Oopsie. Chuck unfortunately got into a bit of a hypocritical mess after the discovery of sexually explicit videos on his office computer, along with racist jokes and sexy emails to his executive secretary. (Newsweek):
“I think that this Court having determined that there are certain kinds of conduct that it will accept and certain kinds of conduct it will not accept may draw the line at the bedroom door of the heterosexual married couple because of the interest that this Court has that this Nation has and certainly that the State of Texas has for the preservation of marriage, families and the procreation of children. “Even if you infer that various States acting through their legislative process have repealed sodomy laws, there is no protected right to engage in extrasexual - extramarital sexual relations, again, that can trace their roots to history or the traditions of this nation.”
– Houston District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, in arguments to the Supreme Court in 2002’s ‘Lawrence v. Texas’ case.
Last December, as part of a federal civil rights lawsuit into how justice is meted out in the county, he turned over the (partial) contents of his government e-mail account. And what a batch of e-mails it was. Black ministers called for the Republican to resign because of racist material, including a cartoon depicting an African-American suffering from a “fatal overdose” of watermelon and fried chicken. There were adult video clips and love notes from Rosenthal to his secretary, his mistress during a previous marriage. “I love you so much,” Rosenthal says in one. “I want to kiss you behind your right ear,” he says in another. “Go spend time with your family,” she admonishes him back.Now listen up you Republican Sexual Hypocrites out there — when you get busted doing hanky panky on the office PC, you can’t delete the contents — they are subject to e-discovery. Hand Rosenthal the Royal Duncecap, since he thought his massive e-deletions were not going to be detected, then he lied about it. So he’s out of a job AND faces going the clink. So sorry…
How do you think Rosenthal explained his behavior? It sounds all too familiar…In the wake of the e-mail revelations, local GOP leaders forced him to abort his re-election bid. Then, on Feb. 15, after Lloyd Kelley, the attorney in the civil rights case, brought a lawsuit accusing him of drinking on the job and “incompetence, or official misconduct,” Rosenthal resigned. But his problems may not be over. As eye-opening as his e-mails were, it’s the ones that disappeared that might cause him more trouble yet. Rosenthal deleted thousands of e-mails (even going so far as to delete them from the trash folder) that investigators in the civil rights case wanted; his actions could lead to obstruction of justice charges (the messages were destroyed after he had received a subpoena for them, he admitted in court). And during a contempt of court hearing earlier this month, Rosenthal appeared to contradict his sworn statements about the e-mails, leaving him open to perjury charges. The hearing was abruptly adjourned at the request of his lawyer and is scheduled to resume March 14. If found in contempt, the former top prosecutor could wind up in jail.
In an earlier statement to the press about the content of the e-mails, Rosenthal said, “I deeply regret having said those things … This event has served as a wake-up call to me to get my house in order both literally and figuratively.” On Feb. 15, in response to the new lawsuit, he blamed a combination of prescription drugs for causing “some impairment” of his judgment.Hat tip, Dan.
42 Responses to “Scandal-ridden homophobic D.A. in ‘Lawrence v. Texas’ case resigns”
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Maybe it’s just me, but that fella looks like the guy who played William H. Macy’s father-in-law in Fargo.
WF
Wes: You think he’s bad, you should see his predecessor, under whom Harris County became execution and botched crime lab capital of the universe.
As for Rosenthal’s defense, did he show his VCR blinking “12:00 a.m.’ as Exhibit A?
I wish all Republican public officials could be this dumb. Ignorance about race? Check. Ignorance about technology? Check. Ignorance about the law? Check. Moral superiority giving him about a million blind spots? One-million checks.
Watermelon and chicken jokes? He’s not just a racist, he’s a racist with a not-quite-pre-teen sense of humor. Maybe some day his constituency itself will grow up. But I’m sure he goes to the right church, and those drugs were prescribed by a doctor so it’s really socialized medicine’s fault. And look! Canada has drugs, too! And he didn’t raise taxes. And he’s against abortion and doesn’t think Mexicans should get drivers licenses. And he’s on the right side against teenagers and sex.
But giving us all Lawrence v. Texas is something I wish to thank him for. When he’s in prion, maybe I’ll send him a compilation of cartoons featuring big black men. I’m sure Larry Flynt publishes something suitable, and all the other inmates will just laugh and laugh and laugh.
Stupid fucking “somewhat impaired” jackass. I don’t wish prison rape or assault on anyone (I work in a prison,) but I do wish him a lot of sleepless nights up crying for fear of something happening. Unfortunately, he’ll leave prison with A) a greater faith in Jesus and B) more racist than when he went in. And C) with supporters calling him a martyr.
“he blamed a combination of prescription drugs for causing “some impairment” of his judgment.”
I figured he would have tried one of those bogus “I was doing research/my own investigation” things to weasel out.
Besides, I thought only Limbaugh could get away with the prescription drug thing…
“…there is no protected right to engage in extrasexual - extramarital sexual relations…”
I just LOVE how the same bunch of hypocritical Reichwing Authoritarian Cultists will on the one hand decry the intrusion of Big Bad Government into American’s lives, and then turn around and make claims that there are spheres of human existence that are not sufficiently intruded upon by Our Sacred Government, Protector Of Human Morality.
WTF is wrong with these people?…
Maybe it’s just me, but I am unaware of any prescriptions drugs that can cause one to become a bigoted, homophobic, skirt-chaser or cause one to delete thousands of emails. I do understand that drunken emailing can be quite a problem. Did anybody think to check his desk for a bottle of bourbon?
Maybe it’s just me, but I am unaware of any prescriptions drugs that can cause one to become a bigoted, homophobic, skirt-chaser or cause one to delete thousands of emails. I do understand that drunken emailing can be quite a problem. Did anybody think to check his desk for a bottle of bourbon?
As long as they were prescription drugs, all legally obtained, I guess that’s OK. Personal responsibility is the for little people.
I gotta admit — I’m very happy that, from now on, he’ll only be known as the crazy racist DA with the mistress and the e-mail trouble. Any work he did as an attorney? Forgotten. When he dies, he’ll be remembered solely as a “scandal-plagued Republican politician.” Here’s to all Republican pols ending their careers so nobly.
Love the last paragraph of the Newsweek story. One of the prosecutors campaigning to get Rosenthal’s job is the wife of his Doctor.
Another republican hypocrite? Really?
After the past few years, the only surprise is that he isn’t a closet case.
Jesus, what a dumb-ass. Confession, kiddos: I am a technological retard, a recalcitrant Luddite to some degree. I can never seem to correctly HTML-tag a hyperlink, as one of many examples of my incompetence and blunt stupidity.But christ, only an absolute fool wouldn’t know that he needs to go get a book at Borders and figure out how to hard-delete those files. (”DOS for Idiots and Godmonkey,” I would guess but don’t firmly know.)
Conservatives sure are funny, indeed.
MikeEss:
Right on the money, Mike — I have thought that many times. That is perhaps why I don’t have quite the contempt for Libertarians that shows up in these pages. Douchebags though they be — they essentially occupy the right wing of anarchism — they at least have the stones to take the bull by the horns, so to speak. Most of their arguments disintegrate under the scrutiny of a pen-light, of course.The current crop of conservatives are a scourge and a disease upon our planet and a discredit to our species. I spit in their collective eye!
Around Houston, the best guess is that Brian McNamee was injecting Rosenthal with human growth hormone.
Okay, so being a racist isn’t bad, just his judgment was impaired because of the booze and drugs. Cheating on his wife wasn’t bad, just his judgment. Because he left notes on his work computer about it.
What a total asswipe, and what schadenfreude this story brings.
I really think we need to give this guy a break. Not only was he vigilant in warning against the dangers of immoral activity, he was willing put his own neck on the line by demonstrating how bad it can be. That takes real commitment, to have gone above and beyond mere rhetoric against immorality, like so many of his more cowardly cohorts. And I can guarantee you that all the truly racist homophobic adulterous DA’s took note of Rosenthal’s example and deleted their immoral emails before the subpoenas arrived.
And so if anything, I think we all owe a debt of gratitude to Chuck for his willingness to risk jailtime in order to serve as a life lesson for us all. Thanks, Chuck. You’re a real hypocrite’s hypocrite.
After 30 years on top, the GOP is finally melting down in a pool of bile, corruption, selfishness, pity and belligerence.
The festival of ignorance was bound to come to an end, I just never thought it would be so gol-durn entertaining.
In a related story, the GOP senate seat in Florida vacated by Bathroom Bob(ber) Allen was taken over by a Democrat yesterday. As was a GOP seat in NY that had been in the GOP’s control for 100 years.
Watching the Uptight Citizens Brigade in full-on rout is bringing me endless smiles.
-GSD
In addition to the racist and homophobic shit, he and his buddies were apparently e-mailing each other “sharking” videos. In other words, a DA was enjoying videos of women being sexually assaulted in public. Kind of makes you wonder about his commitment to protecting rape victims.
“Around Houston, the best guess is that Brian McNamee was injecting Rosenthal with human growth hormone.”
It must not have worked. Rosenthal doesn’t seem very human…
What’s so wrong with extrasexual sexual relations?
You know, gmail and hotmail accounts can be set up in seconds. How much of a knucklehead do you have to be to send lech e-mails through a government server?
And mythago, what’s a sharking video?
I guess he thought he was using the White House mail servers… which apparently don’t save emails properly. (Warning - pdf file from recent US House investigations into the White House email system)
Is Tim Russert going to ask John McCain about his association with this man?
I wonder how long it will take for him to land a sweet wing-nut welfare gig at some think tank or institute that appreciates his “preservation of marriage, families and the procreation of children” from teh librul gheys! Regarding his comment that “there is no protected right to engage in extrasexual - extramarital sexual relations“, I was under the distinct impression that here in the United States you had the legal right to do something as long as it was not proscribed by law, no? Has that changed? Also, WTH does “extrasexual” mean?!
It’s worth remembering here that the local (to me) Atlanta DA involved in the predecessor of the Lawrence case, Bowers v. Hardwick, was later discovered to have been carrying on a nearly decade-long extramarital affair at the time he prosecuted that case (and also, later, when he fired an ADA for being lesbian).
Oddly enough, I was horribly disappointed when I found out about Bowers’ extracurricular activities. Obviously, I had strongly disliked him, and had completely disagreed with his positions, and had thought that Hardwick was a farce and a miscarriage of justice (although it is perhaps worth noting that if Hardwick’s attorney had pursued appeals to the Georgia Supreme Court, he might actually have won: Georgia does have an explicit, non-penumbral Right to Privacy in our state constitution; and the GSC overturned the state’s Sodomy law based on that before Lawrence v. Texas was decided). On the other hand, despite all that, Bowers really did have a reputation as being an honest guy. A hard-assed paragon of the virtues one might expect in a prosecutor. He was the type of right-wing prosecutor who did not seem to have any problems prosecuting Republicans or Big Businessmen if they stepped out of line.
So while I disliked him, and disagreed with him, I really did find myself more disappointed than gleeful when his clay feet came to light.
I don’t like making assumptions, so I liked having at least one asshole Republican soapbox-standing, bible-thumping loudmouth who wasn’t a total flaming hypocrite, just to keep me from automatically assuming that every asshole Republican is automatically also a horrible closeted hypocrite. It helped me assure myself that I was rejecting their horrible ideas on the merits, rather than rejecting them because they came from horrible people, if that makes any sense.
Oh well. “Horrible Republican is Horrible Human Being!” Film at Eleven.
@11 - that wouldn’t have helped him with his work emails.
In many professional environments, even learning to hard delete files from your hard drive isn’t enough. Most of the email is stored and archived on the server.
If your office uses Microsoft Exchange, for instance, items manually deleted from trash STILL reside on the server in a place it can be recovered for several more weeks. Also, it is probably on email server backups that will exist long after this cache is emptied.
This is likely how he got caught doing a mass delete after subpoena.
I feel bad for that secretary. Not only was she being sexually harassed, she was being sexually harassed by a romantic moron. I want to kiss you behind your right ear….?????? What the hell is that?
deep6, he was just proving that he was a heterosexual. Everyone knows that kissing someone behind their left ear is, like, totally gay.
I love all you people. I guess there has never been a liberal hypocrite. People make mistakes and do dumb things, both right and left.
Yeah, is something wrong with her left ear? Blargh.
I feel bad for that secretary. Not only was she being sexually harassed, she was being sexually harassed by a romantic moron. I want to kiss you behind your right ear….?????? What the hell is that?
“There were adult video clips and love notes from Rosenthal to his secretary, his mistress during a previous marriage.”
Hypocrite, yep. Harassment of secretary - probably not. Romantic moron? Weeeeeelllll - I suspect any of us would look pretty stupid if someone printed out billets doux we sent to people we were enamoured with.
The sharking videos, if the rumour is true, are another matter entirely.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sharking
I just HAD to look it up.
I think the the first two definitions are the pertinent ones.
I don’t agree with this guy’s quote from Lawrence v. Texas at all, and I think he’s a total jerk, but I think putting the Lawrence v. Texas excerpt at the top of the piece is unnecessary.
These guys are hypocrites for trying to push a lot of sexual morality on everybody that they wouldn’t themselves follow, but it’s perfectly consistent for the guy to think that you don’t have a right to homosexual relations, you don’t have a right to extr-marital relations, that it is (or was) the policy of Texas to promote sexual relations only within marriage, and that it’s good that Texas have that policy, and then for him to go have an affair anyway. It might make him a prick for having an affair, but it doesn’t make him a hypocrite in his views or his arguments on the law. And he’s not a hypocrite if he honestly (not likely, but anyway…) thinks keeping sex within marriage is good policy; he may think it’s perfectly wise for the state to promote that (and not necessarily ban out-of-wedlock marriage), but that he’s an exception- a wise person who can handle himself, and who the policy isn’t crafted to protect- or he may agree that it’s the right thing for everybody, but just feels that he himself for whatever reason is too weak to be able to follow that advice. If you say smoking is bad, but you can’t quit smoking, it doesn’t make you a hypocrite and a dishonest person, it just makes you weak (relative to the challenge of quitting).
He IS a hypocrite if he honestly thinks keeping sex within marriage is good policy yet not only
(A) does not keep sex squarely and exclusively within his own marriage, but also (and here’s the screamingly hypocritical part)
(B) actively advocates and litigates for policies stating that EXACTLY EVERYONE should be barred by law from being able to do exactly WHAT HE DID DO (ref. above, not keeping sex within marriage).
He is BY DEFINITION a HYPOCRITE.
And a prick. [This is a both/and blog, BTW.]
God Bless the Republicans. They know where to find the good sex and drugs.
For a Real Good Time Call: 1-800-GOP-4SEX
Awesome comments, yo. Except Swan and Eric V.
‘Speshly Eric. Let’s see the Party of Moral Values lead by example. In case you were too busy listening to Rush and Fox Noise, we’ve had a decade of “Do as we say not as we do.”
Exhibit A: Newt Gingrich carrying on an extramarital affair while decrying the stain on a dress.
Exhibit B: GOP hand wringing over the folly of “nation building” trying to head off more genocide in the Kosovo in the 90s. Fast-forward to 2008 wherein we’ve blown the $#!+ out of two nations and *still* can’t seem to stop their inhabitants from killing each other, despite hundreds of billions of dollars, thousands of dead and tens of thousands of casualties.
Exhibit C: The incessant moaning about the fiscal irresponsibility of “tax and spend” while authorizing billions for a cooked-up war and slashing taxes for the upper 1%.
Exhibit D: Hand-wringing over intrusive government while systematically dismantling the Bill of Rights and handing nearly unprecedented power to the Executive Branch.
Exhibit E: “Supporting the troops” by under-equipping and over-extending them.
Need I go on? If you want to compare the pecadillos of the left and right, I think that the right’s fuck-ups have cost this nation far, far more dearly than somebody getting an extramarital blowjob in the Oval Office. But then, you’re probably one of those people who think that intelligent design should be taught side by side with real science in the schools, because all “theories” are equal, right?
Swan,
I guess I see what you mean with the smoker argument. It sort of elides the point though.
I think the reason that people are vehement about this fellow’s hypocrisy is that the apparatus of state power was used to prosecute someone else’s (adult, consensual) sex life, and D.A. Rosenthal participated with gusto. While he used the state’s equipment (heh) to indulge, himself, in some seriously unsavory behavior.
That is really the point of liberals’ disgust with these newfangled conservatives - that they wish to use the state to harass others while also using their positions to insulate themselves from any criticism whatsoever.
And honestly two men having sex in their own damn home is a lot more respectable than any one of the things we now know about Rosenthal, no?
I remember one day when I was interested in this case I searched freeperland for comments.
My favorite was the idea that the gay community was somehow in on the case and set it up specifically to get the law overturned.
If they did, why would they choose two people who had pretty substantial criminal records…surely that’s not the best they could do? (Not that it lessens the now-legality of what they did then, but it affected the perception.)
Of course, when Tyron Garner died at 39 there was also lots of concern-trolling about OMG TEH GHEY KILLS YOO!!!111!! NOT THAT WE MIND!!11!!!
I loved when Eric Berndt, the openly gay NYU student, responded to the case by asking Scalia to his face if he sodomized his wife.
Bitter Scribe - “sharking” is the practice of attacking a woman in public to expose her (pulling up her shirt, for example) and then taking a picture or video of her.
This was posted on Above the Law and a Law.com reprint of a Texas Lawyer article - not exactly rumors.
Bitter Scribe - “sharking” is the practice of attacking a woman in public to expose her (pulling up her shirt, for example) and then taking a picture or video of her.
This was posted on Above the Law and a Law.com reprint of a Texas Lawyer article - not exactly rumors.
Bitter Scribe - “sharking” is the practice of attacking a woman in public to expose her (pulling up her shirt, for example) and then taking a picture or video of her.
This was posted on Above the Law and a Law.com reprint of a Texas Lawyer article - not exactly rumors.
Bitter Scribe - “sharking” is the practice of attacking a woman in public to expose her (pulling up her shirt, for example) and then taking a picture or video of her.
This was posted on Above the Law and a Law.com reprint of a Texas Lawyer article - not exactly rumors.
mythago,
We’ve all been there. It is a deeply annoying anti-spam thingie. Hang in there.