Interview with an Intern

Tennessee State Senator Paul Stanley, Republican from Germantown, has been in the news lately because of an affair with an intern. Her father, grandparents, and other family members live in the town where I live. They own an insurance company and do well financially. Her parents were divorced after her mother had an affair with another married teacher. They got married, moved to Florida, and are now divorced. McKensie lived with her mother but goes to college nearby. Her brother has lived with his father for quite a while. He plays football (quarterback maybe) and is a good student. Their father seems to be a better influence and parent.

The local NBC affiliate WSMV had an interview with her tonight on the news. If you follow this link, you can see McKensie Morrison speak for herself and can read an article about all this.

Germantown, where Stanley is from, is a nouveau riche section of Memphis. According to some reports, he's a habitual adulterer and wife beater (divorce decree from first marriage). He also has the same name as one of the members of KISS. Just wanted to throw that in. He looks like a dork. (got to use that word)

And her boyfriend looks like a sleaze.

In an article asking if the legislature should do a better job screening interns, they make it sound as if the interns are predatory vixens. I taught school long enough to know that can be the case with those "mean girls" who thrive on drama of all kinds. Many young women turn down advances of married men and don't fall for their crap. When someone in power professes family values and supports abstinence-only plans and then has an affair with someone much younger in a subordinate job, that hypocrisy makes it all much worse and is a Class C felony under state law (sexual battery by an authority figure).

The Nashville Scene is definitely worth checking out! It's an alternative newspaper I usually read. Here's a sample from the blog "pith in the wind," but the page has some interesting links HERE along with unflattering articles about Fred Thompson and Lamar Alexander. The comments are great, too! See, I'm not alone here!

While we're waiting for Paul Stanley's resignation, we're scratching our heads over the latest revelations about McKensie Morrison. Here's a high school student body president, Latin club officer, and National Honor Society member who, in only a matter of months, is doing crack , living like a homeless person in central Florida, and watching her young husband attack a 75-year-old man with a hammer.

Then with her husband doing prison time, she moves to Tennessee, where her father lives, and starts making straight A's at Austin Peay. Her life is back on track. But her psyche remains fragile and she is susceptible to temptation, right? Hello Paul Stanley, the lech.

That's one way to look at it. The other way doubtlessly will appear shortly on conservative blogs across the state. McKensie Morrison's low-down past proves what some Republicans have been suggesting from the beginning: She's a Mata Hari who used her feminine wiles to lure the innocent senator into sin and ruination. Maybe Stanley should consider himself lucky. At least he wasn't whacked upside the head with a hammer.

Which is it? Who knows? We report, you decide. Here in the Legislative Plaza this morning, observers can't make up their minds who to blame anymore. How about both of them? It could have been a case of two pirate ships passing in the night. One thing is certain (as the TV reporters are fond of saying when they can't come up with a catchy way to end their reports) Stanley is toast either way. Where's that resignation letter anyway?

Update: In case you were wondering, Morrison isn't under TBI investigation in the Stanley blackmailing. "No, she is not under investigation at this time unless new information comes to light. During the course of the investigation, she was questioned and not charged," TBI spokeswoman Kristin Helm says.

This article by Jeff Woods in The Scene really goes into Stanley's backgroud, voting record, and hypocrisy in more depth. It's titled "A Sex Scandal Exposes Sen. Paul Stanley's Less-than-Godly Ways." Here are quotes from that article:

Until his name became synonymous with hypocrite a week ago, Sen. Paul Stanley was a proud champion of traditional family values. A Sunday school teacher with a wife and two young children, he often spoke piously of the ideal home environment that only a loving married couple can provide—and of the importance of his own evangelical upbringing in molding his strict views.

His website displayed heavenly scenes of sun and sky while the words "reliable, honorable and conservative" flashed across the screen. He relentlessly pushed legislation to ban gay couples from adopting, though it would have meant hundreds of unwanted children remaining as orphans in state custody.

Rep. Stacey Campfield, lending rich new meaning to the term jackass, also stood behind Stanley in his time of crisis:

"I have never heard any conservative Republican say they were perfect," he wrote on his blog. "Never one. Not on any issue. We try to do what is right, but we are not, by any stretch of the word, perfect."

Campfield also posted this as his Quote of the Day from an unidentified legislator: "Well, I guess this is just more proof: Republicans are clearly irresistible to females."