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Duvall: I Thought It Was A Private Conversation
Zachary Roth | September 9, 2009, 3:26PM
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Mike Duvall, the married California GOP lawmaker and family values champion, has apologized for telling a colleague, in a conversation picked up on a hot mic, about his affairs with two women.
He posted the following statement on his campaign website:
That should allow him to put this whole thing behind him.
The AP adds:
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a Democrat, removed Duvall from two committees, and the Assembly Ethics Committee is investigating.
Late Update: Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee said in a statement that he has asked Duvall to step down as a member of the caucus leadership. Here's Blakeslee's full statement:
I am terribly disappointed by the situation surrounding Assemblyman Duvall's comments. The statements he made were inappropriate and unacceptable. I have asked Mr. Duvall to step down from his post as a member of caucus leadership and I have requested that Speaker Bass remove Mr. Duvall as Vice Chairman of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce committee and as a member of the Assembly Rules Committee. This matter is currently under review by the Assembly Rules Committee and we are awaiting their findings.
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EH
September 9, 2009 3:28 PM
Privacy for me but not for thee.
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714Day
September 9, 2009 3:39 PM
He doesn't believe gays deserve privacy. I think he should get the equal treatment, then.
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sagesource
September 9, 2009 4:12 PM in reply to 714Day
He doesn't believe in equal treatment. So I think he should get worse.
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VictorLH
September 9, 2009 3:41 PM
Fucking stupid - thinking it was a private converstaion makes it right?
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rynato
September 10, 2009 12:47 AM in reply to VictorLH
well fuck, what was he supposed to say? "Holy crap, my wife is gonna take me for everything and cut off my dick... and not necessarily in that order."
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CN
September 9, 2009 3:42 PM
He's cheating on his wife with two different women -- one who is a lobbyist with business before his committee -- and he regrets TALKING about it?
If this is the best he's got, he's in trouble.
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diachronic
September 9, 2009 3:56 PM
This is like GWB regretting his "cowboy rhetoric," but not his disgusting actions.
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oleeb
September 9, 2009 3:58 PM
He is apparently following in the Vitter school of apologia.
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davemartin7777
September 9, 2009 4:00 PM
I wonder what the lobbyists got in return for teabagging this Reich-wing, "Family Values" Reptilian?
Whatever, his Republican constituents could care less... he could be raping small children but as long as he's got an (R) by his name they'd still vote for him.
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lousgirl84
September 9, 2009 4:01 PM in reply to davemartin7777
And that is sadly true!!! Pond scum is what they are.
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lousgirl84
September 9, 2009 4:00 PM
Those thugs are some repressed folks. They marry madonnas and then cheat on them to get the real deal. Yuck
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RoboticSpacePenguin
September 9, 2009 4:04 PM
If it was a private matter, he should have treated it like one. Instead he went to his job as a public servant and bragged about it (in disgusting detail) to his colleague in a room full of people. But unlike a 'normal' affair, this is not private matter. Not when you're sleeping with lobbyists and especially not when they work for an energy company and you're the vice chair of the Committee on Utilities & Commerce.
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Verified
September 9, 2009 4:46 PM in reply to RoboticSpacePenguin
Prostitution takes many forms.
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davidduck
September 9, 2009 4:05 PM
Who was he talking to when the mic was hot?
Someone else - who is probably also in the CA assembly - knew that the guy was sleeping, out of wedlock, with a lobbyist. Knew like knew, not just saw him around town with her.
Call me old-fashioned, but sleeping with lobbyists out of wedlock is pretty disgusting and a serious breach of ethics (and maybe the law). Doing nothing about it when you know it is going on is a serious breach of ethics. So who is the rat that kept mum about his colleague's corruption?
I'll make it crystal clear - I think this should end the career of more than Duvall...
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EH
September 9, 2009 4:06 PM in reply to davidduck
so keep calling the homewrecker's boss
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diamondjoe
September 9, 2009 4:06 PM
HaHaHa.... I'm still laughing at the hypocrisy of this a-hole... I just can't get over it. [sigh] OK. OK.
Bwahahahah...
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diamondjoe
September 9, 2009 4:18 PM in reply to diamondjoe
Sorry, I'm under control now. This guys just been such a thorn in our side. It would be a huge relief to get him out. With any luck he'll be spending a lot more time in his "authentic Western saloon" doing, you know, authentic-Western-saloon things...
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CareyInLA
September 9, 2009 4:07 PM
"I deeply regret the comments I made in what I believed to be a private conversation."
Translation into briefer, ordinary language: "I'm sorry I got caught."
No surprise here.
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clif
September 9, 2009 4:14 PM
Incredible
He is apologizing for getting caught bragging his illicit sexual escapades , he is not apologizing for screwing around on his wife with a lobbyist he is supposed to regulate.
Talk about republican family values hypocrisy .....
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Walter Mitty
September 9, 2009 4:20 PM
It's not a private matter when you're screwing two lobbyists and no doubt paying them for their services with political support to their causes. I mean guys that look like that are not scoring women 20 years younger...
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NealnNYC
September 9, 2009 4:38 PM
Like Gov. Sanford of SC I think what is happening to Assemblyman Duvall is a hatchet job of the left-wing media.
Dang I bet myself I could type that sentence with a straight face, but I failed.
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GWMustGo
September 9, 2009 4:41 PM
He apologizes for making statements that he thought were private.
- Not for screwing around on his wife;
- Not for abusing the trust of his constituents by screwing lobbyists;
- Not for abusing his power by screwing lobbyists;
- Not for breaking his god's commandments;
- Not for being an A-#1 hypocrite in demanding all others kowtow to HIS tiny definition of "family values" while acting waaaaaay outside those "values".
Nope - he's sorry he spoke.
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Verified
September 9, 2009 4:42 PM
What's that seal on the podium that Duvall is standing behind?
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we r all husseins
September 9, 2009 5:35 PM in reply to Verified
Hard to see, but most likely the seal of the California State Assembly.
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Carlos
September 9, 2009 5:44 PM
So my guess was correct.
When I heard him talking about dripping out of one of his lobbyist mistresses, I instantly thought to myself, this was not meant for the public to hear.
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we r all husseins
September 9, 2009 5:44 PM
The mind reels with comic responses to this story. The best I can come up with is:
Boy! Talk about being in bed with special interests
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Hank Scorpio
September 9, 2009 6:41 PM
Surprised that no one has yet commented on the similarly-myopic comments by Minority Leader Blakeslee. Maybe it's just Republicanism that forces him to think that simple statements made about exposed hypocritical acts are the worst part of the "situation" rather than the actual acts themselves?
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