California State Senator Roy Ashburn, Republican and vocal gay rights opponent, was busted for DWI in his state-issued Chevy Tahoe by Sacramento police. He'd gotten drunk at a gay bar. Also, there was an unidentified man in the passenger seat.
Here's an idea: If you take a principled stand against something, stake your reputation on fighting it, and belittle others because of it, don't get caught red-handed doing that which you oppose. Ashburn, a second-term Senator from California's 18th district has been a very vocal opponent of gay rights and gay marriage in the state and based his campaigns on a platform of family values.
With a resume like that, it must have been something of a surprise when police in Sacramento observed Ashburn's state-issued Chevy Tahoe (Chevy Tahoe? Isn't California in a massive budget crisis?) swerving all over the road and after performing a field sobriety test arrested the Senator for driving while intoxicated. Normally, this is a story of bad judgement and would have ended with Ashburn's brief statement of apology the next day, but the devil is in the details. The fact there was an unidentified man in the passenger seat at the time of Ashburn's arrest isn't at all salacious until you discover eye-witnesses confirming ole Roy had been boozing it up that night at Sacramento area gay nightclub "Faces." That right there? That feeling you're getting? It's extreme schadenfreude borne from impossibly thick hypocrisy. Well, alleged hypocrisy. Let this be a lesson to all politicians with a dirty little career-ending secret; Don't drink and drive. [CBS13 via TalkingPointsMemo, Huffpo]