GOP ex-congressman from PA accused of flashing

I don't know how many people have seen this story yet--I just got to it, sadly, from Drudge. Apparently, a longtime Pennsylvania Republican congressman Joseph McDade, who served for 36 years in the House and now works (you guessed it) for a Washington lobbying firm, has been accused of exposing his private parts to two women at a beach resort on Sanibel Island.

The story comes from the Associated Press, but for convenience sake I'll use Drudge's link at Breitbart:

Joseph M. McDade, 75, was issued a summons on a charge of exposure of sexual organs, a misdemeanor that carries up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

A court date was not immediately set.

And this isn't the first time he's been in ethical and legal hot water. From Wikipedia:

In 1992, McDade was indicted on bribery charges. He was charged with racketeering and conspiracy after accepting gifts and trips in exchange for diverting government contracts to specific groups. Although the charges were dropped in 1996, they severely injured his image. McDade retired from the House in 1999.

Not much to say here--and of course, the accused is innocent until proven guilty.

But if the charges are borne out, it's just more of that old-time Republican family values showing through. It's hard to say how much impact this story will have in the long run; it probably won't be much, but it'll just add to the growing cloud of associations between the GOP and sexual indiscretions. If nothing else, it tarnishes the GOP brand in Pennsylvania even further.

It'll be interesting to see how many hits the "family-friendly" GOP image can take before it really hits home with the average American voter that these guys are not only economically corrupt, but sexually corrupt as well...