Republican California Assemblyman Michael D. Duvall appears to like to brag about his sexual conquests. The problem is that he did so next to a live mike, in a state legislative room . . . and the woman was a lobbyist who he said had sex with him in his office.
I am going to refrain from posting the transcript of the first part of Duvall’s comments, which are incredibly disgusting. Putting aside the legal ethics questions, it is astonishing that Duvall felt comfortable discussing such an encounter, which says something about the legislative culture in the California state legislature. One question is the duty of the other member to disclose such information. This occurred months ago and yet this member appears to have done nothing after a ranking member informed him of having sex with a lobbyist in his office on a regular basis.
The married father of two then continues to add: “So, I am getting into spanking her. Yeah, I like it. I like spanking her. She goes, ‘I know you like spanking me.’ I said, ‘Yeah! Because you’re such a bad girl!” [Laughing] And so her birthday was Monday,” he said at the Wednesday, July 8 committee hearing. “I was 54 on June 14, so for a month, she was 19 years younger than me. I said, ‘Now, you’re getting old. I am going to have to trade you in.’ And she goes, ‘[I’m] 36.’ She is 18 years younger than me. And so I keep teasing her, and she goes, ‘I know you French men. You divide your age by
two and add seven, and if you’re older than that, you dump us.'”
Duvall is vice chairman of the Assembly’s powerful Committee on Utilities & Commerce and one site has named ” veteran Sacramento-based lobbyist Heidi DeJong Barsuglia turned 36 years old on Monday, July 6.”
What makes this tape even more amazing is that it was just two days after Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Republican leader Sam Blakeslee put Duvall on the Rules Committee that handles ethical violations, here.
Of course, such attitudes are not exactly unique to California. You will recall our recent tape of the Speaker of the Alaskan House of Representatives saying that he would gladly sell his soul to the devil to keep oil companies happy, here.
Notably, one site notes that “Assembly Member Duvall does not currently have any foes” I expect that is about to change.
“I have hope that one day Conservatives will see that some people embrace a more liberal ideology because they find it more in line with the teachings of Christ.”
Pretty and smart. Your hubby is a lucky guy, jenx.
@BUDDHA LAUGHING – I wish all conversations about Republican ne’er-do-wells led to thoughtful insight about small biz and specifically small restaurants. We have a rich choice here in Oklahoma – of all of the above – Republicans; (HA!) small restaurants and chains. The small restaurants are just thriving here! It’s exciting. Thanks for checking out my blog. I’m quite a fan of JT, so it’s great to connect with his faithful community. I rarely comment, but always read.
@GYGES – You’re probably right. =( I think it was Jeff Sharlit, author of The Family, that said World Christian magazine exposing the highly secretive organization “The Family” was the Religious Right cutting off a branch to save the tree. I have hope that one day Conservatives will see that some people embrace a more liberal ideology because they find it more in line with the teachings of Christ.
(Sorry for the tangent. *Smile*)
Reagan was born in western Illinois and his ranch was in Santa Barbara. He even lived in my mother’s hometown, Galesburg, Ill. for awhile.
AY,
You’re thinking Nixon. Hunter Thompson famously referred to Tricky Dick as “The Beast from Yorba Linda”. Tricky Dick should not be confused with our “beloved” Rotten Dick, the right dishonorable former VP and treasonous traitor Dick Cheney. I know you know the difference, I’m just hoping Rotten Dick takes off as a nick for that weasel Cheney.
Isn’t Yorba Linda, CA where Ronnie is from?
John Puma,
Thanks for the update.
Duvall! Two ears, one mouth. I’d say do the math, but hey, the horse has already escaped the barn. Didn’t your father ever teach you gentlemen don’t discuss the details? How about “morons talk freely in front of an open mic”? Loose lips sink ships?
At least you had the character to resign. Or was that not character and just more political survivalism? Was your wife holding your feet to the fire?
I’d say “see ya!” but I’m hoping to avoid that.
So was he really talking about “In-Kind-Contributions?” At least he was more open and honest with it. OMG, does anyone remember the stupid things that Ronnie Reagan has said?
“Orange County Assemblyman Michael Duvall, who was caught on an open mike making sexual comments, resigned today.”
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/assemblyman-duvall-resigns-amid-recorded-sexual-comments.html
“Assembly Member Duvall does not currently have any foes.”
Of course he does not currently have any friends either!
Jenx,
If you want a serious answer, probably never. Both organizations seem to attract people who prefer hierarchical set ups.
This didn’t take long; now how about Vitter, Ensign and Sanford!
http://www.duvallforassembly.com/
jenx,
OFF TOPIC
I peeked at your blog and I’d like to say I agree about you and your hubby’s take on chain restaurants. I’ve noticed that as well . . . big corporate stores closing but many of the mom and pop’s and some of the independent franchises are really booming. I know here locally that a lot of people would rather visit a small locally owned restaurant with better quality food than support some McCorporation. The perfect example is where I live there are 3 big pizza chains – Pizza Hut, Papa John’s and Godfather’s (a distant 3rd). Although Hut and John deliver (easy!), there’s a little family owned joint in Mission called Avelutto’s Italian Delight. They don’t deliver and I don’t complain. It’s run by a couple of brothers, largely staffed by family and the recipes are all Grandma Avelutto’s (her photo is on the awning). They also offer a wide variety of pasta dishes and desserts in addition to pizza, calzone, stromboli, prosciutto balls and the occasional surprise that’s not on the menu like foccacia with caramelized onions, anchovies and capers (great googly moogly! It’s making me drool just thinking about it). They also have specials like Friday Night is Spinach Lasagna Night. Come early or it’s gone. It’s also the best version of that dish I’ve ever had anywhere, including at home. On weeknights, they’ve got a crowd. Recently, I’ve not been in on a week night that they weren’t 2/3 full minimum. On weekends, it’s packed. Before the recession they were like most restaurants of their capacity – surviving but not booming with a substantially thinner week than weekend. And it’s in a horrid location too. If you didn’t know it was there, it’d be real easy to miss. That should tell you the value of word of mouth advertising and the lure of quality food at a reasonable price. It is a little more expensive than a chain ($1-2 on average for a whole pie for comparison), but you taste it in the quality. When you walk in, if you’re a regular, after a while it’s like walking into grandma’s. “Hey, howyoudoin? Me? Hey fuggedaboutdit! The Ducati’s running hot and so’s the Mrs. It’s all good! What you want? We got a good special . . . ” And if there’s a problem? One of the brothers will make it go away and but quick. They want you to be a happy full customer when you leave. That’s good business. I eat there once a week minimum.
Bigger is not always better. Restaurants are the perfect example. Shoveling food is a matter of logistics for a company like Mickey D’s. A real restaurant is usually the passion of one or two people to create a memorable dining experience, one they’d like to have, and you can’t get that when your manager’s have all the emotional connection to that vision of a bland corporate mission statement. Heart vs. heartless. Good restaurants require heart and vision. Burger chains have all the heart and vision of a P/L statement. Watch Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares and you’ll see what I mean about passion for the menu. Someone has to DREAM of food to make a restaurant that grabs people. No dream and it has all the charm of an army chow line.
If it’s one good thing that comes from this de-/recession is that the rough market forces out some of the corporate swine from the dining market for good and allows the trend of smaller businesses filling in the gaps. Everyday, I see a Taco Bell closed or their relative that was open as recently as a week ago. Every day, I see more empty buildings and mall slots that used to have chain bagel shops and cookie stores. There’s an outlet mall here where the only 3 shops left in the food court are all local with all the former big chain tenants cutting their losses as the mall walkers vanished. That’s what happens when you operate on the “expenses be damned as long as we turn a profit” model: when trouble hits, you’re over leveraged and under capitalized and the only cures are retraction or collapse.
It’s good for our health to go local (hey, it’s pizza, but I guarantee it’s better for you Pizza The Hut’s greasiness), better for the local economy as profits stay local, and it’s good for competition. The more players the better as long as they are all not making low quality junk like comes out of most building side windows. I also hope for an expansion in the slow food movement, but that’s another issue.
Support your local independent restaurants, people. You’re helping directly your local economy and you’re helping someone live out their dream. Where’s the downside in that? None. And your acting as your own personal target stimulus package.
Welcome to the blog, jenx.
From the Orange County Weekly link:
“Earlier this year, the man who never graduated from high school received 100% approval score by the California Republican Assembly, the state’s leading conservative outfit, and the Capital Resource Institute (CRI), a fierce guardian of traditional family values….Acknowledging the CRI award, Duvall observed in a press release that as long as he is in office, he would work to protect “California families” from “constant assault in Sacramento.”
How many more until the Republican Party no longer is known as the party of choice for evangelical Christians?
Power may be the greatest aphrodisiac but is a coal-fired electrical plant worth all of this. Yuck!
What’s wrong? Clinton did it!
Ow, yeah, we impeached ’em for it…
Mr. Duvall:
as a long time republican I think you need to do the honorable thing and retire from public service. That tape just showed 2 things:
1. your stupidity
2. lack of integrity, any man that cheats on his wife is not fit to govern. If you cannot honor that contract what contract will you honor?
Resign and do the honorable thing at least once in your career.
I hope you join me in calling for this mans resignation. He is a load.
Brea Office
210 West Birch Street, Suite 202
Brea, CA 92821
(714) 672-4734
(714) 672-4737 fax
Capitol Office
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
I was briefly a registered lobbyist for a public facilities authority back in the ’70s and never had an opportunity to have sex with anyone. I guess I should have gone to lobbyist school to learn the trade properly.