A VIEW from LICK SKILLET by Gerald Largen: If they love the party, Republicans will fire DesJarlais

It seems, gentle reader, that when we were first exposed to the deplorable conduct of Dr. Scott DesJarlais, we weren’t told even half of the story.

What we were told about his conduct with and to his first wife, and even more importantly his son, seemed enough to disqualify him from representing us, or any others of the good, moral, ethical, and high principled citizens of the old Fourth Congressional District of Tennessee.

However, our Republican friends saw it differently and gave this low-life reprobate their votes.

To say that his career in the Congress has been mediocre would be excessive, inasmuch as he has done nothing noteworthy except march in lock-step with John Boehner as a loyal lackey.

It has now come out that this “doctor,” has left trailing behind him like a comet mistresses galore, one or more being his patients.

One of these females purportedly was impregnated by the kindly physician. Apparently his medical training did not include the part of the curriculum wherein it is explained where babies come from, and how the condition can be averted, however, he did seem to learn the part about how pregnancies may be terminated, and he demanded that this woman, with whom he had partaken of the joys of the flesh, terminate this particular pregnancy by insisting that she have an abortion.

(All of this he for some reason recorded and the transcript has been published.)

The story becomes even more murky at this point in that his only comment, which we have read, appeared in the Oct. 12 issue of the News Sentinel, was to say that the woman did not turn out to be pregnant!

What kind of physician is our doctor Scott when he cannot even determine that a woman is, or is not, pregnant?

As long-time readers know, we saw Scott DesJarlais for what he was early on, and before the election when he was first elected in November, 2010, we wrote in the issue of the News for Oct. 22, 2010, the following commentary upon the sad decline of the Republican Party, once the very exemplar of civic and personal virtue, and Dr. DesJarlais in particular.

Here is an extract from that column: “ ... In bygone days there was a phrase for certain disreputable people, i.e. ‘Poor White Trash.’ That phrase is no longer commonly heard, but the concept has spread throughout the society. It is an infection that grows not just in the slums and ghettos, but even more potently in the enclaves of wealth and privilege. The sons and daughters of people of power and influence conduct themselves with a complete disregard to any standards of decency or propriety. (The Hilton girl springs to mind immediately.) Divorce is so widespread as to be an epidemic. Bastardy is fast becoming the dominant aspect of reproduction. Teachers and priests, doctors and evangelists assume the mantle of sexual predators. Congress is bought and sold by corrupt industries. The pharmaceutical industry is paying countless doctors to promote their drugs almost like the old-time medicine show “doctors”, but at least they gave some entertainment along with the wild promises as to the efficadousness of the ‘snake oil’ they were selling. Incredibly, the very man who is assumed to be the coming Speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner, not many years ago was openly handing out wads of cash on the Floor of the House of Representatives to his cooperative colleagues.

“Decent people, honest people, respectable people would not have done any of these things, nor would they have associated with, or condoned, those who did. Our old-line Republicans must soon realize this, and, from what we hear, some of them already do. What may well be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back locally is the candidacy of Dr. Scott DesJarlais. In so many aspects he is the very personification of the old concept of poor white trash, except as a physidan he isn’t poor. But his tangled family history certainly qualifies him as trash in our humble opinion.

“His first wife may well have lied on him in the divorce proceeding, but remember, he’s the one who chose to marry her in the first place. And he’s the one who sought to get out from under the responsibility to support his child — making him what has previously been described as ‘a dead-beat dad.’ He’s the one who has taken what is sometimes referred to as a trophy wife, and who has sent her out on the TV to defend his actions rather than, as the current Republican expression is, to ‘man up’ and defend those actions, if he has a defence. He’s the one who seems to have eliminated his first child from his family listing and TV ad pictures of his happy family. No, gentle reader, trash he was, trash he is, and trash he always will be in our opinion. If this opinion brands us as a snob, so be it.”

The most recent disclosures we think vindicate us in our opinion that trash he was, trash he is, and trash he always will be.

He is so bad that he has brought about something that we thought we would never see and that is agreement between the editorial pages of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

In the issue of 11 Oct., the Times editorial page contained a lengthy editorial titled “DesJarlais’ scandal”, which concluded with this paragraph:
‘The question now is whether the revelation of DesJarlais’ affairs and his pressure on his mistress then to seek an abortion will alter the course of the current campaign. Given Wednesday’s disclosure it would be an embarrassment to the 4th District to return the deceitful, unethical, philandering physician. If 4th District voters value honesty and upstanding character, they will vote him out of office and install Sen. Stewart, an insurance agent with a decent reputation.”

On that same day, the Free Press side of the editorial pages the lead editorial was titled “If you talk the talk... “ which contained these statements:
“If DesJarlais were a Democrat, it might not matter. But as a pro-life, family values Republican, his indiscretion is a fireable offense.”
Later this appears: “... When he betrayed the people who put him in office and proved to be a hypocrite on the issues he claimed to hold most dear, DesJarlais sealed his fate. His political career will soon be over.” This from one of the most Republican publications in the nation.

Now we will see whether the leaders of the Republican Party, and the loyal supporters of the GOP will be more concerned with the reputation and character of their party, or preserving a congressional seat with an (R.) after the name.

If they chose the former course, it will be a good first step on the path to restoring their party to its former status.

If they chose the latter course it will go a long way toward showing that trying to save the party and restore its former status of glory is a lost cause.

Alexander, Corker, Haslam, and other Tennessee Republican leaders, especially the congressman’s colleagues, such as Fleischmann, Roe, Blackburn, et al. have, as far as we have heard, maintained complete silence as this crisis grows and threatens their party.

Strange, isn’t it?