“Alcohol May Have Played a Role”
There is no way in which this is not awesome:
The FBI probed a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee that involved drinking, numerous GOP freshmen lawmakers, top leadership staff – and one nude member of Congress, according to more than a dozen sources, including eyewitnesses.
During a fact-finding congressional trip to the Holy Land last summer, Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) took off his clothes and jumped into the sea, joining a number of members, their families and GOP staff during a night out in Israel, the sources told POLITICO. Other participants, including the daughter of another congressman, swam fully clothed while some lawmakers partially disrobed. More than 20 people took part in the late-night dip in the sea, according to sources who took part in the trip…
…These GOP sources confirmed the following freshmen lawmakers also went swimming that night: Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.) and his daughter; Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and his wife; Reps. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.), Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) and Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.). Many of the lawmakers who ventured into the ocean said they did so because of the religious significance of the waters. Others said they were simply cooling off after a long day. Several privately admitted that alcohol may have played a role in why some of those present decided to jump in.
Obviously a nonsense story, except that if reports emerged of similar behavior on a Democratic junket Jennifer Rubin would have an online heart attack…
I always say it’s not a real party until somebody
get’s thrown in the pooljumps nude into the Sea of Galilee.Just more of those family values that the Republicans are so justly famous for.
Making the Lesbian bondage family matinee ranks up there, too.
Shit, if this is gonna be that kind of party, I’m gonna stick my dick in the
mashed potatoesSea of Gaililee.Henceforth, Kevin Yoder shall be known as “the Galilean.”
If they can handle the sight of a nude body only when drunk than we need to keep them good and hammered so they relax a little bit.
The phrase “nude member of Congress” just doesn’t conjure up happy images.
*shudder*
All too true.
Doesn’t sound any better when you say a ‘Congressman’s nude member’ either.
I’d actually think better of this story if alcohol weren’t involved. If they were just taking a swim, or an impromptu baptism, chalk it up to dignity being over-rated in politics, and spontaneous fun.
But drunk and disorderly on an official overseas trip? That’s just irresponsible. It’s “fun” for people who really don’t know much about having fun.
Exactly. I get the sense that this is like one of those Friday after work drinks that goes just slightly too late, and Doug from accounts receivable, who people like well enough but don’t really “like”, you know, says something like, “Hey everyone–I’ve got this crazy idea. We should [bad idea that normally gets shot down but everyone's too drunk, yet not so drunk as to be ruthlessly impolite].” And he says it just a tad too maniacally. Doug starts singing “Piano Man” WAY too goddamn loud while trying to coax everyone else to “get crazy”, and then he decides to lead by example (in this case, by taking off his clothes). Sometime later, everyone else is embarrassed and there are a few sober heads thinking, “Oh Christ, there’s about to be an affair, or something illegal’s going to happen. Shit, shit, how do I get outta here?” Eventually, Doug starts to sober up, and his maniacal joy abruptly devolves into deep depression, and he’s crying about how he never meant for his life to turn out like this, he was cool back in college, and there was this one beautiful girl…and she was like THERE man, and that one song was playing…”
Yeah, it was “fun” like one of those nights, I bet.
I was at that exact farewell party for a male co-worker decades ago, at some one’s house. The party was down to about 8 guys and 2 women, one being the wife of the host, from about 25. They didn’t have a pool, but a very large spa and the wife says, knowing no one has a suit with them, “Let’s go in the spa. I want to see all those dicks in there in 5 minutes.”
I’d never seen a party clear out in less than 5 seconds before, except when the cops showed up.
So that’s how I can people out of the house?
I’m sure they came back and talked about how the trip had deep religious significance for them.
Or whatever else the guy wth the pictures told them to say.
“.. After dinner I followed some Members of Congress in a spontaneous and very brief dive into the sea and regrettably I jumped into the water without a swimsuit.. It is my greatest honor to represent the people of Kansas in Congress and [for] any embarrassment I have caused for my colleagues and constituents, I apologize.”
What kind of person apologizes for something like that? What kind of person would vote for him?
And WTF business is it of the FBI what a passel of jackasses did on a drunken night by a shore?
I assume it’s because members of Congress were involved: federal money, federal employees, campaign finance, security clearances….
Involved in what? Going for a swim? Would would the line of questioning entail?
The FBI is investigating him for the subsequent trip to Cyprus (part of the same junket) which seems to have been paid for by some Cypriot group (whose presdient was subsequently arrested for corruption) but not reported and the questions about who was in Israel and what happened there came about as the collateral part of that investigation.
More here.
+1
Dear Congressional Record: I never thought I would find myself writing to you, but you would not believe what happened. There I was, following in Jesus’ footsteps, when this harlot offers to wash my sins away…
There’s a “being driven into the sea” joke in this story somewhere. But it wouldn’t be as funny as this.
“a stairway to the sea/ where down the blind are driven.”
+100.
Malaclypse wins the thread–which is saying something, amidst so many stellar entries.
Is anyone keeping track of the thread-winning standings at LGM?
I am. As of right now, I’m in the lead by a fair margin. Mal is second. Oddly, Manju is third. There might be something wrong with my records, I admit.
I’m the plucky “young” newcomer. One to watch.
They’re certain that if Jesus knew how to swim he’d have been in the water with them …
In the water?
Is this a story about the seamen of Galilee?
Awesome.
I’m a member of a small, but important, legislative body and I never thought something like this could happen to me….
I need a macro to say “Mal wins the thread,” since I end up typing it so much.
Democrats don’t go on junkets. They go to Magnetogorsk to admire tractor factories, followed by participating in colorful folk dance on the nearest collective farm.
Magnitogorsk pretty much has the ideal name for a dreary Soviet industrial center, doesn’t it?
It’s a close second behind Asbest, the asbestos capital of Russia (male life expectancy: 18 minutes).
I guess they are just preparing for when the GOP has their 2016 Convention in Jerusalem.
More likely, the other way round, and Jerusalem comes to the 2016 GOP convention. (Rev. 21:2)
I thought that the line about “if the mountain cannot come to Mohammed” would have been a little too Furrin’ for the Republicans …
alcohol may have played a role
I want this on my tombstone.
No worries, mate. No worries.
“And the senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity”
Ah, the WKRP joke I was trying vainly to remember.
I’m callin’ dibs on Jerusalem Syndrome, geographical proximity be damned…
Because the appropriate way to demontrate your respectful and humble reverence for a Christian holy site where Jesus walked on water is to rip off your clothes and jump in.
How, as a devout Christian, is one to know whether they can emulate their Lord and walk Pom the Sea Of Galilee unless one tries?
Besides, the clothes were probably made by sweatshop child labor in some pagan country. Very important not to defile the Sea Of Galilee with them.
Which is capitalism working exactly as Jesus intended. Remember, he’s the guy who said the little children needed to suffer.
Just so long as there’s none of that pinko loaves and fishes stuff.
Two of New York’s finest! Reed’s running in a district that went for Obama in 08, but I’m afraid this might help him.
All else being equal, I’d vote for someone who got naked and swam in the Sea of Galilee.
Many of the lawmakers who ventured into the ocean said they did so because of the religious significance of the waters.
“The ocean”?
Is the Politico staff really that geographically illiterate?
Sea, Ocean, close enough. Forget it, they’re rolling.
I like how a body of water smaller than the Great Salt Lake can somehow get confused for the ocean. But it’s Politico, so expecting them to pay someone to “check” their “facts” is probably expecting too much.
(And why does the Sea of Gallilee get to be a sea anyway? It’s not even a particularly large freshwater lake. Shouldn’t it be Lake Gallilee?)
Considering who jumped in, the water isn’t particularly fresh anymore, either.
Israelis call it Lake Kinneret. It’s entirely fresh water. Or was until this incident.
Apparently the Appalachian Trail’s gotten too crowded.
That luggage isn’t going to lift itself.
I realie this was a fact-finding trip, but some facts are best left unfound.
Kevin Yoder is one brave commando, defending us from those who hate us for our freeballing.
Get up, you crazy black man! I’m going to make you drink my piss!
I’ve been telling Republicans to go jump in a lake for years now but the ‘Sea of Galilee’ is fine.
“That’s not Lake Minnetonka.”
“NO CONGRESSMAN!
That’s not what ‘The Gaza Strip’ means!”
Ha!
Heh.
They may not be gadarene, but they’re certainly swine…
And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.
And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?
And there was a good way off from them an herd of many
swinecongressmen feeding.So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of
swinecongressmen.And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of
swinecongressmen: and, behold, the whole herd ofswinecongressmen ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.That’s the difference between Republicans and Democrats. wehn Frank the Tank yells “let’s go streaking,” Republicans apparently follow him.
Bunch of frat boy autocratic bastards
This probably wouldn’t have been a big deal if Yoder hadn’t shouted “Matzah Baaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllll!” before jumping in and making a big splash.
I blame Legion.
Er… should have read the whole thread first.
i would actually pay to watch that!
the hilarity alone would be worth it.
ok, exactly what “facts” about israel, that no one else knows already, were they there to find? why don’t they just admit it was a privately paid-for vacation (great place for a vacation). they got toasted, and some of them, including apparently rep. yoder, decided to go skinny dipping in the sea of galilee. if they weren’t such (gambino) family values assholes, no one would give two nanny-goat shits.
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