| This is just disgusting.
Sex and politics: NY's state Capitol can seem like spring break
Up until just a few years ago, lawmakers would go "window shopping" for interns at the start of every legislative session. In a practice that went on for decades, the interns would be corraled in a Capitol newsstand, and legislators would take their pick.
The hanky-panky even has its own lexicon: There's the "Bear Mountain Compact," which says that what goes on north of the state park just outside New York City stays there. Lobbyists, staffers and reporters who seek to enhance their influence by bedding powerful lawmakers are known as "big game hunters." And the men who sleep with the women lawmakers are "boy toys."
"Unfortunately, many of the people who seek public office are flawed people to begin with and the environment in Albany just tends to bring that out," said Paul Clyne, former district attorney in Albany.
Clyne issued a scathing report in 2004 on the internship program at the Capitol, famously saying he would never let his daughter become an intern. The report led to reforms in the program, including an end to fraternization between lawmakers and interns outside the office.
"There was a lot of hitting on us and boundaries being crossed," said one young woman lobbyist who was part of that scene for years.
"Window shopping" for interns? As late as 2004? Are you kidding me? I just don't know what to say. Fortunately, digby is still capable of outrage:
I am probably more libertarian on matters of private sexual behavior than a lot of you. In fact, I know I am since I didn't find Spitzer's actions to be a matter of public interest except to the extent he had actually prosecuted others for the crimes he had committed and had run on a platform of moral rectitude.
However, this truly is beyond the pale and should be a matter for investigation. If politicians who corralled a bunch of women into a newsstand to be chosen for jobs in legislators' offices based on their sexual attractiveness to the disgusting pigs they were going to work for are still in office today, they should be exposed. That's not consensual behavior, that's sex discrimination. This practice apparently went on until 2004, and there's no excuse for it.
...
But this article indicates that lobbyists are selling their bodies for political consideration and that until very recently lawmakers are using the intern pool (at least until recently) as their own private whorehouse. It's institutional, not personal. That's called corruption and discrimination and it's not the same thing as consensual sex between two adults. This is more like some kind of sexual plantation.
Surprisingly, the private sector is way ahead on this stuff. Going all the way back to the 90's, the business world began to learn that sexual harrassment and discrimination was lethal. It's hard to believe that the politicians who wrote the fucking laws took until 2004 to figure out that treating interns like Amsterdam whores was probably not a good way to go, but apparently they did.
Everybody knows that politics is a dirty business, but this is ridiculous.
Given the revelation that some lobbyists are literally selling their bodies in Albany for political considerations, I guess we should look at Governor Paterson's "only the lobbyists" quip in a new way. I also don't care to ever hear a legislator in Albany spew faux moral outrage over, well, over just about anything. Ever. Physician, heal thyself.
Given the fact that the turnover rate for lawmakers in Albany is so scandalously low, most of the folks who paraded interns, many of them just teenagers, around as they picked them as if they were cattle at auction are still there in the Capitol. They should be ashamed of themselves.
These men are pigs and might actually be criminals. They treated the daughters of those who employ them like whores in a Thai go-go bar. They should be investigated and prosecuted with the laws they themselves wrote.
Absolutely disgusting. |
