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On Monday, The Ouachita Citizen in West Monroe, Louisiana, published a surveillance video it says shows Rep. Vance McAllister and his scheduler, Melissa Hixon Peacock, passionately kissing in his office last December.
“It was just a kiss, that was all it was, but it embarrassed me and my family,” Heath Peacock, Melissa's husband said. “This guy has turned my life upside down.”
Melissa Peacock no longer works for McAllister, Heath Peacock said.
McAllister, who is married with five children, issued a statement on Monday saying, “There's no doubt I've fallen short and I'm asking for forgiveness. I'm asking for forgiveness from God, my wife, my kids, my staff, and my constituents who elected me to serve.”
We want you to weigh in: If a politician is caught on tape having an affair, does it affect your vote?
Vote by tweeting Yes or No using #Crossfire or by commenting on our Facebook post. View results below or through our Poptip results page.
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Posted by CNN's Christina Manduley Filed under: 2014 Elections • 2016 • Fireback • Political scandal • Politics • Vance McAllister |
Author, documentary filmmaker, historian, Speaker of the House (1995-1999), and 2012 Republican presidential candidate
Fmr. Obama Deputy Campaign Mgr. and W.H. Sr. Adviser, founder of Precision Strategies, fmr. Sr. Adviser to Maj. Leader Reid and Sen. Kennedy
Conservative columnist for New York Daily News, contributing editor at Townhall Magazine, commentator and author
Former Special Adviser for Green Jobs under President Obama, co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, author and attorney
Like Biden or Ted Kennedy? Hardly.
Honesty is the best policy! Not too many best policies/practices lately!
Would cheating prevent me from voting for someone? No. Not if they are competent at their job. However, the idea of running on false pretenses would stop me from voting for them. MacAllister (whatever) essentially ran as a God fearing, religious, do gooder. It turns out he is none of the above and, in fact, lied about those things in order to attract a particular segment of voters. If he'll lie about the stupid stuff, what else will he do and lie about while he is in office? No, I would not vote for him or any similar person.
If they cheat and lie in their personal lives chances are they do in their public lives.
One should question their ethics and morals at that point also.
Would you vote for politicians who cheat?
People voted for Obama now didn't they.
As many of us know, Republicans have elected many politicians that are felons to state or federal post. Gov. R Scott of Fl is a 14 time felon from TX, moved to FL to win election. A 2 time rapist won a state senate post in Idaho, he raped in both OH and FL and Republicans moved him to Idaho to run for state senate, he won. They are several other examples of Republicans being criminals and in office. REPUBLICANS HAVE NO SHAME. And the conservatives continue to elect the felons.
I don't care what they do in their personal life, but if they run on their "family values" as part of their platform and then cheat then they don't deserve to hold any public office
Mary:
You are bang on. Being a cheater and preaching a family values platform does not square. He sure as hell would not get my vote.
I don't care what they do in their personal life. If someone cheats its none of my business. If they run on a "family values" platform however and then cheat, they lose my vote. Not because they cheated, but because they are hypocrites.
If a man is honest in the smallest of things he will be honest in the largest of things.
If a man is dishonest in the smallest of things he will be honest in the largest of things.
So you really think that someone can be dishonest to the person they swore or promised their life to, who may be the mother or father of theiir child, who is often in almost every case seen so far the victim of the cheaters lack of self control, do you think that cheater will give a second though about betraying you, the general public?
1. Thinks they themselves are rich.
2. Makes less than $100,000/yr.
3. Has a net worth less than $200,000.
4. Primary residence is on wheels or blocks.
5. Still has a mortgage on that residence.
6. Thinks republicans are conservatives.
7. Benefits directly from the ACA but really, really hates Obamacare.
8. Thinks they are religious but they should read the book, "How NOT To Be A Republican" (a.k.a. The Bible).
9. Probably retired and depending on SS and Medicare or will be the person most likely to need SS and Medicare.
10. Racist.
11. Likes to vote against their own interests.
12. Actually thinks republicans represent THEM!!
Wow what total garbage. You know absolutely nothing.
This coming from a typical ignorant democrat / liberal dolt.
No surprise here people, move along.
Cheating is the American way. The Stock Market does it, Sports Teams do it, every Republican and most Democrats cheat on their Taxes. So why is infidelity shocking anyone inside this culture of cheating.
Wrong – It is Not and should not be thought of as "The American Way".
Not all Americans are cheaters.
But Wall-Streeters and our politicians would certainly be on the top of the list of cheaters and Free-Traitors.
So everyone is doing why cant I? Are you really so ignorant to see the dangerous path that leads. Cheating breaks up familiies, children grow up seeing that their parents didnt have loyalty to each other and they wonder why have loyalty to each other, and then we all sit around and wonder why so many problems in society. The family and the loyalty to it are one of the most important foundations of any society and you say screw it, do what you want with it. Dont cry when the rest of the world looks at that poor, decriped 3rd world nation the United States because of people like you.
Historically it always was that Republicans represented management and the Democrats represented labor and the reality was that there wasn't any good guys versus the bad guys, as the case is today, they all literally have faults and at any particular time one was just more needed than the other with the pendulum swinging first too far one way and then back too far the other way. Today, as has been clearly evident especially since 2000, the pendulum has swung way too far to the right with the GOP becoming "puppets", totally owned and controlled by "the money", and with the finances, power and influence provided, they just concentrate on propagandizing to con the people and manipulate public opinion while having no conscience or real concern for the costs to the people – their political ambitions are their only priority and they have become cocky, arrogant and stubborn about it, secure with their confidence in "the money's" support. The results clearly prove the point with Bush-Cheney totally focused on using their offices and America's resources to serve only "the money", while costing the country and the majority greatly; with the Republican / Tea Party focused on obstructing all efforts, withholding cooperation and refusing to compromise while just belligerently faulting and contributing nothing; and with the growing spread between the very wealthy and everyone else, as "the money" keeps feeding their insatiable "more" (never enough) appetite and the majority struggles always loosing more. If the people, the majority, the voters are continually conned and neglect to see this reality, then the country will continue to become a two class society, with the few competing to have it all while the majority constantly looses more. If the people, the voters don't wake up, they simply will seal their own fate.
We voted for Bill Clinton didn't we.
South Carolina did
Would we vote for a politician that cheats? We already did!
Besides, Americans cheat on their taxes, on their wives and their husbands. We break the speed limit as though it is our god-given privilege to do so. We litter like pigs. We hit church on Sunday morning, then slam beers at some stupid alcohol-sponsored sports event after church.
Americans are NO BETTER...in any way...than the politicians who represent us.
If you cheat on your wife and children you'll do anything. The answer is probably not.
Depends.
If the politician hasn't ever run on "family values" then I might still vote for them if I agree with their policy positions. But if they have, then the hypocrisy will cause me not to support them.
Similarly, if a politician runs on the environment and is found to have a company that polutes a lot... or a politician runs on stricter gun laws and illegally owns firearms... or runs on strict drug laws but is a drug user... all of those would make it so I can't support a politician. I can forgive mistakes. I can forgive flaws. I cannot forgive hypocrisy.
depends,if it is a man and a christian ,he has "The Lords" forgiveness,who are we too judge.If he is a Republican it is a triple Bonus. But if you are a woman,not a christian and not a republican,,H ELL AWAITS you,,,GOOD LUCK !
...he ask for forgiveness ,thats all we need
I would not vote for a cheater. If they cheat on their spouses, why wouldn't they cheat the American people? It just shows how low they'll go.... liar liar pants on fire.
Prudes. As long as they do their job well, Who cares?
Regardless of whether or not they are faithful to their spouses, most of our politicians are a joke – Only it's not so funny, because over the past several decades, all they've been doing is screwing the American people, by stalling, spending, removing protections and allowing illegal aliens to continue to pour in and American jobs and industry to pour out, and all while collecting their American tax-payer funded pay checks, benefits and whatever else they get on the side from their various lobbyist friends.
Unfortunately almost all of our politician's talk is just cheap and meaningless! – For 25-years or more not one of our politicians has done anything to protect Americans livelihoods. – When will these people finally wake up and step up with real ideas and real action, instead of just meaningless talk and tokenism?
We need leaders that will stop selling us out to countries like communist China, India and Mexico.
It's really sad that our country has come to this.
In fact just recently, while looking at a photo of Mount Rushmore – I couldn't help thinking how these great presidents would be angered, disgusted and outraged at what our current and recent crop of so-called "leaders"(Free-Traitors) have allowed and enabled to happen to the American People, the Real American Economy and Our Country.
It is remarks like that that has allowed such moral corruption to take root in our nations politics.
Between what they say they are, and their own actions and deeds, ye shall know them.
Hey Vance, you not only blew it, you stink worse than they said you would.
Remember how you said your opponent should be 'ran out on a rail' from La because he didn't have La values?
Buddy,,, Vance.. do you need to buy a clue, or can we help you pack?
Is that supposed to be some sort of a trick question? Who else are you going to vote for?
Why not? Americans vote for politicians who lie, steal, commit crimes that the rest of us would go to jail for, who are traitors to their own country, are draft dodgers, steal from the working class and give to the non-working class for food stamps (aka drugs, alcohol, sex) and Obama phones, etc., etc. Cheating appears to be insignificant in comparison.
I would never vote for a politician who is caught cheating on his wife. Especially since I can see it on a video. Where video came from is entirely irrelevant. Video speaks loud and clear.
I am college educated medical professional, am married, and just would not tolerate such dishonest behavior committed by my husband. Any trust would be entirely gone from our marriage. My husband's spoken words would mean nothing anymore. His dishonest and cheating actions would have destroyed that.
Sadly, both the Congressman and the woman were only thinking and acting out on sexual attraction to each other with a "ME, ONLY ME" mentality. Worse is that they didn't really care about or consider their spouses and the 6 children that would be horribly and detrimentally affected if their affair was discovered. If they had marital difficulties, there is right way and a wrong way to address, but they as adults made their own choices not to settle and take care of any marital discord first, before acting out on their sexual attraction to each other. Both involved were undeniably being dishonest to their spouses and children. My best psych analysis guess, is both would have continued on with this dishonest charade if they hadn't been caught on video. Also would guess, most likely there was lots more than just kissing going on during their affair.
There is ole' sayin – if one lies and cheats privately, yes they will lie and cheat in professional life as well. Medical research studies do indeed support these statements. Congressman needs to step down, period. He's not honest. And he is sure not a strong family values type of man. And he definitely would be considered a fake Christian, but seems as though it coming out now he is not even religious at all. He just touted his strong religious faith to win votes to get elected to Congress, it seems. Appears he was dishonest about this too. Man is dishonest, and we don't need these types making decisions/laws for our country.
He needs to go home and quietly work things out with his wife, if that's even possible. In few years, if he shows he is honest through his seen good actions then maybe he can try running again. No excuses made can justify what these two did.
But its ok for Willie Bill to cheat on Hilly????
Really? You are trotting out an issue 10 years or more gone? But to answer for her, no the answer is no, Dem or Rep it's not right but based on your reply I'm guessing your a Rep so it's only wrong for you if a Dem does it. He's sorry alright, sorry he got busted. He wants forgiveness but he didn't out himself, it was done 3 months after that episode and I would hazard a guess that it wasn't the first or last time. If you wear your religion as a badge then you better damn well live up to it. If you can't then shut up & stop using it as your platform because you're gonna piss God off & I'm pretty sure you don't want to get him riled.
in reply to your question – I said I would not vote for a politician who cheated on his/her wife/husband. My statement includes any politician, Republican or Democrat .
We all know that Hillary must have made a deal with the Dems for promises of future power, just so she would agree to stand by Bill's side during that whole Monica scandal.
As the old saying goes, "birds of a feather flock together!
“Democrats would benefit from additional ex-felon participation,” said the authoritative study in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
The authors, professors from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University, found that in some states, felons register Democratic by more than six-to-one. In New York, for example, 61.5 percent of convicts are Democrats, just 9 percent Republican. They also cited a study that found 73 percent of convicts who turn out for presidential elections would vote Democrat.
You mention a statistical association, and leave the causality to the reader's imagination. May I point out statistics also show that criminals have a higher intelligent quotient (IQ) as compared with the population as a whole. Food for thought, wouldn't you say?
Read up in what it takes for a felon to be able to vote........
Just sayin
Thanks for responding to Smitty's question for me. Just came back and saw what you had done. And of course my reply to him was any politician – Republican or Democrat. And since we have women politicians too. I include both genders.
Let's think about this using math.
Right now, the Federal prision population is roughly 60% white and 40% not white (37% black, 2% hispanic, 1% other).
Blacks vote democrat at about a 90% clip in elections. Other non-whites vote democrat at about a 70% clip. Whites vote GOP at about a 60% clip.
So... 40% of 60% is 24%
90% of 37% is 33%
70% of 3% is 2%.
24 + 33 + 2 = 59%.
That's pretty close to the 61% number you give. Of course that's not released felons... just current prision population. But the point is that a big reason more felons are democrats is because of the racial makeup of those in prison. Not to mention the fact that democrats do well with those at the low end of the income scale (dems won those making less then 30K a year by a 56-38 margin) which also have a higher representation in prisons.
Teddy Kennedy, John Edwards, Bill Clinton, Jack Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, FDR all get passes.
In the last 60 years, we've had 11 Presidents. 6 Republicans & 5 democrats.
0 of 6 Republicans have been said to have cheated on their wives- 0%,
3 of the 5 Democrats have.-60%
Hypocrisy if the left is astounding.
True words
Smitty, name calling is so like oh I don't know........maybe 3rd grade. They are all crooked, send them all home & start over for the sake of our country.
None of them should get a pass but not just the Presidents, you only point fingers at the left yet 3 people on your list were never President. You did not drag "I've got a wide stance" Craig in, or Newt or anyone on the right in. It's wrong on both sides, don't turn a blind eye on the right in your argument as those on the left should not exclude their morons either.
Bill Clinton.....Bill Clinton....oh, yea....Bill Clinton.
The GOP Solution: Turn all the Old, Sick, Poor, Non-white, Non-christian, Female, and Gay people into slaves. Then whip them until they are Young, Healthy, Rich, White, Christian, Male, and Straight. Or until they are dead. Then turn them into Soylent Green to feed the military during the next "unfunded/off-the-books" war. And don't forget the GOP all time favorites........TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH!!!..........and........GET RID OF SS AND MEDICARE!!!
Wow, what an idiot you are, typical Obumbles brown noser. Ever think for yourself???
I just need to read the GOP's budget plans. The GOP are the ones NOT thinking.
Super Cheater: Ha – Ha – Ha – "I did not have unethical trade relations with that communist Chinese government."
Republican elect criminal politicians often. Florida Gov. R. Scott, 14 charged FELON from TX. Idaho State Senator, raped 2 women and charged, moved from FL to Idaho. Republicans move the criminal around so voters don't see their backgrounds. Republicans are noted for electing those that are Felons, criminals.
Well they all cant win the BIGGEST LIAR OF THE YEAR like Obumbles. I don't know a soul who would leave their wife or girl alone with Slick Willie, ask Hilly !!!LOL If Hilly cant keep Billys zipper up how can you run a country ????
Smitty almost all of them are crooked, left & right. They may not all cheat on their wives or they may not all lie or all steal or drive drunk or whatever they wag their fingers @ the other side for but you would be hard pressed to find too many that are clean. With that said have we all turned into a group of people that look for the lesser of two evils instead of holding them to the fire to put us their constituency first?