Public Officials Behaving Badly...and Then Not

Saturday, February 2, 2008
Here in Colorado, our House Assistant Majority Leader, Michael Garcia, resigned from public office on Friday amid allegations that he exposed himself and made lewd comments to a female lobbyist. He claims the January 7th incident was "consensual" in a statement released Friday afternoon.

Nothing new there, huh? A public official behaves badly. Whatever. Zzzz...

Here's the odd part.

While Mr. Garcia claims the encounter was consensual, he has publically recognized that having the encounter at all was inappropriate, given that he was a state legislator and the other party was a lobbyist. In a statement, he said "The interests of the state are greater than my own."

But wait, there's more.

He has also refused to identify the lobbyist by name, and so has the office of House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, in order to protect her privacy. Mr. Garcia has made a statement through his attorney that "He respects her privacy. He doesn't believe it's fair to air their private issues in public."

Huh?

Since when do public officials admit their wrongdoing promptly and take immediate steps to protect the public institution they represent from their (now) tarnished reputation? That's not the New American Way.

But it should be. I don't know what happened between Mr. Garcia and the anonymous lobbyist, and based on current information, it's unlikely I'll ever know. I'm okay with that, because Mr. Garcia's decision to resign immediately has made it a private matter. As it should be.

Are you listening Larry Craig, poster boy for not-taking-responsibility-for-your-actions? You really can get caught doing something untoward and retain some measure of your dignity. What a novel concept.

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