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C Street Rebranding: GOP Cheaters Need Our Discreet Counseling!
A little creative re-branding has worked wonders for the likes of Diddy (now back to Puff Daddy), Joe Lieberman, and the Volkswagen Beetle. So why not for C Street?
In recent weeks, the secretive Christian fellowship group, whose red-brick townhouse on Capitol Hill has for years served as an in-session dorm for religious lawmakers, has been getting some unwanted publicity. Thanks to its ties to three recent Republican sex scandals -- those of Nevada senator John Ensign, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, and former congressman Chip Pickering -- C Street has started to get a reputation as somewhere between a halfway house and frat house for conservative politicians looking to cheat on their wives while convincing themselves they're still upstanding guys.
Hence the need for some re-branding. It's likely no coincidence that both Politico and Roll Call have stories out today about C Street, in which a bevvy of current and former lawmakers portray the house -- as well as The Fellowship, the shadowy religious movement, also known as The Family, with which C Street is affiliated -- as a benevolent prayer group that offers "crucial counseling" to its powerful members, helping keep them on the straight and narrow.
The list of current or former members of Congress who have spoken on the record for recent news stories on C Street includes Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Rep. Joanne Emerson (R-MO), Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA), Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), former Ohio GOP congresswoman Deborah Pryce, former Oklahoma GOP congressman Steve Largent, and former Pennsylvania Democratic congressman Tony Hall.
Here's one typical explanation of the group's value to its mostly Republican members, given by Forbes, to Politico:
One thing about having members meet with members is they kind of understand what each other goes through and the stresses and the pressures and those kinds of things. And one member can tell another member, 'I don't think that's the right thing for you to do.'
But it's worth noting that the re-branding seems only to add to the evidence that C Street and the Fellowship serve first and foremost as a way for Republican family values politicians to discreetly deal with their extra-marital affairs.
Politico reports that the Fellowship focuses on what its leaders call the "'up and out,' or powerful politicians struggling to confront their personal demons." And Hall, the former Democratic congressman, explained to Roll Call what he sees C Street as being for: "These men [Ensign, Sanford, and Pickering] are good men. They made mistakes and they're paying for it. And that's what these ministries are about."
That explanation, which jibes with Forbes's, makes clear that dealing with extra-marital affairs is absolutely central to C Street's purpose.
It's also worth noting that the recent re-banding -- like many such efforts -- offers what you might call a skewed perspective.
Referring to Ensign's affair, which was discussed at C Street, ex-Oklahoma GOPer Largent told a local newspaper last week: "Our feeling is that if anybody does that and does it willfully that we are asking them not to live at C Street anymore."
We hate to point this out, but....Ensign still lives at C Street. Guess he must not have had the affair willfully.
More broadly, here's the major problem that's elided by the image of the benevolent prayer group: it's one thing for lawmakers to have a group of trusted friends and peers with whom they can talk about their personal lives. But, for a range of pretty obvious reasons, when prominent elected officials cheat on their spouses (OK, wives), they often commit other, non-sexual transgressions -- which go to their official responsibilities -- in trying to cover it up. That puts their religious confidants in the compromising position of knowing about non-personal wrongdoing that the public has a right to be aware of, but being obligated by the bonds of the group to keep it secret. Indeed, that seems to have been exactly what happened in the Ensign case, in particular with Sen. Tom Coburn, who has refused to speak publicly about what he told Ensign, citing his role as a "physician and as an ordained deacon."
Perhaps not surprising, then, that a source close to C Street told Politico: "If there isn't a discussion at some point about how they do their ministry, there needs to be."
Josh
Zachary
For rebranding purposes, how about the Beltway Playboy Mansion?
July 20, 2009 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or they could call it GOP Walk With God.
July 20, 2009 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fellowship of the Traveling Pants, that's what I like to call it.
July 20, 2009 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about - "In God we thrust"
July 20, 2009 7:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Proving for most of them (except Craig and that guy from Florida) that God is a woman.
July 20, 2009 7:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Indeed.
Most Christians who have the "Jesus fish" on their bumper never really looked into it.
It is called the Vesica Piscis. Geometers used it to derive all other sacred forms. The Vesica Piscis is literally the womb of the universe . . . the ever unfolding Mother of Sacred Geometry.
This was known long before the Christians adopted it.
July 20, 2009 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, thanks. Knowing that, I would put one on my car, but everyone I know would mis-interpret it.
July 20, 2009 8:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sacred Geometry!? It wasn't that when I was oppressed and tortured with it in high school.
July 21, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about The Appalachian Trail Walkers Club of DC?
July 21, 2009 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought it was the Argentina Trail.
July 21, 2009 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
But then they wouldn't be able to call it a church and not have to pay any taxes. Hey -- not a bad idea for OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY!
July 21, 2009 10:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
The biggest problem I see both here and in MSM commentary and focus on this group is 1) focus on the sensational, lurid sex(ist) activities and 2) failure to register this group's underlying belief system that places Gandhi, Hitler, Pol Pot, Dubya Bush and Barak Obama all on the same level of moral ground.
The philosophy, as exposed by Jeff Sharlet's undercover journalism (real journalism at that), holds that if you are in a position of power it is because their god put you there. And, since you are a representative of god's "new chosen," then standard rules of morality do not apply to you.
As Sharlet summed-up on his first night with Rachel M. and last Friday on Bill Maher's show, "morality is for the little people."
When we ponder things like the response to Katrina and pending health care reform, it's very informative to understand many influential people -- of both parties -- that belong to this Fellowship, accept the principle that "if we are rich, it's because god made us rich; if you are poor it is because god made you poor -- and to redistribute that richness from rich to poor goes against god."
Short-form meaning: We got it; screw you; we're going to do everything we can to keep it. It's god's will.
Always understanding such things need further verification, here is a sample list from Wiki's section referencing those tied to the Fellowship:
That's the sample list of those currently tied to C-Street. The Fellowship has other locations, and the folks tied to those other locations, or that used to live @ C-Street includes (many now in power, some not...):
There is some conflict in reports whether Hillary Clinton is a "member" or a "friend" of the Fellowship -- but she does have ties to that group as well.
Any names pop out for you? They did for me. Combining some of these ties to a belief that "what we got we're gonna keep," "screw all y'all," and that this group wants to put in place (their words here BTW) "the totalitarianism of Christ" and say leaders should be more like Hitler... .?
I believe Sharlet's book should be required reading to better understand which hands are on the steering wheel and which direction we are headed.
August 2, 2009 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
From the photo, this building is a bit too small for C Street's stated mission and effort. I am only guessing, but I am thinking that something more on the order of Walter Reed Medical Center may have sufficient beds for the needy. Of course, then we would have no more room for wounded soldiers.......
July 20, 2009 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you were a public figure, would you join a group whose implicit, if not explicit, purpose is to help the fidelity challenged?
July 20, 2009 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
The alienation of affection suit filed by Leisha Pickering reads like a bad Lynne Cheney novel. This gal's standing up for her marriage 'rights' alright.
July 20, 2009 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Alienation of affection? Wow. I thought that tort was totally abolished. Not in Mississippi, apparently.
July 20, 2009 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess I should have said OUTLINE for a bad Cheney novel. She's taking them to the cleaners, even asking for post judgment interest at 8% since it's the plaintiff's family that has money and gave Chip his new job after he turned down Lott's promised Senate seat.
July 20, 2009 6:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops, the Defendant's family has the money. Plaintiff is in "dire and necessitous circumstances."
July 20, 2009 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Her lawyer probably needs the money too.
July 21, 2009 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's actually a lawsuit to force someone to stay with...Nevermind. Just, wow. That screams wrong in so many ways.
July 22, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
It reads a lot better (and funnier) if you imagine it being narrated in a stereotypical Southern Belle accent, ah do dayclayre...
July 20, 2009 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...[D]ealing with extra-marital affairs is absolutely central to C Street's purpose." Does this included how-to's on conducting an affair, since they seem to have failed miserably on keeping these horn dogs on the straight and narrow? What moral guidance do they give when the founder of this group of extraordinary gentlemen had a direct link to god, who told him they work to a higher standard than either the old or new testament, i.e not Judeo–Christian morals and ethics. By their definition, anything they do is blessed, as can be seen by that great moral leader and sometime Governor, Mark Sanford. Where do I sign up, and can I get a Bible with my membership?
July 20, 2009 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can I get an "amen"?
July 20, 2009 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
They compare their moral situations to Bible stories, the implication being that everything in the Bible is holy, therefore, they are holy and deserving of positions of power. Because they are born again, all they need is faith for their eternal salvation. It doesn't matter what bad things they did, if they BELIEVE, it's enough. Combine that with monumental egos, personal charm and the sense of entitlement that comes from power and ideological kinship, it's dangerous.
July 20, 2009 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
SO these guys need a group counseling session to convince them it's not right to cheat on your wife? How do these idiots get elected in the first place? Also I have lost all respect for Politico, they are clearly a member in good standing of the republican propaganda machine...
July 20, 2009 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, exactly how EFFECTIVE have the C Street faith-based stray lambs family counseling sessions been?
How did the occupants gain entrance into the family dwelling? Did they have to cheat on their wives BEFORE being allowed to live there or did they start cheating on their wives AFTER they were already living there?
July 20, 2009 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
The first rule of fight club is.... Oh Crap.
New first rule: don't call it fight club.
If your husband said he was going to live here, would you let him?
July 20, 2009 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, sure, because I have to submit to my husband's every wish as a good christian wife (and also I need to keep my shopping privileges as a Congresssional wife, so what are my options? Give up the botox, the manicures, the travel, and the freedom of having the hubby dormed up in DC while I can shop to my heart's content back home? Why wouldn't I go along with that? After all, I AM a republican woman!
July 21, 2009 10:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
That was so true to life, it's scary.
Were you channeling?
July 21, 2009 10:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Woooo ---oooooo -oooooo
Channelling? No, just a pretty good imagination!
July 21, 2009 10:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Family are secretive, elite, religious fundamentalists, exerting power through political office. Coaching each other out of sticky messes, like extramarital affairs, is only a side show. Jeff Sharlet writes in great and revealing detail in his book "The Family: the Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power". Rachel Maddow has been interviewing Mr. Sharlet over the past few weeks on her show, attempting to investigate and report on the nature of this group.
July 20, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know if non-subscribers can access the following links to Sharlet's March 2003 Harper's article about the Family, but if anyone wants to have a go at it, here's the link [.pdf link here; fyi, the .pdf links at Harper's have hung up my browser on occasion (Firefox), so beware of that, in case it isn't just my system].
July 20, 2009 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
First link worked for me--without a sign in.
July 20, 2009 6:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just bought the book today. Creepy. It also is majorly creepy that Hillary Clinton is mixed up with this bunch. Don't know why that is being kept relatively quiet. This whole thing stinks to high heaven.
July 21, 2009 10:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
He was on Fresh Air too. Podcast available
July 20, 2009 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or as Bill Maher put it so brilliantly...they counsel each other 'on how to adhere to the Nine Commandments'.
July 20, 2009 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's worse than Bill Maher thinks. They don't believe in many of the other 9 commandments either. "Jesus + 0" is their creed, which means religion minus morality. The commandments are for us plebeians. The C streeters are told that they are chosen by God to be powerful leaders. Anything they do is OK.
July 20, 2009 9:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, I see. So there's no story here after all. Unless geeks wanna gawk at the rare miracle (do they believe in miracles? if not I can change it) of more than one saint living in the same building at the same time.
Only in Wshington, DC, where God resides on a yatch on the Potomac.
July 21, 2009 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don' forget Zach Wamp (R - TN )lived at C street for 12 years and spoke on the record to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Quoting from the News Sentinel “The C-Street residents have all agreed they won’t talk about their private living arrangements, Wamp said, and he intends to honor that pact.” “I hate it that John Ensign lives in the house and this happened because it opens up all kinds of these questions,” Wamp said. But he said, “I’m not going to be the guy who goes out and talks.”
July 20, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
“The C-Street residents have all agreed they won’t talk about their private living arrangements,"
What!? They won't even tell us the mistresses' names?
A religion that wants me as an adherent must either be funny or scandal-plagued.
July 21, 2009 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
A "private mens club" for the most devout religious hypocrites....(how do we know they're not really Satan worshippers...? Because they gave us (and their wives) their word?...LOL) I do hope they don't enjoy the tax exempt status given to other "churches"...
July 20, 2009 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
A "private mens club" for the most devout religious hypocrites....(how do we know they're not really Satan worshippers...? Because they gave us (and their wives) their word?...LOL) I do hope they don't enjoy the tax exempt status given to other "churches"...
July 20, 2009 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rep. Heath Shuler(NC D-11) resides at C St. He is a blue dog who has a "chosed one" air about him.
July 20, 2009 3:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
"chosed one" LOL
July 20, 2009 7:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know this seems funny. But I think it's a mistake to just laugh this off and ignore the fact that this pseudo-chrisitan mafia that these men belong to are playing a significan role behind the scenes in our government and world affairs and they are acting on some very sick and demented philosophies that most likely will shock and sicken all of us when everything gets out into the open.
I am sure 'The Family' would prefer we just laugh this off as a story of cheating men/infidelity etc.
July 20, 2009 3:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good point. In Maddows interviewing of author Jeff Sharlet "The Family: the Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" she mentioned past (?) involvement with South American dictators/juntas. More investigative journalists need to see what tentacles this cockeyed organization has.
July 20, 2009 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
It was Suharto of Indonesia that they though was a man of God.
July 20, 2009 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
And the President of US Steel sent a message from God, according to Gail Collins' quiz on the NYT. She didn't mention how the Pres. of US Steel got the message, but could that be why they selected Michael STEELE to head the Party of God?
(GOP is just a secret reverse code for POG.)
July 20, 2009 8:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I too am a bit charry of any group calling itself "The Family"; it calls to mind Charles Manson.
July 21, 2009 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
The owner of the house is a group run by Loren Cunningham, who tells these guys that they're chosen by their god to lead, morality is a secular construct and thus doesn't apply to them, and that their goal is to establish a theocracy in this country. Chilling.
July 20, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Google David Berg. He is one of the founders of The Family. Look at his official website and look under "Flirty Fishing".
http://www.davidberg.org/mission/flirty-fishing
July 20, 2009 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't even dare LOOK at whatever is "Flirty Fishing".
Please spell it out while I look away.
July 21, 2009 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Berg's group (originally Children of God, then The Family of Love and, at present, The Family International), is actually another group than the one @ C-Street.
For "Flirty Fishing" and the COG/TFI group, think "religious prostitution" -- where the payoff was pulling new members into the group.
August 2, 2009 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm heading down to DC to see if I can join the gang at C Street and hopefully get a few leads on loose women.
July 20, 2009 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Way to see an opportunity!
July 20, 2009 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I find it interesting that this "rebranding effort" simply proves what Public Relations people have said forever - there is no bad publicity. It can all be used to the advantage of whoever is getting publicized.
They'll lose some of the more high profile potential clients (who will go to another, more discrete location, probably also operated by The Family) and C-Street will pick up clientele who have the fidelity problem and who want to be associated with the big boys, if only vicariously.
This is a great opportunity to expand the Family's operation.
July 20, 2009 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
1) check out the tax exempt status of this "Church" founded to beat back the New Deal, and that treats actual churches contemptuously. These guys call morality something for others, not their members... laws are made for humans, and these fellows of the fellowship are above the law.
2) check out this sect's attitude toward women. They are the toys given to these little godlets by Jesus, apparently, for their pleasure (remember Ensign's 'sorry' letter to his mistress?). No wonder so many of them are cheaters, and they need C Street to launder their abysmal behavior.
July 20, 2009 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like Scientology with out the science fiction. Another non-religion "religion."
These guys have a lot of nerve calling themselves Christian, but we knew that about most Republicrats anyway.
July 23, 2009 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Google "Flirty Fishing". That is all you have to know about this cult.
Sex sex sex... that is part of this cult.
July 20, 2009 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Check out this link. Says it all about "The Family" or "C-Street". These guys were doing more than sleeping at the C-Street frat house.
http://watchingthewatchers.org/article/22057/scientologys-flirty-fishing-experiment
July 20, 2009 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.davidberg.org/mission/flirty-fishing
You think this stuff stopped in 1987. Yeah right... a bunch of horny politicians away from their wives for long periods of time living in a religious frat house that prostituted out its members to encourage new members to join, especially powerful politicians.... you have to expect many of them would get caught cheating on their wives. I am sure they were banging tones of these religious followers. What do you think they were living there for? The cheap rent (most of these guys have money).... yeah right!
July 20, 2009 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
C STREET, the WATERGATE of the 21st Century!
July 20, 2009 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not really. Watergate ultimately brought Nixon down. I'll bet this won't because they will tell the great masses that they are on a Mission from God, and they will BELIEVE THEM!
July 22, 2009 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gee did Ensign's mommy and daddy kick him out of the basement?
July 20, 2009 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jeez Louise - yet another so called religion wherein ugly old(er) men are allowed to screw much younger women for the glory of God. It's a scam as old as mankind (and I use that word deliberately.)
July 20, 2009 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
If only I were ugly I might be allowed to join!
July 21, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's another rebranding:
call it Hypocrite House
And stop calling it a church and make them pay taxes like their neighbors do.
July 20, 2009 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
How does one have an affair other than willfully? I mean, in theory. Ideas, anyone?
Maybe Ensign just refuses to leave, and no one has the stones to force him out for fear he'll talk.
July 20, 2009 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Accidentally, of coure.
"Honest, I fell aslepp while praying, and when I woke up there was this orgy going on in my bed!
"But I know God approves, even though he had a jealous glint in His eye."
July 21, 2009 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...Sen. Tom Coburn, who has refused to speak publicly about what he told Ensign, citing his role as a "physician and as an ordained deacon."
Coburn's argument about confidentiality doesn't wash. Coburn is an OB-GYN. Is Coburn suggesting that he saw Ensign professionally?
As for being an "ordained deacon," unless this Fellowship is a standard "church," (which, as far as I can discover, it's not) with priests and bishops, the deacon is not a spiritual position, but a lay one. Not someone qualified to take confessions.
Coburn has no claim of confidentiality.
July 20, 2009 6:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
UNLESS... the confidentiality is implied as the ob-gyn to the girlfriends? Birth control scripts, or unwanted pregnancies?
July 20, 2009 8:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I think you've answered it: His advice was as a "lay" person! His goal was to see that he got "laid" without suffering any consequences.
July 22, 2009 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is too much Junior High Meets 7 Deadly Sins. Where is accountability for shabby behavior in this picture? And these were largely the very same folks who demanded Clinton's resignation for moral turpitude? Ha! Few things stink more than rank hypocrisy, and this whole sordid story stinks to high heaven. God help them all!
July 20, 2009 6:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, so long as it stinks to high heaven, God will at least notice.
July 21, 2009 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about rebranding as The League of Entitled Genitals?
Or perhaps The League of Entitled Gentiles?
Or just The House on C(orrupt) Street?
July 20, 2009 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
1. Keep covering this, there is nothing I want to know more about. Good work!
2. "Elided"? Howzzat? Have you looked up the word's meaning recently?
July 20, 2009 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
The hypocrisy of these so-called "christian" politicians is overwhelming and stomach turning. Religion truly has become the last refuge for these moralizing, racist, southern gentlemen. I cannot believe that the respective electorates of these reprobates continues to elect them to high office - their personal sex lives are truly no ones business, but their moralizing hypocrisy is really the end game. Starting with Gingrich and moving on down the the line (Foley, Craig, Vitter, Ensign, Sanford - it just doesn't end. Hypocrites all - barf!
July 20, 2009 6:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Back to back to back GOP adultery scandals, Senator and Governor to boot. Powerful friends of the philanderers publicly clamming up on what they knew, acting like it would be unethical to rat out their home boys.
Can anyone say Linda Tripp? Doesn't anyone else remember that betraying a friendship, barely legal wiretapping, outing a secret affair to pit private marital embarassment and public humiliation against inconsequential obfuscation and public scorn for adultery was oh so in for nearly the whole country just 13 years ago?
Where are the heroes, truth seekers and defenders of women now?
I thought the whole Clinton thing was a disgusting episode. Starr should have stood up from his chair and cursed until Linda Tripp or her representative ran from the room when presented with her taudry little tabloid, sticky dress scheme, but that's just me.
I thought we were a country of (the GOP especially self-proclaimed) people who think this stuff needs to be outed for the "good" of the nation?
July 20, 2009 7:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
On the other hand, Senator Ensign is a veterinarian, so maybe he can take the confessions or boasts of all those Republican pigs.
One thing that I am wondering -- this place purports to be a "church." These sinners are apparently paying rent at considerably less than market rate. Are they also writing off what they DO pay as charitable donations???
July 20, 2009 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you're down and confused
And you don't remember who you're talkin' to
Concentration slip away
Cause your baby is so far away.
Well, there's a rose in a fisted glove
And the eagle flies with the dove
And if you can't be with the one you love
Love the one you're with
Love the one you're with
Don't be angry, don't be sad,
Don't sit cryin' over good things you've had,
There's a girl right next to you
And she's just waiting for something you do.
Well, there's a rose in a fisted glove
And the eagle flies with the dove
And if you can't be with the one you love
Love the one you're with
Love the one you're with
Turn your heartache right into joy
She's a girl, you're a boy,
Get it together make it nice
Ain't gonna need anymore advice.
Well, there's a rose in a fisted glove
And the eagle flies with the dove
And if you can't be with the one you love
Love the one you're with
Love the one you're with
July 20, 2009 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks -- we needed some comic relief! These "fine upstanding Christians" can really mess with one's sense of humor.
July 20, 2009 8:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps we need to change Samuel Johnson's quote to:
"Christianity is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
July 20, 2009 8:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why not? "Patriotism" has become an overcrowded ghetto.
July 21, 2009 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
The GOP is down with OPP!
July 20, 2009 9:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I disagree with this sentence:
That was the Rethugnican's talking-point over which they impeached a sitting US President. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now, to make so much political hay of personal, sexual foibles. It is especially wrong for Democrats and progressives, who are better than that.
Pointing out the hypocrisy is good. Exaggerating the implications is not.
July 21, 2009 1:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm beginning to feel excluded, and jealous.
July 21, 2009 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Name one good policy that the residents of C street have offered!
I'll play by whichever set of rules you want: private lives are private and only policy counts OR private lives are fair game and policy may or may not count.
What I will not stand for is the idea that the private lives of Democrats are tabloid fodder and nobody should even mention that Rethuglicans have sex lives.
July 21, 2009 7:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Guess he must not have had the affair willfully."
"The woman tempted me." Genesis 3:12. (ROTFLMAO.)
July 21, 2009 2:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
It seems to me that these elected GOP politicians go to this place and leave behind their oath of office, conscience, responsibility to their constituents, morals and integrity at the threshold. This secretive place allows them to pat each other on the back, pledge secrecy to each other's misdeeds, and allow ample time to exchange little black book numbers over their prayer breakfast waffles and sausages. Talk about a good ol' boys network!
July 21, 2009 8:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here is what the rebranding of C street really happens to be, while you are having an affair accuse others of the same and worse crimes, (see, Gingrich, Livingstone, Sanford, etc) then of course go off on gay people and abortion, you could probably add women who don't take the last names of their husbands, and then if all that fails say you can't speak about it because in a former life you were a physician and a deacon so there are legal privacy issues. Hahahahahahaha, whatever, everyone sees them for the tools they happen to be! Hopefully they will be fired, but I doubt that will happen.
July 21, 2009 8:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
"How does one have an affair other than willfully? I mean, in theory. Ideas, anyone?"
Oh, that's an easy one. The Good Christian Man slipped on a banana peel and fell, and he just happened to fall on top of the woman while his pants happened to be falling down. Happens all the time. /snark
July 21, 2009 9:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
So it should be called a "House of Will Repute"?
July 22, 2009 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
The devil made him do it?
July 23, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
The organization (the Fellowship Foundation) we're talking about here is not the same as the Family of David Berg and flirty fishing fame. Sharlet's book publicized it as "the Family" and that has led to a lot of confusion, but it was actually founded in 1935, 30 years before Berg founded the Children of God (later known as The Family). So flirty fishing is really a red herring here.
The Fellowship Foundation has its tentacles in lots of places, though, and is a totally creepy organization in its own right.
July 21, 2009 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
"flirty fishing . . . red herring".
HEH-HEH.
July 21, 2009 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure, I'll take credit for that one. :)
July 21, 2009 6:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Scene: Front door of C Street.
KNOCK KNOCK
WHO'S THERE?
FedEx driver.
Whatcha want?
I have a C O D package here, $459.00
Who's it from?
ViagraPharm.
July 21, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
If they wouldn't act so holier-than-though I would be more inclined to forgive them when they make mistakes just like real people.
But then again, if they acted like real people, they wouldn't be in that house at all.
July 21, 2009 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
The group who owns the "C" Street house is "Youth With A Mission" (YWAM), based in Hawaii. Their website is quite innocuous, but those who have had dealings with the group find it to be a secretive cult. The young people who join and participate in the movement are genuinely convinced that they are doing god's work. Watch this group...it'll be interesting if the press identifies them as the heartbeat of "C" Street; and if not, why not?
Check out their website: Youth With a Mission.
July 22, 2009 12:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Please. The place is NOT inhabited by "religious lawmakers." It is inhabited by right-wing evangelical lawmakers. Leave the non-right-wing-evangelical religious lawmakers out of this.
July 22, 2009 12:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is a CULT, secretive... dominated by thoughts of being GOD CHOSEN, following no rules or laws but their own. I cannot believe anyone would spend $$ or vote for any one of the spineless B***.
July 22, 2009 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
C Street - the place where prayers are answered.
July 22, 2009 6:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Congressional Recess is coming. Don't forget to sign up for the Fellowship's Vacation Bible School!
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com
July 22, 2009 11:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Based on this excuse, it would then appear that having or wanting an affair is a prerequisite of membership in C Street.
What if a member joins, but lies about wanting to have an affair? Isn't that bearing false witness?
August 14, 2009 8:44 PM | Reply | Permalink