Joe Barton is just a jerk, not a miscreant

Rep. Joe Barton (R- TX) is yet another alleged slimeball with an enlarged prostate in a position of power. The internet was graced with photos of his junk along with text messages this week.

"While separated from my second wife, prior to the divorce, I had sexual relationships with other mature adult women," he redundantly said in a statement. [If they're mature, they're adults.] "Each was consensual. Those relationships have ended."

Barton added, "I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down."

An anonymous account tweeted a censored photo of a nude dude and suggested it was Barton, who is now 68. The tweet also showed a screenshot of a text message from "Joe B" using strong, suggestively sexual language.

Barton apologized for the explicit photo, not denying that it was his 'brain override organ" in the tweet, but he also said that he wouldn't resign.

Barton is the longest-serving member of the Texas House delegation and he just announced his 18th congressional campaign.

What about term limits for all these clowns?

One question raised is whether Barton is actually a victim of a crime. It went public at a time when the country grapples with sexual harassment issues among a number of lawmakers and scumquats in Hollywood.

Barton said the photo was taken in a consensual relationship and it wasn't he who posted it on the web. He may be a victim of a crime under Texas law intended to protect against the release of intimate materials.

Texas legislators passed a "revenge porn law" in 2015 criminalizing the act of intentionally disclosing pictures or videos "depicting another person with the person's intimate parts exposed or engaged in sexual conduct," without their consent.

It was later discovered that Barton told a woman with whom he sent sexually explicit photos, videos and messages that he would report her to Capitol Police if she went public with any of the material The Washington Post reported late Wednesday.

The anonymous woman provided The Post with a recorded phone call in which Barton admitted that if their relationship was exposed, he would tell investigators that "I had a three-year undercover relationship with you over the Internet that was heavily sexual and that I had met you on two different occasions and that I exchanged inappropriate photographs and videos with you that I wouldn't like to be seen made public, that you still apparently had all of those and were in a position to use them in a way that would negatively affect my career."

Barton had not immediately responded to The Post. 

The woman told The Post that she posted the images because she felt Barton was "manipulative and dishonest and misleading" in his relationship with her and with other women.

"It's not normal for a member of Congress who runs on a GOP platform of family values and conservatism to be scouring the Internet looking for a new sexual liaison," she told the press.

Apparently, she's wrong.

But in Barton's defense, this was a consensual relationship and just because he apparently is a jerk, it does not give her the right to post those photos on Twitter just for revenge. It isn't the same thing as what we've been seeing in Hollywood and on Capitol Hill.

It isn't a case of sexual misconduct, or a crime--it's a case of a woman's wrath.

Beware of a woman's wrath.


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