# The flames of young love on Capitol Hill **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 24, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708 "2003-07-24T20:22:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/1 "2003-07-24T20:22:28Z")
It is not a good idea to be young and stupid. It is an even worse idea to be young, stupid, and arrogant. And if you happen to be young, stupid, and arrogant, it is best to stay far, far away from email when breaking up with your girlfriend. This is from an email that has been circulating in D.C. for the last week or so, which I received from a friend this afternoon. The story has hit both The Washington Post and Roll Call, which both report that it is legitimate. [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/tripplehorn.asp) is also onboard. A couple searches don’t show it on the SDMB yet, and this is just too juicy a flame not to offer to the Pitizens. As the story goes, this is an email from one intern in Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson’s office to another intern in the same office. It seems that all is not well with our young lovers. The entire message follows: > [@](#): > > From: Kelly Tripplehorn [mailto:tripplehorny@[redacted].com] > Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 2:11 PM > To:To: cheezygrl@[redacted].com > Subject: you suck > > Well, as of this afternoon, I was planning on ruining your career by making phone calls to all of my parents friends and have you blackballed from the workplace as well as every prestigous law school in the country, but then (lucky for you) I decided not to do that because you are a sad sad person and I will just let your life self destruct right before my eyes… > > Michele I am sorry, I don’t care how big of sadistic fucked up crush you have on me but people like me simple don’t date people like you. You are too competitive with me and you just simply will never be better than me. I will always have more friends than you just because I don’t care about beating people and lying to get to the top. (You are an absolute hipocrit in everything that you do, I am not going to go into details why you are because that would be a waste of my time and yours but I can assure you if you were to ever meet yourself you would hate your twin) I have told most all of the staff about our situation now and they already knew you were really messed you. They said when you were talking to them about me, they all told me you had “serious issues” and that every word you said sounded scripted and they knew without a doubt that you were lying. I have noticed that people who you think are your good friends actually really dislike you but unlike me, they will not tell you to your face because they would rather be fake nice to you than be your enemy. … > > Now talking about how I am obsessed with money, I simply am not. You are. You always are trying to impress me by how much money you have and I don’t care. The difference is though I talk about it but it is never about bragging and it is never directly about money, it is always directly about the conversation. Forinstance, someone will ask, what are you doing for july 4rth. And then I will say I am going to aspen. It is a simple fact that I am but since you don’t have a house in aspen, you get offended because of your competitive nature. When you talk about money you will say something like UT’s tuition is 5% of your family’s income, thus my tuition would be 125,000. Yea, Michele you are right, I brag too much about what I have… Well I am just going to stop writing because you are just absolutely beneath me. I have heard that you try to undermine people all the time that are better than you and everysingle time it does not work because people can see through such shallowness and that is why as I have heard so many times, Most “everyone at UT absolutely hates you.” For instance even the people that you thought were your friends Mellissa Mahaffey or that girl you met at espn, they hate you, they just never say anything. Everyone knows you are a pathetic social climber who will go to any discusting means to move up the ladder. But guess what Michele, you will never move up the ladder because I am at the top and people like me hate people like you. You might be able to trick people like me for maybe a month or so but your true personality comes through after a while and it is vile, if that. You have sooooo many people that absolutely hate you and you will never know it because they will never say anything to your face. You will not succeed in life and even the staff thinks that also, after I told them about the things that you do. You suck! and good luck being miserable for the rest of your life. I do not even know why I wasted my time typing this for suck slime. Everyone tells me that you are so beneath me (which you are) and I should not get worked up over suck trifles. By the end of the day if I wanted to, I could make a phone call and have your life absolutely ruined but there is no need because you are falling fast enough towards failure without me. In the end, all I can say is that people love me and people hate you. You should observe me and take a few notes on how to make real friends. Other than you tieing this one other person, I have never had such little respect for a human being in my life. I don’t even have to tell you why because in my very accurate analysis that most everyone else agrees with, if you were to agree with my analyis about your character than my whole entire analysis would be wrong. Your inflamed ego has left you so blind and so impotent that you can nto even recognize the most obvious flaws in yourself. All your old roommates absolutely hated you and you still think the problem is with them, not you. Well I talked to your roommates and I thought they nice normal girls. So naturally, you would not fit in with them because you are so intellectually above them all. Right? You suck at life and you need to figure out why or you will be miserable for the rest of your life. > > Once again from your intellectual, moral, social, and emotional superior, > Paul Kelly Tripplehorn, Jr. Young, stupid, arrogant, and email-capable. Ouch. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/2 "2003-07-24T20:30:55Z")
Yep. I saw that last week on Snopes. I would have assumed that an aspiring corrupt politician (:)) would, you know, make a better effort to write well. I would have assumed incorrectly. The whole thing smacks me as something that someone would have written in middle school; but then again, some people have never quite gotten over middle school. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/3 "2003-07-24T20:31:07Z")
If Mr. Tripplehorn is Michele’s intellectual superior then Michele must be a drooling idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/4 "2003-07-24T20:32:54Z")
**minty green** : Well, as of this afternoon, I was planning on spending my afternoon working, but you have ruined that with your post about two seriously fucked up people. For that, I will be emailing all of my Doper friends and have you blackballed from the SDMB as well as every prestigous law school in the country, but then (lucky for you) I decided not to do that because it made me laugh and I will just let your life self destruct right before my eyes… And don’t get me started about that huge crush you have on me… ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/5 "2003-07-24T20:35:25Z")
Now we know who writes Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson’s speeches. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/6 "2003-07-24T20:49:42Z")
This may be stupid and immature behavior from Mr. Tripplehorn, but it’s pretty inappropriate to have this in Roll Call or the Post. While I have no pity for Mr. Tripplehorn, it must be really embarrassing for Michele or Melissa Mahaffey to be named like this in a private e-mail that is now being broadcast everywhere. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![tramp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@tramp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tramp)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/7 "2003-07-24T20:50:27Z")
I saw something about this in Rol Call… didn’t the guy get another job as an intern in another office? ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/8 "2003-07-24T20:57:57Z")
I just love his email address… Tripplehorny@whatever - yep, that’ll get you taken seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/9 "2003-07-24T21:09:59Z")
_“Well I am just going to stop writing because you are just absolutely beneath me…”_ This has potential as a Pit retort. ---
**Author:** ![auntie\_em](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/10 "2003-07-24T21:36:37Z")
Am I the only person who thinks that the United Negro College Fund needs to re-think its parameters? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/11 "2003-07-24T21:42:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DeVena \* > \*\*I just love his email address… Tripplehorny@whatever - yep, that’ll get you taken seriously. \*\* Likewise cheezygrl@[redacted].com ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/12 "2003-07-24T21:48:58Z")
Other than showing that the kid is an insufferable, self-absorbed jerk and reflecting badly on Senator Hutchinson’s selection of low level office help, I don’t understand why **Minty** ’s post was (1) amusing or (2) rage provoking. I found it merely (3) annoying. What am I missing here? ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/13 "2003-07-24T21:49:25Z")
Roll Call’s take on the story was pretty hilarious, too. The top headline on their webpage said something closely akin to, “forget all the legislative hijinks, the talk of the town this week is a serious relationship meltdown in a Senator’s office!” Roll Call doesn’t get the chance to go tabloid very often, so they seem to have gone after that story with relish. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/14 "2003-07-24T21:50:59Z")
perhaps both email addys were faked for the article, instead of merely removing the “@” part? ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/15 "2003-07-24T22:02:46Z")
The “[redacted]” domains were my edits, **wring**. Those are indeed their actual email names, if the message at the end of the miles-long forwarding list I got today is accurate. **Spavined Gelding** , there’s no accounting for taste, but that message struck me as _so_ ridiculously, insufferably self-absorbed that I couldn’t stop laughing. **Neurotik** , it appears that the girl herself forwarded the message to her friends. I would have too–it’s practically got “Can you believe this psycho?” written all over it. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/16 "2003-07-24T22:12:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by minty green \* > \*\*The “[redacted]” domains were my edits, **wring**. Those are indeed their actual email names, if the message at the end of the miles-long forwarding list I got today is accurate. > \*\* :eek: :eek: **Adults** (well chronologically anyhow) did that? sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/17 "2003-07-24T22:23:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spavined Gelding \* > \*\*Other than showing that the kid is an insufferable, self-absorbed jerk and reflecting badly on Senator Hutchinson’s selection of low level office help, I don’t understand why **Minty** ’s post was (1) amusing or (2) rage provoking. I found it merely (3) annoying. What am I missing here? \*\* **Gelding** , what struck me as funny was the contrast of an arrogant prick writing, “I was planning on ruining your career . . .” and “I will just let your life self destruct right before my eyes,” then possibly ruining his own career by self-destructing. That’s just me, anyway. I know, I admit it, I’m sick. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/18 "2003-07-24T22:29:09Z")
well, that and w/all of his arrogance about how she was so like, totally, not worth his time and stuff, he went on and on and on and on, (complete w/misspellings and poor grammar and sentence structure that would probably make his 3rd grade teacher cry) ---
**Author:** ![Mercury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e95f7d/32.png) [@Mercury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mercury)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/19 "2003-07-24T23:09:51Z")
Yes, the writing is horrid. Dis **c** usting, one might say. But why did this cause him to lose his job? Judging by the e-mail addresses, it appears that tripplehorny sent this from his personal e-mail account to cheezygrl at her person e-mail account. Yes, it proves that he is a jackass, but why fire him? He mentions what he could have done, but then says he won’t do it. Was he fired because of that “threat?” If I send someone a nasty e-mail from my home AOL account to theirs, can I be fired? ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708/20 "2003-07-24T23:37:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mercury \* > **But why did this cause him to lose his job?** My guess is that he became an embarrassment that detracted from anything coming out of Kay Bailey Hutchison’s office. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flames-of-young-love-on-capitol-hill/190708.md?page=2)