{"id":1035,"date":"2016-02-03T02:07:39","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T20:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2016-02-03T02:07:39","modified_gmt":"2016-02-02T20:07:39","slug":"legislative-leadership-media-mishandle-accusations-of-legislator-jeremy-durhams-misconduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/03\/legislative-leadership-media-mishandle-accusations-of-legislator-jeremy-durhams-misconduct\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislative Leadership, Media Mishandle Accusations of Legislator Jeremy Durham\u2019s Misconduct"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

GOP Leaders Glen Casada, Beth Harwell & Ryan Anderson address Durham misconduct issue. The Tennessean\/2016.<\/p><\/div>\n

Most of what I initially heard about Rep. Durham\u2019s alleged sexual harassment and texting saga has been gained through media reports such as the one that surfaced in The Tennessean<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> and others that quickly followed.<\/p>\n

To be honest I haven\u2019t followed the inner workings of Tennessee\u2019s Capitol Hill since I left office in 2009. Over the last couple of weeks I\u2019ve spoken to a number of former colleagues on both sides of the aisle, who for the most part, agree with my perspective. They just can\u2019t state it without the fear of negative political repercussions.<\/p>\n

For those who may not remember, I resigned my state senate seat in 2009 after a failed extortion attempt that I reported to the Tennessee Bureau Investigation. This incident became public and exposed a five-week affair I had with an intern. Ultimately, the facts revealed that she also had a boyfriend (the extortionist) who eventually pled guilty and was convicted for committing a felony. Having been in the middle of a media onslaught I understand the intense political pressure to resign. The scandal was inconvenient for some of my colleagues\u2014which provides me with a perspective few have experienced.<\/p>\n

If for one second you think I’m defending Durham then you’re mistaken. If he did anything close to what is reported or rumored then he should immediately step forward and admit his mistakes. I did and it was difficult but important.<\/p>\n

Here are my observations on the Durham story so far:<\/p>\n

The Tennessean<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 The initial reporting<\/a> of this story was a hatchet job. Having worked as a political journalist and editor gives me insight on what a well-researched and written story looks like. It\u2019s one thing to cite an \u201canonymous\u201d source, but you\u2019ve got to be extremely careful how and when such sources are used.<\/p>\n

What exactly did the text messages say and in what context were they written? Where they initiated by Durham or the sources in question?<\/p>\n

The article<\/a>\u00a0reports that two women provided copies of the texts [to whom]. The reporter and his editors should have asked to see the text messages on their phones so they could read the entire conversation. If that did happen it should have been reported. According of the initial article, the third female only provided a verbal explanation of a conversation.<\/p>\n

Are all of the sources credible? Asking the question is not an indictment of the individuals; it\u2019s a valid question that reporters and editors must answer.<\/em><\/p>\n

To be clear, I\u2019m not suggesting that these women were misstating their case, but rather, that, The Tennessean<\/em> should have reported the story differently. Per a Society of Professional Journalist<\/em><\/a> white paper on anonymous sources, questioning a source\u2019s motive is paramount to \u201cgood journalism.\u201d It clarifies:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone asks to provide information off the record, be sure the reason is not to boost [his or her] own position by undermining someone else\u2019s.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Another question that wasn\u2019t asked, is: Why are coming forward now? Protecting sources is paramount to journalists, but being objective is equally important.<\/p>\n

If these women\u2019s stories hold water, then by all means report it– but they must understand the consequences too. Rarely can you sit in the cheap seats and make accusations without being identified.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is this story helps The Tennessean<\/em> generate thousands of online hits, which drives advertising dollars and income in today\u2019s media environment, which is critical for a news organization\u2019s bottom line.<\/p>\n

House Legislative Leaders<\/strong> \u2013 And here is where The Tennessean<\/a><\/em> gets it right; GOP Leaders most definitely bungled this incident. I don\u2019t have time to list all the ways they\u2019ve screwed up their response, but here are the most obvious.<\/p>\n

One of leadership\u2019s roles is to keep a close eye on their members. If any of these accusations are true, they should have attempted to intervene when the allegations first surfaced. Apparently that did happen.<\/p>\n

Per another article in The Tennessean<\/em><\/a>, House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick (R-Chattanooga) was approached by two different women (we don\u2019t know if they were the same two in the first story) who said they had received texts and phone calls from Durham. House Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) later learned of the reports, although it\u2019s unclear if McCormick relayed the information. She apparently did ask Connie Ridley, a top legislative administrator, to speak with Durham but she should have done so herself.<\/p>\n

Rep. Glen Casada (R-Williamson County), the House Republican Caucus leader should have also spoke with Durham, not only because of his position but also because both are from Williamson County. If Casada didn\u2019t get the information and answer he was looking for, then he should have also discussed the issue with Harwell and McCormick. Under no circumstances should Casada have tried to contact the women; that appeared as if he were trying to suppress information. Maybe other colleagues went to Durham and said what was circulating wasn\u2019t good and that he needed to straighten up.<\/p>\n

One of my friends came to me once and I wish I had heeded their advice at the time. There are 99 members in the House and 33 in the Senate and it\u2019s virtually impossible to police everyone\u2019s activities, however, the legislative plaza is a tiny world and rumors move quickly.<\/p>\n

Lt<\/strong>. Gov. Ron Ramsey<\/strong> \u2013 Ron is a friend and a good family man \u2013 maybe one of the best in the legislature \u2013 but he inserted himself where he does not belong.<\/p>\n

There is an invisible line between the two chambers. Regardless of political party, the leaders should respect the body down the hall. Part of that respect involves knowing when to stay out of the other\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing for Ramsey to opine about his desire for Durham to resign, but when he repeated a rumor to the press <\/a>about an alleged affair Durham had with a former female legislator who resigned last December, that was inappropriate and could even lead to slander and defamation charges.<\/p>\n

During my first six years in the Legislature I served in the House when Jimmy Naifeh was Speaker. Differ with him politically all you want \u2013 and I did many times \u2013 but I respected him. He knew how to run a Chamber and a caucus.<\/p>\n

If the late Lt. Gov. John Wilder had publically inserted himself into the business of a Naifeh controlled House, a private cussing would have been the smallest reaction. A more predictable one would have been Naifeh publically telling the Senate Speaker to \u201cmind his damn business.\u201d Naifeh knew way too much about his Senate colleagues for them to mettle in his affairs.<\/p>\n

Even if the rumors turn out to be true, Ramsey had no business repeating it to the press.<\/p>\n

What if I came forward with the names of every sitting legislator I know\u2014who for a fact– has had an affair in Nashville?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>I could also release a list of people of whom \u201cI\u2019m fairly certain\u201d have had an affair.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>I could also list those \u201cI\u2019ve heard may have had an affair.\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If that were the case, we\u2019d be down to a mere handful of sitting legislators and Capitol Hill politicos.<\/p>\n

Ramsey repeating the rumor gave the press permission to write it but then why stop there. Why not list all rumors of indiscretions? That’s not his job nor mine.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>State Democratic Chairwoman Mary Mancini<\/em><\/strong> – She called for the three top members of the House Leadership to resign.<\/p>\n

Are you kidding me?<\/em><\/p>\n

Should Democrats in Congress have resigned when former President Bill Clinton lied about his encounter with Monica Lewinsky?<\/p>\n

Mancini is obviously anxious to insert her name into the fray, but she\u2019s a bit out of her element. I suspect there are a few Democrats in the legislature (albeit far fewer than there used to be) who have engaged in some \u201cinappropriate\u201d behavior.<\/p>\n

If I were Mancini I would sit this one out. If the situation eventually goes south for the Republicans she\u2019ll have plenty of time to crow. And she should have her remarks prepared because her time to shine may be right around the corner.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Overall, and finally, what the public should understand is that behind personal tragedy is political opportunity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Durham\u2019s greatest political problem is he\u2019s a major distraction to his fellow legislators and the most expedient course of action is to rid themselves of him. Do they suggest this because they care about Durham\u2019s welfare? Hell no.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a distraction for the leadership\u2019s political ends.<\/p>\n

But Durham was not elected to his legislative seat by leadership or by his colleagues. He\u2019s responsible to the 60,000 plus people he represents. And he should be speaking with many of them right now.<\/p>\n

As for Durham\u2019s caucus leadership position, that\u2019s another matter altogether. They have the ability and responsibility to elect those who best represent the caucus and you have to respect the will of the caucus whether you agree with them or not. Durham resigning was the right move or they should have removed him by vote.<\/p>\n

The talk about \u201ctaking a Vote of Expulsion\u201d is ridiculous and treads on thin ice.<\/p>\n

Only two legislators have been removed from office, one in 1866 and the other in 1980\u2014and– that was only after extended hearings.<\/p>\n

The first question is, what grounds does the legislature have to expel Durham? Having an extra-martial affair while in office? As I\u2019ve already mentioned, this charge would then include several members, who also would have to resign.<\/p>\n

Sending inappropriate text messages? It\u2019s possible even more members could be expelled.<\/p>\n

Being stupid? Even more members gone.<\/p>\n

My guess is Speaker Harwell called on the AG\u2019s office to investigate Durham\u2019s actions to put additional pressure on him, while also hoping they uncover ethical, civil or criminal activity to have ample grounds to expel him. This also forces the legislature to make policy changes with the AG\u2019s office starting the process.<\/p>\n

This entire situation is a sorry spectacle. Regardless of the outcome, hopefully the women involved, Durham\u2019s wife, and Durham will find healing and move on to build productive and fulfilling lives.<\/p>\n

Until then, everyone so far has turned this situation into sausage making at its worst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of what I initially heard about Rep. Durham\u2019s alleged sexual harassment and texting saga has been gained through media reports such as the one that surfaced in The Tennessean, and others that quickly followed. To be honest I haven\u2019t followed the inner workings of Tennessee\u2019s Capitol Hill since I left office in 2009. Over the last couple of weeks I\u2019ve spoken to a number of former colleagues on both sides of the aisle, who for the most part, agree with my perspective. They just can\u2019t state it without the fear of negative political repercussions. For those who may not remember, I resigned my state senate seat in 2009 after a failed extortion attempt that I reported to the Tennessee Bureau Investigation. This incident became public and exposed a five-week affair I had with an intern. Ultimately, the facts revealed that she also had a boyfriend (the extortionist) who eventually pled guilty and was convicted for committing a felony. Having been in the middle of a media onslaught I understand the intense political pressure to resign. The scandal was inconvenient for some of my colleagues\u2014which provides me with a perspective few have experienced. If for one second you think I’m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[28,501,505,503,502,499,506,327,500,504,450],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-paul","tag-author","tag-beth-harwell","tag-connie-ridley","tag-gerald-mccormick","tag-glen-casada","tag-jeremy-durham","tag-mary-mancini","tag-paul-stanley","tag-ron-ramsey","tag-the-tennessean","tag-writer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nLegislative Leadership, Media Mishandle Accusations of Legislator Jeremy Durham\u2019s Misconduct - Paul Stanley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/03\/legislative-leadership-media-mishandle-accusations-of-legislator-jeremy-durhams-misconduct\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Legislative Leadership, Media Mishandle Accusations of Legislator Jeremy Durham\u2019s Misconduct - Paul Stanley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most of what I initially heard about Rep. Durham\u2019s alleged sexual harassment and texting saga has been gained through media reports such as the one that surfaced in The Tennessean, and others that quickly followed. To be honest I haven\u2019t followed the inner workings of Tennessee\u2019s Capitol Hill since I left office in 2009. Over the last couple of weeks I\u2019ve spoken to a number of former colleagues on both sides of the aisle, who for the most part, agree with my perspective. They just can\u2019t state it without the fear of negative political repercussions. For those who may not remember, I resigned my state senate seat in 2009 after a failed extortion attempt that I reported to the Tennessee Bureau Investigation. This incident became public and exposed a five-week affair I had with an intern. Ultimately, the facts revealed that she also had a boyfriend (the extortionist) who eventually pled guilty and was convicted for committing a felony. 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Paul Stanley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/03\/legislative-leadership-media-mishandle-accusations-of-legislator-jeremy-durhams-misconduct\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Legislative Leadership, Media Mishandle Accusations of Legislator Jeremy Durham\u2019s Misconduct - Paul Stanley","og_description":"Most of what I initially heard about Rep. Durham\u2019s alleged sexual harassment and texting saga has been gained through media reports such as the one that surfaced in The Tennessean, and others that quickly followed. To be honest I haven\u2019t followed the inner workings of Tennessee\u2019s Capitol Hill since I left office in 2009. Over the last couple of weeks I\u2019ve spoken to a number of former colleagues on both sides of the aisle, who for the most part, agree with my perspective. They just can\u2019t state it without the fear of negative political repercussions. For those who may not remember, I resigned my state senate seat in 2009 after a failed extortion attempt that I reported to the Tennessee Bureau Investigation. This incident became public and exposed a five-week affair I had with an intern. Ultimately, the facts revealed that she also had a boyfriend (the extortionist) who eventually pled guilty and was convicted for committing a felony. Having been in the middle of a media onslaught I understand the intense political pressure to resign. The scandal was inconvenient for some of my colleagues\u2014which provides me with a perspective few have experienced. If for one second you think I’m [...]","og_url":"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/03\/legislative-leadership-media-mishandle-accusations-of-legislator-jeremy-durhams-misconduct\/","og_site_name":"Paul Stanley","article_published_time":"2016-02-02T20:07:39+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/37f9962f91d3babb165a1a4f3fd938384f9456fb\/c=236-0-3879-2739&r=x404&c=534x401\/local\/-\/media\/2016\/01\/25\/Nashville\/Nashville\/635893343739052437-NAS-Durham-04.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Paul Stanley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@authorstanley","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Paul Stanley","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/03\/legislative-leadership-media-mishandle-accusations-of-legislator-jeremy-durhams-misconduct\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/03\/legislative-leadership-media-mishandle-accusations-of-legislator-jeremy-durhams-misconduct\/"},"author":{"name":"Paul Stanley","@id":"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/10ef2597eaf48c1f1f6f0527ff625868"},"headline":"Legislative Leadership, Media Mishandle Accusations of Legislator Jeremy Durham\u2019s Misconduct","datePublished":"2016-02-02T20:07:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/03\/legislative-leadership-media-mishandle-accusations-of-legislator-jeremy-durhams-misconduct\/"},"wordCount":1759,"commentCount":1,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/03\/legislative-leadership-media-mishandle-accusations-of-legislator-jeremy-durhams-misconduct\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/37f9962f91d3babb165a1a4f3fd938384f9456fb\/c=236-0-3879-2739&r=x404&c=534x401\/local\/-\/media\/2016\/01\/25\/Nashville\/Nashville\/635893343739052437-NAS-Durham-04.jpg","keywords":["author","Beth Harwell","Connie Ridley","Gerald McCormick","Glen Casada","Jeremy Durham","Mary Mancini","Paul Stanley","Ron Ramsey","The Tennessean","writer"],"articleSection":["My Blog Post"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/03\/legislative-leadership-media-mishandle-accusations-of-legislator-jeremy-durhams-misconduct\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/03\/legislative-leadership-media-mishandle-accusations-of-legislator-jeremy-durhams-misconduct\/","url":"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/03\/legislative-leadership-media-mishandle-accusations-of-legislator-jeremy-durhams-misconduct\/","name":"Legislative Leadership, Media Mishandle Accusations of Legislator Jeremy Durham\u2019s Misconduct - 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