Political Hors D'oeuvres: Gamrat And Courser Scandal Continues To Run Its Course

The Unholy Trinity — freshmen Reps. Todd Courser, R-Lapeer; Cindy Gamrat, R-Plainwell; and Gary Glenn, R-Midland — is breaking up. Seems Glenn couldn't brook the hypocrisy of his own family values caucus.
The trio came into the state House wielding heavy rhetoric and little legislative experience. But using their combined powers for the good of the tea party agenda, they forced a showdown over the speakership then seemingly went their separate ways.
Glenn went off to do everything in his power to stop being the president of the American Family Association of Michigan (which he still is, incidentally) by attacking worker rights. Gamrat and Courser set a bolder course in social conservativism. They introduced a raft of bills — none of which has even gotten a hearing — assaulting a woman's right to choose and requiring marriage licenses in Michigan to be signed only by clergy. Gamrat got booted from the GOP caucus meetings for leaking confidential information; Courser joined her in outraged protest.
Then two weeks ago the secret that had been whispered about in every hall around the state Capitol became front page news: Gamrat and Courser, both married to other persons and with children of their own, were having an affair. But these two crazy kids couldn't stop with just an affair. Nay, as it became clear the affair was going to be exposed, Courser hatched a plot to send an email to top GOP leaders throughout the state accusing himself of being a bisexual, porn addicted pervert and Gamrat of being less-than-virtuous.
Audio recordings made secretly by a former staffer show Courser intended to use the email to inoculate the herd in preparation for the ultimate revelation of his affair. Gamrat has since held a press conference and denied knowledge of that email plot, except that in the audio, according to the Detroit News, Courser can be heard calling Gamrat and getting the final approval to send the email out.
For Glenn, infamous for his own stack of half-truths and misrepresentations targeting the LGBT community, this all was a bridge too far. Last week, he joined a growing chorus of lawmakers and leaders calling for the duo to resign.
Of course, the duo is standing strong. There's a vile conspiracy of big government supporters aligned against them. Courser claims there was a blackmail plot which forced him to send out the gay defense email — except he apparently didn't bother to report the blackmail until a week after his plot was uncovered and reported by the Detroit News. That's when he decided to walk into the Lapeer state police post and file the complaint. That was, of course, after releasing a 27 minute audio tape responding to the News piece, which he characterized as a "hit piece."
A week after the story broke, Gamrat held a press conference at the office of Lansing attorney Andrew Abood. She was tearful. She was flanked by her husband, Joe. She admitted to the affair, but denied involvement in the cover up or any wrong-doing — either as broken House rules or criminal laws. She forgot to note that admitting to adultery was an admission to the commission of a felony in Michigan. She is not, however, planning to resign.
Oh, and then earlier this week, former staffer Joshua Cline, who said he resigned from the combined office operations of the two lawmakers to preserve his integrity, confirmed a long standing rumor about the Courser/Gamrat affair. Apparently Joe Gamrat caught the two pro-traditional marriage supporters in a hotel room at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Lansing. Between The Lines had heard about this incident, which as is wont to happen with rumor and gossip, had been expanded to include Lansing Police being called. The incident didn't happen according to police records.
The duo have their supporters. Isabelle Terry, a right-wing fanatic closely aligned with Dave Agema, the GOP National Committeeman from Michigan, took to RightMI.com to defend them. She declared she was glad they were not resigning.
Her thinking? The two are being punished by big government supporters.
"Deals over taxpayer money suddenly turn to deals over acts of heterosexual sex, homosexual sex (likely more rampant than the heterosexual sex judging by the huge numbers of effeminate men romping around the MIGOP) and drugs use," (sic) she wrote. "The politicos are sluts in money, power and physical highs. Players play, secrets are kept. That is … unless you are speaking the truth."
So, we have Gamrat and Courser admitting to committed the crime of adultery, an investigation by the House Business Office as to whether or not House rules may have been broken by the duo and now a Michigan State Police investigation. The FBI has thus far declined to comment if that organization is also investigating.
It appears Terry's political orgy is actually an orgy of scandal related investigations. And the sad thing is that this scandal is likely to bring the legislature to a grinding halt. If there is wrong-doing found, the House will have to empanel a committee to hear evidence for expulsion. That will be referred to the House floor. A vote will be taken.
The Legislature was on vacation when this story broke, and the scandal is only two weeks old, but continues to play out in dueling Facebook statements and press conferences.
If the only expulsion of a sitting member of the Legislature is an indication, this scandal threatens to shut down everything. When the state Senate threw Former State Sen. David Jaye out, the Legislature was frozen for nearly six weeks as the process played out.
Here's hoping the duo does the right thing and resigns. Then, if Cline's stories of working in the combined offices of the two lawmakers is accurate, Gamrat can get Courser a pillow and a blanket and tuck him in to sleep — on the sidewalk outside the House Office Building.