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I posted the other day, about Mike Duvall, the California assemblyman who was caught on tape describing his sexual antics with two women who are not his wife, which led to his resignation. If I was in California, or felt more passionate and wanted to write about the way lobbying impacts our legislators, there is a ton here to write about. One of the two mistresses was a lobbyist working for a Utility interest, and Duvall was vice chair of that committee overseeing legislation that would directly impact her client. But what is more aligned to my current interests, is the way these Family Values politicians use that idea as a weapon against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, yet are poor examples of family values in their own lives. Talk about wanting special rights! They want the right to marry, yet claim that same-sex marriage will destroy the sanctity of marriage. What a joke. My Duvall, if you are so into spanking, why not try spanking your wife instead of your mistress?

For me this incites my outrage for a few reasons, but high on the list is the fact that he still hasn’t just come clean about it:

“I want to make it clear that my decision to resign is in no way an admission that I had an affair or affairs. My offense was engaging in inappropriate story-telling and I regret my language and choice of words. The resulting media coverage was proving to be an unneeded distraction to my colleagues and I resigned in the hope that my decision would allow them to return to the business of the state.”

So, what do you think the term “inappropriate story-telling” means? Were these just stories made up but not based on any fact? In other words, were they lies? Is lying a family value?  What specific words did he wish he hadn’t chosen? At least Mark Sanford had the guts to get honest about his affair. Why can’t Duvall do the same?

Maybe he is being honest, and the stories were total lies. Maybe there was no sexual action with a lobbyist or another woman. That is almost more frightening to think about!  I could understand that type of telling of false exploits if this was the high school locker room, where young boys may embellish the truth out of an insecurity that they aren’t man enough, when in reality, all the boys are doing the same thing- all trying to prove their masculinity. But don’t these boys grow up, and learn both to tell the truth, and that true masculinity isn’t about womanizing and wild sexual exploits? What does this say about “Family Values?” What does this say about the sanctity of Marriage? Isn’t that sanctity at least tarnished, if not totally damaged when it seems OK to tell stories like this?

Republican “Family Values” Hypocrite Duvall denies affair: Sacramento for Democracy .