from the Adult FriendFinder website allegedly between Whatley and an unnamed woman. Some of the photographs show male nudity, but no face is shown.

Adult FriendFinder bills itself as the world’s largest swinger site.

Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville, said, “It sounds strikingly familiar to that congressman in New York.”

Sanford was speaking of former U.S. Rep. Christopher Lee, a Republican who resigned early last month after it was learned he e-mailed a shirtless photo of himself to a woman in response to her ad on Craigslist.

A prominent Alabama Democrat seems to be having fun with the story:

Jim Spearman, former executive director of the state Democratic Party, said the party office received a fax and an anonymous phone call in late January about the alleged Internet activity.

“I’ve known Tom for years,” Spearman said. “I know what an opportunist he is. Looks like he set himself up for something he didn’t plan on.”

Spearman, who stepped down as executive director in early February, said that while there is nothing illegal implied by the alleged conversations or pictures, they could be embarrassing for a senator who ran as a conservative touting family values.

“There is nothing illegal about it,” Spearman said. “It might be immoral.”

Zing!

Grant Storms and Lafreniere Park


The Louisiana case involves the Rev. Grant Storms, who is known for his bullhorn protests at the Southern Decadence festival in the French Quarter. Storms apparently prefers to have his "decadence" at public parks, where children tend to be present:

Storms, 53, of 2304 Green Acres Road in Metairie, was taken into custody at Lafreniere Park after two women reported seeing him masturbating in the driver's seat of his van, which was parked near the carousel and playground, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office report said.

The first woman told deputies she was taking her children to the playground and parked next to the van at about noon. As she was walking around her own vehicle, she noticed the van windows were down and the occupant was "looking at the playground area that contained children playing, with his zipper down...," the report said. The woman noted that he was masturbating and quickly ushered her children out of her car.

She told a second woman, who walked to the van and also spotted the man masturbating, the report said. The second witness told deputies that the driver saw her and tried to conceal the zipper area of his pants with his hand.

The two women flagged down a park employee who notified the Sheriff's Office. The employee detained the man, later identified as Storms, until deputies arrived.

Conservatives always have a ready excuse when they get caught with their pants down--or unzipped, as the case might be:

Storms told deputies he was having lunch at the park when he decided to urinate using a bottle instead of the restroom, the report said.

Probably didn't want to use the restroom because there might be perverts in there.

Who is this paragon of virtue?

A self-styled "Christian patriot," Storms led a small West Bank congregation called The Reformer Church and for 10 years hosted "The Reformer Radio Show" on WSHO. Storms has railed against the Roman Catholic church, calling it "satanic" and "demonic."

He is especially known for arming followers with bullhorns, Bibles and picket signs to protest Southern Decadence, the three-day gay festival held in the French Quarter during Labor Day weekend. Storms grabbed national attention in 2003 with his failed attempts to shut down what Southern Decadence organizer Chuck Robinson called a peaceful festival that celebrates gay and alternative lifestyles.

Are New Orleans gays saddened by Storms' recent travails? Not exactly:


"He's done everything through the years to disturb that and try to make it into something nasty that it's not," Robinson said. "If the Rev. Storms is caught doing that in our city, it is ludicrous and heinous that he would have the nerve to complain about any kind of sexuality."

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr.Schnauzer: I almost fell outta my chair.....

Freudian projection you think? You see the faults in others that you see in yourself.

Redeye said...

You said;
Perhaps nothing delights progressives quite like having a conservative Republican proven to be a fraud on "values" issues. It's particularly delightful when a conservative is outed in the deep-red South.

Two such outings have happened in recent days, and I'm so broken up about it that I can't wipe the smile off my face.

Me either.:)

photojack53 said...

Both of these are typical of Republican hypocrisy. Just like McCain, who divorced his wife who stuck with him throughout his POW ordeal, only to quickly marry a woman almost half his age, they should be the last ones to scream about "family values." Just like all the televangelists who have fallen from grace, hypocrisy at this level is heinous. And of course, the even more important issue is Republicans selling themselves out to corporate lobbyists, while both work against the middle class to help the top 2% of the wealthiest. Wisconsin was our wake-up call. Indiana, Ohio and others are keeping the flames burning and the solidarity protests of the "Save the American Dream" rallies in all 50 states will win America back from the brink of the disaster this EVIL Repugnican strategy was taking us.
VOTE THESE BUMS OUT OF OFFICE, RECALL THEM, IMPEACH THEM AND TAKE BACK AMERICA!

Anonymous said...

photojack:

They are ALL psychopaths. I attended Junior High School with Pat Robertson's son Tim. This forum is to short to get into specifics, but this paragraph will show why I've had 1 billion 900 million reasons to ward off "THE BIG SET UP"
-
The network's Family Channel, which promoted family-friendly entertainment, was spun off in 1990 to International Family Entertainment Inc., led by Pat Robertson and his son "Tim". In 1997 that company was sold for $1.9billion to Fox Kids Worldwide Inc., which later sold it to the Disney Co.

Anonymous said...

Tom Whatley is a snake..........he is nothing more than a predator. He told my friend that she was the only one..........we tried to tell her that there have been reports of him with another woman! At first, he would take her to campaign events in AU but then stopped............then he would tell her that he was drilling with the guard and would barely adknowledge her calls for days, the entire time we kept telling her that he was with someone else

Anonymous said...

Tom does nothing more than hurt people that he comes into contact with! He lies to anyone and everyone. I should know..........he dated my daughter! My husband and I were concerned when he first started seeing her ..........she was 19 and he was 38. We tried to stope it, but he brain washed her and kept feeding her lies! Tom Whatley has hurt our family and I am sure that he has hurt the other woman's family too! I regret the day out daughter ever met him!

Anonymous said...

Del Marsh knows about both of Tom's girlfriends and so does BCA, Alfa, and the Cattleman's Assoc

Anonymous said...

Whatley supposedly has 2 different social security numbers.............this was found on alacourt.

Anonymous said...

i will expose tom whatley, he is hiding funds

legalschnauzer said...

I've had a number of people ask for a way to send me information on a number of topics discussed on this blog, including matters covered in this post. My e-mail address is published on the front page of the blog, right under the "About Me" information, down the left side.

It's rshuler3156@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.

Anonymous said...

Tom Whatley has left the Country. He has gont to Germany with the Guard for 6 months. He told people that he was activated, but he applied online to go. He will be getting both senate and guard pay. He sponsered the bill at the start of the year allowing him to do this!

Anonymous said...

Ole Tommy boy is a nudist as well and frequents a nudist site in Salem, Al. It is called Bare Cove. He take different women there all the time.