Former governor Robert Bentley opens new office in Tuscaloosa
A former Alabama governor who resigned amid a sex scandal has opened a new dermatology office. The Tuscaloosa News reports former Gov. Robert Bentley’s new location opened Friday in Tuscaloosa. He previously practiced in another site. Bentley is a longtime dermatologist who entered politics. He resigned from office in 2017 as part of a deal in which he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor campaign-finance violations, agreed to never hold public office, and had to forfeit about $36,000 from his campaign account. Bentley was accused of having an extramarital affair with a key staffer and using public resources to cover it up. An Alabama House Judiciary Committee report says Bentley texted heart-eye emojis to Rebekah Caldwell Mason using his ex-wife’s iPad and threatened the first lady’s staff to keep the affair secret. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Huma Abedin, a top Hillary Clinton aide, is leaving husband Anthony Weiner amid new sexting scandal
Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin is done playing the good wife to Anthony Weiner, announcing Monday she is leaving the serially sexting ex-congressman after he was accused of sending raunchy photos and messages to yet another woman. Abedin, who as vice chair of Clinton’s campaign is destined for big things if the Democrat is elected president, stayed with Weiner after a sexting scandal led him to resign from Congress in 2011 and after a new outbreak of online misbehavior wrecked his bid for New York mayor in 2013. She didn’t leave even when a recent documentary blew up tense moments in their marriage to big-screen proportions. But on Monday, she effectively declared she had had enough. “After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband,” she said in a statement issued by the campaign. “Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life.” The New York Post published photos late Sunday that it said Weiner had sent last year to a woman identified only as a “40-something divorcee” who lives in the West and supports Republican Donald Trump. The photos included two close-ups of Weiner’s bulging underpants. In one of the pictures, Weiner is lying on a bed with his toddler son while texting the woman, according to the Post. The tabloid also ran sexually suggestive messages that it said the two exchanged. Weiner told the Post that he and the woman “have been friends for some time.” “She has asked me not to comment except to say that our conversations were private, often included pictures of her nieces and nephews and my son and were always appropriate,” the 51-year-old Democrat told the newspaper. Weiner didn’t return a call, text or email from The Associated Press. He deleted his Twitter account Monday. The Post didn’t say how it obtained the photographs and messages. Abedin, 40, is a longtime Clinton aide and confidante who is often referred to as the candidate’s second daughter. Trump immediately seized on the aide’s marital split to accuse Clinton of “bad judgment.” He suggested that Weiner might have compromised national security, but offered no evidence to support the allegation. “I only worry for the country in that Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information,” Trump said in a statement. “Who knows what he learned and who he told?” Abedin has been under scrutiny during the probe into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Federal prosecutors declined to file charges in the investigation, but FBI Director James Comey said Clinton and her aides had been “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information. Abedin began working for the former first lady as a White House intern and became a trusted aide as Clinton won a seat in the Senate representing New York in 2000, ran for president in 2008 and served as President Barack Obama‘s secretary of state. Former President Bill Clinton officiated when Abedin and Weiner married in 2010. The marriage would provide years of fodder for political commentators, armchair psychologists and spouses all over America who wondered: How could she stay with him? Abedin was pregnant with the couple’s son, Jordan, when a photo of a man’s bulging underpants appeared on Weiner’s Twitter account in 2011. After initially claiming his account was hacked, Weiner acknowledged inappropriate online communication with several women. Two years later, Abedin was all in for her husband’s mayoral bid, raising money, appearing on the campaign trail and participating in interviews in which the couple talked about rebuilding their trust and marriage. Then a new series of sexually explicit pictures and messages emerged, and Weiner was forced to acknowledge he kept sexting after he had resigned from Congress. Still, Abedin said, “I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him, and … we are moving forward.” Voters weren’t ready to forgive, however. Weiner lost the Democratic primary. Weiner has since remained in the public eye, commenting on politics on cable news shows. “Weiner,” the documentary offering a cringe-inducing inside view of his mayoral campaign and its unraveling, played in theaters earlier this year and is set to air on Showtime this fall. He recently refused to answer when asked whether he was still sexting, telling The New York Times Magazine in an interview published Aug. 16: “I’m not going to go down the path of talking about any of that.” Some psychology experts, while cautioning they haven’t treated him, suggested his behavior smacks of extreme impulsiveness, compulsion or addiction. “Impulsivity is something that a lot of people really struggle with,” said Jeannette Stern, a New York therapist. While there are various approaches people can try to change such behavior, she noted, “they have to really be willing to stop.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Chief Justice’s suspension adds to Alabama’s political mess
Alabama politics are at a low point even by Alabama standards: In a state that trails the nation in many areas, three top elected officials are embroiled in scandal or facing removal from office while a former governor serves time in federal prison on a corruption conviction. Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended from his job Friday and faces possible ouster over his attempts to block gay marriage following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. It’s familiar territory for the Republican Moore, a Christian conservative who was previously removed from the same position in 2003 over a Ten Commandments monument and easily won re-election later. Meanwhile, fellow Republicans tried to remove Gov. Robert Bentley by impeachment in the just-ended legislative session over a sexually charged scandal involving a top political aide, and an investigation continues. At the same time, GOP House Speaker Mike Hubbard awaits a state trial on 23 felony ethics charges that could result in his removal. If convicted, Hubbard could even join the ranks of the imprisoned like former Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat who was convicted on federal influence-peddling charges. All in all, it’s some of the worst of times for Republicans who promised to clean up state government after seizing control from Democrats who dominated for generations. “I never recall when the top leaders of all three branches of government were simultaneously accused of improper behavior,” Bill Stewart, a retired political scientist from the University of Alabama, said Saturday. It’s hard for state government to concentrate on issues like Medicaid or improving a dilapidated prison system when so many officials are fighting for their jobs, he said. “It’s definitely a traumatic time,” Stewart said. Among the nation’s poorest states, Alabama is troubled by problem areas including physical and mental health; comparatively low high school graduation rates; and too many occupational deaths, according to a report by the United Health Foundation. It consistently ranks high in college football – the University of Alabama is the reigning national champion – while struggling in so many other ways. Yet the ranking leaders elected to sort out the mess face confounding troubles of their own. In its list of civil charges against Moore, the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission said the 69-year-old chief justice abused his office by issuing an administrative order to probate judges in January telling them an Alabama court order and law banning same-sex marriages remained in effect despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming same-sex marriage six months earlier. Most counties issued same-sex licenses anyway. In a statement after his suspension, Moore said the commission doesn’t have the authority to police the order he issued. As during a news conference last week, Moore criticized the Judicial Inquiry Commission by referring to a recent protest outside his office that included gay and transgender people. “The JIC has chosen to listen to people like … a professed transvestite, and other gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals, as well as organizations which support their agenda,” Moore said. “We intend to fight this agenda vigorously and expect to prevail.” The Court of the Judiciary will decide whether Moore violated judicial ethics, and he could be removed from office if found guilty. The same court removed Moore from office in 2003 for his refusal to follow a federal court order directing Moore to remove a washing machine-sized Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state’s judicial building. The governor faces very different problems. In March, Bentley admitted to making inappropriate remarks to an aide, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, in a scandal that has included the public airing of secret recordings that captured Bentley professing love to someone and telling her how much he enjoyed kissing her and touching her breasts, and referencing a need to start locking his office door. The admission came seven months after the former first lady, Dianne Bentley, filed for divorce after 50 years of marriage. Bentley has struggled to shake the scandal, and lawmakers obtained enough signatures to file impeachment articles during the legislative session that ended Wednesday. The House Judiciary Committee will review the claims to see if there are grounds to remove Bentley from office. Hubbard, the House speaker, is at risk of losing his job because of criminal charges. Hubbard is scheduled later this month on 23 felony ethics charges accusing him of using his position as speaker, and previous post as chairman of the Alabama GOP, to direct business to his companies, lobby the governor’s office and to solicit investments and clients for his businesses. Bentley could be among the prosecution witnesses. Hubbard, arguably the most powerful person in state government because of his influence and power to control the House agenda, argues the transactions were legal and separate from his public duties. Hubbard will be automatically removed from office if convicted on even one felony count. He would join the ranks of Alabama politicians convicted of ethics violations or corruption that includes two recent governors, Republican Guy Hunt and Siegelman, the Democrat. Hunt, a Primitive Baptist preacher, was convicted and removed from office in 1993 for using campaign and inaugural funds for personal expenses. He tried to mount a political comeback but failed before his death in 2009. Currently imprisoned in Texas, Siegelman was convicted in 2006 on federal charges of selling a seat on a state health regulatory board in exchange for $500,000 in donations to Siegelman’s campaign to establish a state lottery in 1999. A bipartisan group has asked President Barack Obama to pardon Siegelman, claiming his prosecution was unjust and tainted by politics.
Johnny Kampis: Could scandal derail Robert Bentley’s Alabama broadband plans?
The scene has been repeated ad nauseam over the past two weeks: Gov. Robert Bentley makes a scheduled stop to discuss a new industry or an economic development plan and, instead of questions about the issue at hand, he is peppered with queries about his alleged affair with a former staffer. Take an exchange in Franklin County two weeks ago. Bentley visited to tout his plan to use federal tax dollars (with a 10 percent state match) to build a broadband network across the state, primarily to aid rural areas that have limited or no broadband access.The firestorm created by the controversy has raised questions about Bentley’s ability to lead, throwing his entire agenda into question. Bentley tried to keep a brief media exchange that followed his meeting with Franklin County leaders focused on broadband, to little avail. After saying he had no plans to resign, Bentley asked, “Who else has a question about broadband?” In response, he got, “Governor, this isn’t a question related to broadband, but …” To which Bentley tersely replied, “Let’s take broadband.” The conversation meandered more toward scandal than broadband as the questions continued, as the video below shows: Bill Stewart, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama, told Watchdog.org on Monday that Bentley has gotten pushback from lawmakers in the past — see the governor’s tax increase plan in 2015, for example — but this scandal has taken the rhetoric to a new level. “I think that further weakens his position, and that’s bad for the citizens of Alabama because he can’t provide the leadership we need in order for our state to make progress,” Stewart said. Last week, both chambers of the Alabama Legislature — the House by a 71-24 vote, and the Senate by a 22-10 vote — chose to override Bentley’s budget veto. The governor argued the budget should include another $85 million for Medicaid. Read more. • • • Johnny Kampis is a content editor at Watchdog.org, and is helping to start the organization’s Alabama Watchdog bureau in his home state. Johnny previously worked in the newspaper industry and as a freelance writer, and has been published in The New York Times, Time.com, FoxNews.com and Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
