A married US congressman has resigned after a half-naked picture and emails that he sent to a woman he met on the internet were published online.

Chris Lee, a Republican who has represented a northwestern district of New York for the past two years, announced he was quitting just three hours after details of his extramarital liaison emerged…

The picture of Mr Lee was published on Wednesday by Gawker, the New York gossip website. The congressman had sent it to a woman appealing for contact on Craigslist, the classified listings site.

In her Craigslist posting, the woman asked for respondents to come forward and prove that not all men were “toads.” In his reply, Mr Lee wrote: “Hi, Hope I’m not a toad :)”

An email exchange between Mr Lee and the woman, who was not named, was also published. The congressman had claimed to be a 39-year-old divorced lobbyist and described himself as a “fit fun classy guy”.

Asked by the 34-year-old woman “so do you always send shirtless pics to women from [Craigslist]?“, Mr Lee responded: “Sorry. It’s all I had”. She replied: “I was only joking”.

The pair then exchanged stories about previous dates. It is unclear whether they met. The woman is said to have cut off contact when she searched the internet for Mr Lee and discovered his true identity.

Proving that a congressman can be as dumb as a high school sophomore who just discovered sexting.




  1. MikeN says:

    I notice the media puts that this guy is a Republican to lead off the article, but when it’s a Democrat it tends to be left off or buried inside somewhere, just a minor bit of trivia that’s not important, but if it’s a Republican, the scandal tells you something about the whole party and the reader needs to know this fact.

  2. Phydeau says:

    #64 The Republicans ask for their members to resign if they don’t already do so if they should go off the beaten path.

    Like Vitter the Shitter who had the prostitutes dress him up in diapers? Last time I checked he’s still in office.

  3. bobbo, words have meaning says:

    Spitzer, who I thought was as close to solid gold as a politician could get was indeed a lying hypocrit–or not, depending on how you apply the definition. But when caught, he immediately resigned. Did make his wife stand there with him though—or, maybe he didn’t.

    Did he run for office based on family values? I don’t know. Every “law officer” is charged with enforcing laws that they may personally agree with or not, violate or not. That is hypocrisy or not depending on how you apply the definition.

    Blacksheep–about a month ago there was a long thread on societies without taxation. My view: LIEberTARDS were shown to be high school nerds living a life in the dark in their parents basement. The Tax = Slavery BS position is not worth the argument. I’ll take the conclusion from last time: grow up.

  4. revdjenk says:

    Alfred #69,

    The author is a lifelong Christian, as he states in the article. Don’t decry the article because of its provenance. (Can anything good come from Nazareth?)
    Second, although Christ did not blatantly advocate for organized wealth re-distribution, except specifically for the rich, young man, he did leave hints about helping those in need, which some have attempted to put into law. Even if Jesus meant this to be an individual’s responsibility and action, since our sense of neighbor has been widened because of tech, I hold it to mean the same for our sense of obligation.

    For the rest of us…
    …it is nigh impossible for each one to hold themselves to their own standards, much less to expect a successful outcome when we impose those standards on others; especially when the others don’t know they have been so imposed!

  5. bobbo, words have meaning says:

    #74–revdjenk==a quibble when you say “it is nigh impossible for each one to hold themselves to their own standards..” /// In the main that is a false statement. In the main, “by definition” people DO follow their “own” standards. Thats the core of hypocrisy: pretending to have standards you actually don’t have. There is a “public/political” standard, and then there is “your own.”

    Now, it is true that few of us are true to our own standards all the time. Errors are made, bad feelings created, the standards returned to or the lying continued.

    Words. Does understanding words a little bit deeper than we normally do help explain life at all or not at all?

    Words. Can we “think” without words or merely stumble? Once words are formed, do they prevent more nuanced understandings? How many dictionaries should the average person own/use? See above where I used the word “prevent”? Well, it didn’t stop my thinking, and I thought it was too absolute. Probably more fair to say of “labels”. Label: a word used with the intent of terminating thinking. Heh, heh.

    Once words are formed, do they “hinder” more nuanced understandings? Words: the very stuff of thinking.

    Try it.

  6. LoTechNo says:

    # 46 said:
    He resigned because there is way more to this story than has been revealed.
    ———————————

    Yes….. there is more.

    In Washington DC the word on the street, is that the women is African American.

  7. foobar says:

    Republicans must lose their water when they get picked up by Gawker.

  8. Glenn E. says:

    This and the other Republican doofus, also from NY, who tried to sue the couple whose home he broke into three years earlier, for injuries he sustained. Funny, that one hasn’t been on the mainstream news. Wonder why? And just what kind of a-holes are the people of NY willing to elect, just to get more Republican reps?

    Well if this keeps up, the GOP won’t control the House for very long. They’re going to run out of members that don’t embarrass the crap out of them.

  9. gildersleeve says:

    OK now what will be interesting is about 20 years from now or so. Today’s kids who post idiotic pictures and poses of themselves on the ‘tubes will one day run for office. How will the public treat these? How will the other politicians treat these? Will it be worse than only admitting you inhaled? Or will it be near totally ignored, because “everybody” does this?

  10. Cristina in Tampa says:

    ….and this picture was meant to ATTRACT women??? I don’t know, to me, it seems like he was trying to gain the sympathy of women instead!

  11. foobar says:

    The 34-year-old Marylander whose Craigslist flirtation drew a resignation from a U.S. Congressman has advice for ex-Rep. Christopher Lee’s wife: “Go get tested.”

    More from the Gawker.

  12. Rick says:

    He obviously resigned quickly in order to suppress investigation of any other pictures he has sent to other women.

    I’m sure he’s sent wiener to at least one…

  13. @STI says:

    Charter has setup a new Sexual Health clinic in Smithfield.STI Clinics Ireland promises its patients a proper Sexual Health Screen with complete Confidentiality


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