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Assemblyman Is Censured for Fraternizing With Intern
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
Published: May 4, 2007
ALBANY, May 3 — An upstate assemblyman was removed from his post as ranking member of the Assembly Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse on Thursday after revelations that he slept at the home of a 21-year-old female intern last month after a night of heavy drinking.
The assemblyman, Mike Cole, a Republican who represents parts of Niagara and Erie Counties, also received a rare letter of censure from his colleagues, citing his violation of a policy banning lawmakers from fraternizing with interns. Mr. Cole will also be stripped of his seniority and prohibited from taking part in the Assembly’s intern program in the future.
The punishment was unanimously recommended by members of the Democratic-controlled Assembly’s bipartisan Ethics and Guidance Committee. A spokeswoman for the Assembly said she could not recall the last time a member was censured for any matter.
In a brief statement issued Thursday evening, Mr. Cole said: “I accept full responsibility for violating the intern fraternization policy that Speaker Silver put into place. I am truly sorry for putting myself, and, more importantly, my family, in this situation. It will never happen again.”
Mr. Cole, 35, is married and has two daughters. He is serving his first full term in the Assembly.
The letter of censure, signed by Speaker Sheldon Silver, did not identify the intern, who was fired earlier this year, or the official who employed her. It cited Mr. Cole’s “profound lack of respect or appreciation for the appropriate and positive role the policy envisions for members of the Assembly with respect to student interns.”
The loss of his committee post will also cost Mr. Cole the $9,000 extra a year earned as the ranking member. His annual salary as a state lawmaker is $79,500 a year.
Mr. Cole and the intern spent part of the evening of April 16 in an Albany sports bar “drinking a significant amount of alcohol,” according to the letter.He later accompanied the intern to her apartment and was introduced to her roommate, another Assembly intern.
Shortly thereafter, according to the letter, Mr. Cole and his drinking companion went into her bedroom, where he stayed until morning.
In a statement issued on April 25, Mr. Cole said that he had been at the bar with several other lawmakers and interns to watch a Stanley Cup playoff game between the Buffalo Sabres and the New York Islanders. He admitted that he had slept on the intern’s floor, but did not specify in which room he had slept.
“As wrong as it sounds now, at the time I didn’t think it was such a bad decision to sleep there, being that I was incapable of driving. But it was. I should have taken a cab home,” he said in the statement. “At no point in time did anything inappropriate occur, nor has anything been alleged.”
It was the first public punishment of an Assembly member for violating rules that the Assembly adopted in 2004 governing interactions between lawmakers and more than 150 interns, most of them undergraduate students, who come to work in the Assembly.
Those rules were instituted after a spate of controversial incidents including an encounter between a male lawmaker and a female intern in a motel and the arrest of a top Assembly staff member after allegations that he had raped a female staff member.
What's the list now? Gannon, Foley, Tobias, Hager, Haggard, Gingrich, Wilkes, Cunningham, Goss, Sanchez and a whole host of others yet to be revealed by Palfrey. What is it with the GOP and their suppressed sexuality leading them to want to suppress everyone else's sexuality while acting out their suppressed desires in private?
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The list now resides in the hands of the ABC correspondent, Brian Ross, who gamely tossed out a new tidbit today.
Quote:
Also on Palfrey’s list of customers who could be potential witnesses are a Bush administration economist, the head of a conservative think tank, a prominent CEO, several lobbyists and a handful of military officials.”
My point is that the GOP runs on this platform, yet time and time again they are proven as hypocrites. It's really funny in a sad kind of what what repressed sexuality will do to a man. It's scary when that man with repressed sexuality choses to enforce his repressions on society, though....
Am I missing something here?
A man drank a beer or two too many, and he stayed at co-worker's/ friend's place instead of driving home drunk.
What's the big deal?
__________________
"Don't try to threaten me Mulder! I've watched presidents die."
"If people would know the things I know, we'd all fall apart."
"Once again, tonight, the course of human history will be set by two unknown men standing in the shadows."
Again, I must be missing something.
Guy had a beer or two too many, he decided to stay at his drinking buddies house instead of drive home drunk.
I suppose he should have given her a ride home, have an accident in which she died, and then fled the scene. Then he'd be alright.
I don't know about you, but as a married man, I know it would be highly inappropriate for me as a father and husband to be out drinking with another woman and then staying at her house. Notice he can't say which room he stayed in. You can play naiive about this, but even if he didn't go any further than crashing out on the couch, it certainly wasn't appropriate by any stretch for him to even just hang out with some girls and crash at her pad when his wife and kids are at home....
Perhaps it was not appropriate, but it was far from being news-worthy.
Seems like a bunch of people from work went out together to watch a ball game. Had a few beers, and one man had an error in judgement. Out of three possibilities, he didn't choose the best one (take the cab or fetch a ride from somebody sober) nor did he choose the worst possibility- drive home drunk.
Not the greatest decision, not the most appropriate one, but hardly a terrible choice, and definitely not a scandal. I guess it must be a slow week.
__________________
"Don't try to threaten me Mulder! I've watched presidents die."
"If people would know the things I know, we'd all fall apart."
"Once again, tonight, the course of human history will be set by two unknown men standing in the shadows."
It's not a scandal, just another example of hypocrisy, that's all. When you run on a platform of 'Family Values' and aim to legislate your values on others, you open yourself up for scrutiny on those grounds. This guy is just another example in a LOOOOONG line of 'Family Values' hypocrites....
Dude, a guy had a few beers and stayed at the friend's house- what does that have to do with anything? Even if there was more to the story- it's irrelevant.
A moral failure of an individual does not negate that there is morality- that there is right and wrong.
__________________
"Don't try to threaten me Mulder! I've watched presidents die."
"If people would know the things I know, we'd all fall apart."
"Once again, tonight, the course of human history will be set by two unknown men standing in the shadows."
He broke the rules, that's what happened. I'm sure his wife and children ain't too happy, but that's their business. The only part that makes this a story is that he knew the rules and didn't follow them, and now is being punished for it. Good.
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