Congressional embarrassments of yesteryear

Congressman Aaron Schock started his congressional career early at the age of 27, but he resigned amid a scandal six years later over his use of public and campaign funds. The first crack in the dam was Washington Post Story that revealed that Schock’s congressional offices had been lavishly redecorated in a style inspired by the aristocratic homes in the television show Downton Abbey.

Not for no reason, only for a reason that would be obscure to non-Nebraskans.

The Ogden Edsl Wahalia Blues Ensemble Mondo Bizzario Band (“Ogden Edsl”), the artistic geniuses behind the song, was an Omaha combo and Roman Hruska was one of their sitting Senators at the time the ditty was recorded. And he had an interestingly weird name, and a bit of bizarre notoriety because of that very “defense of mediocrity” episode.

Perfectly understandable, to a Nebraakan.

Illinois has an “illustrious” history of Congressmen (and Governors) who leave office in disgrace, but it’s usually for just plain old graft.

Then again, we did have Mel Reynolds, who resigned from Congress in 1995 after being convicted on a dozen sexual misconduct charges, including soliciting child pornography. (A few years later, he was also convicted of bank fraud and misuse of campaign funds, which would be more “traditional” Illinois misconduct. :stuck_out_tongue: )

Oh, I remember the Gary Condit/Chandra Levy thing. (I personally don’t believe he had anything to do with her death.) I groaned every time I heard their names on the news and at one point thought, “I hope some REAL news story comes along and dislodges this.”

But I didn’t want one THAT big!

That story was 9/11. (I tried to get the spoilers to work, but they wouldn’t.

Ted Kennedy’s best-known shenanigan turned up on one of my favorite YouTube channels just yesterday. The comments are…interesting.

I still can’t figure out how Madison Cawthorn or Marjorie Taylor-Greene got elected dogcatcher, let alone to congress.

Empty Greene ran unopposed, which even then shouldn’t have given her an advantage.

Huey Long, the populist/demagogue Depression-era politician began his Senate career by not showing up for more than a year, because he wanted to finish out his term as Governor of Louisiana. Long deflected complaints about leaving the Senate seat empty for so long by arguing that his predecessor had been so bad, an empty seat couldn’t be worse. Long and a Louisiana state senator also formed a company that specialized in obtaining oil drilling rights on public land and then subleasing those rights to major oil companies.