With the Grammys this past weekend, celebrations were widespread for winners. But the award for having the worst week goes to Republican representative Chris Lee, according to the Washington Post. With lies, sex scandals, and humiliating resignations, the Chris Lee Craigslist debacle is nothing out of the ordinary for the world of politics as of late.
Responding to a Craigslist ad posted by a woman identified as Yesha Callahan, Lee described himself as a “fun, classy” divorced, blonde, and blue-eyed thirty-nine year-old lobbyist and sent along a shirtless photo of himself. After some correspondence between the two, she discovered on his Facebook page that he was married. Additional online research about him led her to find out that he was involved in Congress and had fabricated details about his personal life. Callahan published their e-mail exchanges and his pictures to the gossip site, Gawker.com but insists she did “not do this for the attention or, you know, notoriety or money or whatever.”
Initially, Lee denied the allegations, saying his e-mail account had been hacked. Furthermore, they claimed all he had done online was sell furniture. However, when the story surfaced that he had replied to an ad of “woman seeking men,” the married man and father of a young boy, resigned Wednesday, Feb. 9 just before starting his second term as Congressman, stating, “I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff, and my constituents. I have made profound mistakes, and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness.”
Close friends say he is currently hiding out a Florida resort, trying to make matters work between his family which includes his wife who sources say is humiliated and estranged from the man she regarded as “Prince Charming.” As for Callahan destroying Lee’s bright future, she has this to say, “The lesson is if you’re going to do dirt, do it anonymously. People cheat every day, but only dumb people get caught.”