John Diehl, off to spend more quality time with a likely very pissed-off wife.
Whoa! This didn't take long. Only one day after
copies of sexually suggestive texts between Missouri House Speaker John Diehl and a college intern surfaced,
he's announced his resignation:
"Too often we hear leaders say they’re sorry but are unwilling to accept the consequences," Diehl said in his resignation statement. "I understand that, as a leader, I am responsible for my actions and I am willing to face the consequences."
He spoke of "personal responsibility" on his
website, so it's nice to see he's backing up his words with actions, even in the face of otherwise questionable behavior with a college freshman. Prior to getting busted, he was one of those
family values types:
Earlier this year, Diehl and the president pro-tempore of the state Senate filed an amicus brief in defense of the state’s anti-gay-marriage amendment, leading the Missouri Family Policy Council, the state affiliate of the Family Research Council, to praise the speaker “for demonstrating moral leadership and true integrity in standing up for the sacred institution of marriage and the family values of the people of Missouri.” The state affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention thanked him for “fighting to defend biblical marriage.”
And:
Diehl also co-sponsored a 2012 bill to ban Gay-Straight Alliances in public schools, which read: “Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, no instruction, material, or extracurricular activity sponsored by a public school that discusses sexual orientation other than in scientific instruction concerning human reproduction shall be provided in any public school.”
It's always the holier-than-thou characters, isn't it? For her part, the unnamed intern probably spent a little too much time binge watching
House of Cards. Diehl's name in her phone contacts was
Frank Underwood.