Of course she does.
Democratic Rep. Katie Hill of California has resigned. from the House of Representatives. Ethics Alarms examined Rep. Hill’s plight in the recent post, Just What We Needed: The Naked Congresswoman Principle. It concluded,
“The Naked Teacher Principle, Naked Congresswoman Variation, rules. The fact that these photos became public undermines trust in Hill’s judgement, competence, and trustworthiness, if not her physical fitness. It doesn’t matter how or why they got online. The person ultimately responsible is Hill. If you want to have a career based on respect and trust, don’t pose for naked pictures, sex photos, or pictures that make you look like you’re employed by an escort service. That shouldn’t be so hard.”
The lesson of the Naked Teacher Principle and most (though not all!) of its variations held true for Hill: once there are photos out there of a professional holding a position requiring dignity and trust behaving like or looking like a porn star, a drunken frat date, Kim Kardashian or a Sports illustrated swimsuit model, that professional’s ability to do her (or his) job has been seriously wounded, perhaps mortally. It would have been nice, and admirable, if Hill acknowledged this fact of life, the workplace and politics, but as you can see from her resignation letter below, she did not:
Ugh.
Hill appears to be taking no responsibility for her fate at all. This was a “rising star” in the Democratic Party firmament? Yechh.
Who allowed those photographs to be taken, Katie? When you hold a elected public position of trust in the House of Representatives, you are always responsible when your private conduct becomes public and it clashes with the public’s reasonable expectations of their elected leaders. This is why, for as long as you represent the U.S. government and its institutions, you have to control yourself, your passions, and your eccentricities as part of your duty to your office. You cannot dress up in blackface, or appear in a Nazi uniform, or as a dominatrix, or barking like a dog while a dwarf rides you like a pony, even in private, unless you are prepared to accept the inevitable consequences if your moments of indulgence become public, embarrassing your party, state, legislative body and nation. Thus, if you do such things, legal though they are, making certain that you are not being captured on film or digital images is a no-brainer, and allowing oneself to be so captured strongly suggests the presence of no brain, or at least no trustworthy model.
Yup, your estranged husband behaved miserably, hatefully and illegally. It doesn’t matter. He’s not a House member. Yes, you have every reason to be furious and feel betrayed. That doesn’t matter either. It is your duty, and part of your job as an elected leader, to protect your image and dignity. You didn’t. Admit it, apologize, and find something else to do.
Moreover, Hill’s resignation was primarily triggered by the fact that she had a sexual relationship with a campaign worker (and allegedly another staff member, though she denies it), a violation of House rules, and also possible sexual harassment. She doesn’t mention this in her letter at all, other than alluding to it (I assume) by defaulting to the cowardly and oblique “mistakes made” (by whom, Rep. Hill?) cliché and the even more clichéd, “I’m not perfect and never pretended to be.”
And it’s all a man’s fault. That’s her message: her husband did her in, just as other women are routinely harmed by other men, the bastards, thus deflecting to bigotry and misandry to duck her own accountability.
Hill’s resignation letter alone is sufficient to prove that she lacks the character to be a member of Congress.
Ethics Alarms 
Not important to the post, but is it really illegal for the husband to release the pictures?
“Revenge porn” is illegal in several states. Illegal or not, it’s a rotten thing to do.
Reading the news article, it seemed to imply that the pictures were posted semi-publicly on a swinger’s lifestyle forum in the past, and only recently somebody connected the dots–or leaked the dirt on where and how to find them. Husband then was contacted by the reporter investigating, but got no comment.
It’ll be really interesting if he has no involvement in the story coming out and also hard proof of her knowledge and consent of the past activity, and files suit for libel.
I would not be a bit surprised.
And lets be real: We’re talking about the pictures because they’re salacious, but I’m not convinced that mere nude pics, even pics as explicit as I’m told hers are, would do someone in anymore. Having a threesome with campaign staffers in the era of #metoo probably did Hill more damage than the images. I could be convinced otherwise, but there *are* examples of other elected officials with nudes on the internet.
I thought this woman’s bi-sexuality and polyamory and her husband being a guy would all keep her from any adverse consequences. We’ve been told for years now that gays and lesbians are essentially superior beings. And older homosexuals do younger homosexuals a great favor by introducing them to the ways of homosexuality at a young age. I’m surprised she wasn’t nominated for a Congressional Medal of Honor for being a lesbian icon. Plus she’s a victim of an abusive husband. Although he evidently is a dutiful house husband, so that wasn’t so great, image-wise. And she’s evidently into pot. So’s Bernie. And Beto! She’s living the life the Democrats lay out as the future of the country and its woke leadership. She did nothing wrong.
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Working at a mega-corporation, we have regular mandatory diversity and inclusion events. One of the guests for the events was the parents of Matthew Shepard. They got my sympathy until his mom espoused the bullshit bolded part.
No. I’m not going to tolerate cultural relativism. Exploitation is exploitation. I don’t care if you are gay or straight, it is wrong to use your experience and wealth to lure in the underage and barely legal.
Remember—the NTP doesn’t require that the subject resign, just that the subject can’t credibly complain if she has to.
“[T]he character [required] to be a member of Congress.” Hmmm. I’m thinking, I’m thinking.
I was surprised by the rapidity with which Nan dispensed with Rep. Hill, as well as the fact she did. What’s going on? Nothing happened to all the goofballs in Virginia state government. Don’t Congresspeople basically laugh at ethics investigations? They get censured and say, “So what?” I find this very unusual to the point of being almost inexplicable. Particularly after that SNL writer guy jumped so fast and then tried to climb back onto the plank.
Safe seat in a safe state?
Had been Republican since the ’90s. So not sure.
My guess is that there are even more problematic pictures sitting out there to be released in the event she didn’t resign.
Likely. But what would it take to push a Squad member out?
This story brings out my Eeyore-ish worst.
I don’t expect her political career to be over at all. All this abuse that’s been heaped on her (/sarc) is the foundation for a spectacular comeback – the poor, persecuted sex-haver. She’ll be happily throupling (or whatever-multiple-ing) again in no time. She’s an icon of sex minorities, Victim-Heroine Deluxe, a true giant of diverse American values.
All those old, black men who were civil rights icons like Cummings and Conyers are dying off (could Jesse J be next?). So now, it’s time for a new generation of infallibles (for whom it is such an oppressive HASSLE in this day and age, to have to say that stupid, obligatory lie: “I am not a perfect person“!!!) to take the baton of perfect righteousness and entitlement-to-infinite-power and shove it into the faces of all of us dull, boring, presumably ignorant and automatically bigoted and misogynistic sex-having normals, us oppressive sexual majorities (but especially, those of us who actually have ethical sex). Her problems are ALL OUR FAULT, and she is going to BATTLE us, her oppressors, so we’d all better get ready for Katie Hill’s version of weaponized “law” To make sure her exploitation flows in only one direction, purely for her benefit and 100% to the detriment of anyone she considers an enemy.
No, I’d say Katie Hill’s political career is only just beginning.
Jesus might forgive me, but I truly hate women like Katie Hill.
She’ll certainly be given a gig on MSNBC and will be on the college lecture circuit immediately. A better offer and agents calling her may have sealed her bailing out so quickly.
Gone is gone. If she were an ethical person, she wouldn’t have done all the things she’s been credibly accused of. That doesn’t mean she’s guilty, of course, but at the very least, she’s under a cloud of suspicion.
So why should I be surprised when she refuses to accept responsibility for her actions? Ultimately, gone is gone, and good riddance. Like Bill says above, she’ll probably be given some cushy job on CNN or MSNBC as a Trump critic where sycophantic TDS sufferers will commiserate with her about how horribly she was treated.
Scott Greenfield over at Simple Justice had an interesting post this morning:
https://blog.simplejustice.us/2019/10/29/revenge-porn-tested-by-kate-hill-and-fails/
jvb
This story has a pileup of ethical issues.
As commenter WallPhone already mentioned, there is uncertainty if this is revenge porn, someone independent of the husband making a linkage to the photos, or the soon to be ex-husband making that linkage. If it’s the third case, this will certainly make attempts to prosecute under revenge porn laws interesting to say the least.
Hill is the second to resign over revenge porn. Rep Blake Farenthold recently resigned in the fallout of his affair mistress blackmailing him over purported nudes. One of the defenses by Hill’s defenders is that there is a gender bias against her, but the recent Farenthold story should put that one to the rest (but won’t…).
There is also the question of did the orientation of Hill affect the coverage? We’re the salacious stories of a “throuple” a factor in the popularity? I think possibly, but then given the political hit by the opposition would get it out no matter what.
Another fact to surface recently is that the “throuple” predated Hill’s campaign for Congress. That means she hired a intamate partner and therefore this isn’t sexual harassment of a subordinate but corruption. Sadly this is a type of corruption widely practiced in Congress. The most egregious being Elijah Cummings who gets his wife 10s of millions and curiously never is mentioned by the mainstream media.
Lastly, the Daily Mail is the second to release photos but has a much larger collection. They report but blur out that she has a large iron cross tattoo on her mons pubis. Having a democrat congresswoman with the symbol of the Nazi party emblazened on such an intamate place is interesting to say the least. That seems like a very not woke thing to do.