Joe Stagni
Another politician has been caught sending photos of his underwear into cyberspace. This time it is a city councilman in Kenner City, Louisiana, and it happened in 2009. The incident is only now coming into the open, but the outcry has been relatively muted.
In December 2009, City Councilman Joe Stagni sent a photo of himself to another city employee that he was having an affair with. “I’m n trouble – serious conversation wwife,” was the message with the photo.
Although the image was sent from Stagni’s personal Blackberry, it ended up on the city server after the recipient sent it to Stagni’s work email account. The city attorney recently released the image and message.
Few are calling for Stagni to resign but the comparison to Anthony Weiner’s scandal is hard to dismiss. Unlike Weiner, Stagni had a physical relationship along with the photo. Interestingly, the incident took place in Louisiana, an environment forgiving to politicians who like to take their work to bed. Senator David Vitter and his past relationships with prostitutes is a prime example. That may explain the lack of calls for Stagni’s dismissal. It is politics as usual in sordid Louisiana.
This is not the last time that sexual images are going to be sent by politicians. There are going to be a lot more to come. That is just simply inevitable. The question is why some are forced to resign, while others carry on with a simple apology. Whether its geography or political party – Weiner is a Democrat, while Stagni and Vitter are Republicans – or some other reason, there is not a standard punishment.
All Weiner did was lie and lust. What probably got him in the biggest trouble was lying to his fellow Democrats. They no longer felt that they could trust him. That suggests lying is worse than lusting or even having an affair.
Lying is a strange boundary to draw for politics. There is probably no one who has ever been elected to office that has not lied to some extent. Political leaders holding truthfulness as an ethical standard is like a dolphin asking a shark why it’s wet. All of them lie.
Clinton lied, had an affair and did it in the midst of the Oval Office. He is a revered elder statesman now. Vitter was reelected as a senator after his scandal and is as entrenched as any incumbent.
Perhaps former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards was right when he said, “The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.”
Every sex scandal becomes a monster onto its own and no one knows how it will turnout, unless its in Louisiana where it quickly becomes forgotten.
He SHOULD resign. The hypocrisy is stunning. All a Republican has to do is make a public statement about asking Jesus for forgiveness, and on he goes on his merry way.
Plus, they are not even showing the correct picture of the internet, while they blasted Anthony Weiner’s across front pages. The real picture of the Councilperson is a graphic photograph of his erection through his underwear, but the photo is cropped to deliberately mislead readers.
It also seems likely that the photo was sent as a form of sexual harassment since the employee in question sent a copy through work email to a colleague or another supervisor. Whatever he’s managed to get her to say or not to say, since.
Frankly, his hypocrisy and invoking of Jesus offends me more than the photo itself. Along with the religious hypocrisy of his constituents, saying they are “praying for him,” and expecting to continue with business as usual. While they were screaming for Weiner’s resignation, calling him a pervert, and telling him to check himself in for psychological treatment.
Well he should do the same. RESIGN IMMEDIATELY, checking himself in somewhere. And there should be a full investigation into the harassment nature of the incident, given the circumstances in which the photo copy was sent.
And public officials, in addition to keeping their genitalia to themselves, should keep their god to themselves, too.
Thanks for the extra input on this story. I was a bit baffled by the photo myself since it didn’t seem particularly bad. I suspected that there was another, more erotic picture, but you filled in the gap by letting us know that it was cropped. In the two or three stories that I researched, I did not find the religious hypocrisy that you cited. I appreciate your adding that detail too.