There was a time when a congressional political scandal could upend a career in a single news cycle, or when the bad news piled up too high. Years ago, I had a taste of that experience, and looking back on that time, with all that’s happened in the interim, our little snafu was more like a walk in the park.
As a Capitol Hill press secretary, I vividly recall a 1987 Washington Times front page headline blaring, “Murphy Flouts House Ethics Rule.” That Murphy was my boss, and what he was accused of doing way back when would barely earn a story today, but at the time, with all the coverage, I thought the world was coming to an end.
The phones in our office seemed to ring without pause. Reporters were breathless, relentless, and hungry for every detail. Back home in Pittsburgh, it was also front-page news, and the lead story on broadcast news.
I was new at my job, so it was trial by fire. Murphy survived, and so did I, but I got a good taste of media whiplash during those trying times.
The political environment, always charged, was especially heated during that era. At the time that Murphy became front-page news, the media had been sniffing around the ethically challenged Speaker Jim Wright.
The probe into my congressman was, in part, a scheme by Democratic leadership, meant to distract the media from the gathering storm around Speaker Wright. When the dust settled on Murphy, the Wright scandal eventually blew up, and he ultimately resigned, a giant in Congress toppled by relentless coverage and bipartisan outrage.
At the time, Wright called what happened to him “mindless cannibalism.” What would he think about what’s going on today?
After Wright, there was the Rep. Barney Frank episode, which was especially titillating for the media, since it was a “homosexual” affair with a “call boy” who supposedly lived with Frank, and conducted lurid business in Frank’s home.
And how can anyone who was alive ever forget what occurred with former Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich, embroiled in an ethics investigation, resigned in 1999. That was just before it was exposed that he was having an affair outside his marriage for years, and during the Clinton impeachment hearings. He was the epitome of hypocrisy.
And cheating on your wife took on a new meaning in Congress in May of 2001, with the disappearance of Chandra Levy. Her mysterious case consumed the national news and the folks inside the D.C. Beltway. Her body was discovered nearly a year after she went missing. The investigation into her death entwined the career of Rep. Gary Condit, who wasn’t connected to her murder but had been having an affair with Levy, in weeks of breathless coverage. It was a tragic, lurid blend of crime, politics, and sex that dominated every front page in America until 9/11.
Through the years, other scandals claimed congressional careers: in 2006, Rep. Mark Foley and his sending lewd messages to House pages; in 2007, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott’s resignation after remarks that seemed nostalgic for segregation. In 2011, Nevada’s John Ensign stepped down over an affair with a campaign aide.
In 2017, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, under pressure from Democrats, resigned after multiple women accused him of inappropriate conduct, including a now-famous photo from a USO tour.
There were many more, but you get the idea.
Each one, in its time, was a full-scale political and media earthquake. They were covered on every network, written into headlines across the country that screamed scandal, dissected on editorial pages, and replayed endlessly on cable news.
But something shifted.
Today, a lawmaker can spew racism, misogyny, and xenophobia without even a slap on the wrist from their party. Lott was shown the door for comments far tamer than those of Louisiana Republican Rep. Clay Higgins, who referred to a colleague’s husband in racist terms or Arizona Republican Rep. Eli Crane, who used a similarly horribly offensive racist term on the House floor.
And while Lott was out, these newer offenders stayed put, which 15 years ago would have been unthinkable.
Of course, the insipid Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has built her brand on being as offensive as possible, her stature growing with every insult. Texas Republican Rep. Troy Nehls racist remark caused nary a ripple.
The congressional GOP’s moral compass is now seemingly non-existent, especially when it comes to what they think of anyone who is other than white, straight, cisgender, and Christian.
Now, there is an exception to every rule, and in this one it’s former New York Republican Rep. George Santos. whose corruption and lies were so extreme, so far-fetched, so unbelievable, and so hidden in the era of full disclosure via the internet and social media. So perhaps, everything after him is just a big disappointment?
I hope not!
Which leads us to Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills, a man who is accused of extorting a woman and allegedly threatening to release a reported sex tape of them. In addition, as the Daytona-Beach News Journal reported, there are also questions around the Bronze Star he received from the Army while in combat, his finances, and back rent owed on an apartment he rented in D.C.
In another era, all of this would have been an instant hit in the media. Newspapers and broadcast news would be investigating every inch of this moron. Today? It’s met with a collective shrug among journalists.
I’m afraid the media is building up an immunity to the “simplicity” of Congressional scandals. The more they see, the less shocked they are. The lines between acceptable and unacceptable have blurred to the point of invisibility on what used to be front-page news.
This lack of coverage is not harmless. It’s dangerous. It tells voters and other elected officials that there’s no longer a penalty for crossing the line. If the worst you can say about your conduct is, “Well, at least it’s not as bad as Trump,” then you’ve already upped the ante for other crimes and misdemeanors.
And with Trump pulling the country further down the slope toward authoritarianism, the moral sinkhole in our politics only widens. If we’ve stopped caring about personal misconduct, it’s only a short step to stop caring about corruption, abuse of power, and outright criminality.
Rep. Cory Mills is not an aberration. He’s a preview. Unless the press rediscovers the will to hold ALL leaders accountable, “shrug and move on” will be the standard response to every scandal.
And by then, the very idea of scandal and imbroglio will be meaningless.
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This article originally appeared on Advocate: A Republican’s sex scandal exposes the media’s evolving shrug toward congressional disgrace