NY Times Reportedly Planning Story On Alleged John Boehner Affair
John Boehner 'Affair' To Be Focus Of New York Times Expose, NY Post Reports
House Minority Leader John Boehner was asked by a liberal blogger Thursday to answer questions about an affair with a lobbyist, an allegation that will reportedly be the focus of an upcoming New York Times expose. Boehner ignored the question outright.
The Post sees a journalistic plot to drop a bombshell on the upcoming midterm elections by smearing a high-profile GOP leader:
Insiders on Capitol Hill are buzzing about an upcoming New York Times exposé that will detail an alleged Boehner affair. Sources say the Times is looking for the right time to drop the story in October to sway the election, similar to how the Times reported during the 2008 presidential campaign on an alleged John McCain affair that supposedly had taken place many years before and that was flatly denied by the woman in question.
Mike Stark, an activist and blogger, intercepted Leader Boehner after his highly publicized "Pledge to America" unveiling to ask him about the accusation:
"Speaker Boehner, have you been cheating with Lisbeth Lyons, the lobbyist for the American Printing Association?" Stark asks. Boehner did not respond.
Stark later contacted Lyons, the Vice President of Government Affairs at Printing Industries of America, to get a comment on the allegations. She didn't provide any.
The New York Post has since caught up with Lyons, who said the rumors were "unfounded."
"As you can imagine, I was stunned by such a question," Lyons told the Post. "I found it to be highly insulting, particularly as a female political professional, as well as unfounded. Beyond that, I have no further comment on the matter."
A Boehner spokesman blamed Democrats' allies in the liberal media for fabricating the charges.
"This is bull[bleep]," the spokesman told the Post. "The American people oppose Washington Democrats' job killing, so their desperate liberal allies are resorting to outright lies. It's low, and it's dirty."
By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer Friday, September 24th, 2010 -- 4:26 pm
Update: The website Black Spin reported on Friday afternoon that the bishop at the center of allegations of a gay sex scandal plans to step down as the pastor of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church after he delivers his sermon on Sunday. According to the same story, as many as 30 young men may now be considering suing Bishop Eddie Long.
The Georgia bishop at the center of a slew of underage gay sex allegations told his congregation that gays "deserve death" during sermons in the 1990s.
Audio of a sermon by Bishop Eddie Long exhorting the death penalty for gays was broadcast by The Michelangelo Signorile Show on Friday, the same day that a fourth person came forward with allegations of sex abuse against the bishop.
In the audio clip, Bishop Long can be heard saying of homosexuality, "God said, everybody in here that knows what's right but ain't practicing -- every woman that knows what to do but still wants to act like a 'woman of the 90s' that the world has described -- God says unto every man that knows what God is saying to do, and you're still acting like the boys on the corner, God says you deserve death!"
According to the Signorile Show, the sermon took place in the mid-1990s, at Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia. Long had published a book entitled I Don't Want Delilah, I Need You!, which preaches traditional gender roles.
In a 2007 report, the Southern Poverty Law Center described Long as "one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement." The report quotes a Long sermon in which he targets lesbian behavior.
"It is the most unattractive thing I have ever seen, when I see women wearing uniforms that men would wear, and women fighting to get in the military!" Long shouted to his congregation then. "The woman gets perverted to turn towards woman … and everybody knows it's dangerous to enter an exit! And everybody knows, lady, if you go to the store and buy these devices [marital aids], it's Memorex! It ain't real!"
The audience, seated in a congested sanctuary, erupts in laughter. But what Long says next is no joke.
"God says you deserve death!"
Three men filed lawsuits against Long and his church this week, alleging that the bishop coerced them into sexual activity. On Friday, a fourth made similar allegations against Long, suing Long's satellite church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Associated Press reports:
Attorney B.J. Bernstein says she is filing a lawsuit Friday on behalf of a member of New Birth Charlotte. New Birth Charlotte is a satellite church run by Long in Charlotte, N.C. The man met Long in May 2005.
The lawsuit says the bishop took the teenager to Kenya in July 2005 when he was 17 and engaged in sexual activities with him. It said that Long later encouraged him to move to Atlanta, where the activity continued until early 2009.
All four of the men suing Long were 17 or 18 years old at the time of the alleged incidents.
Long held a conference call with reporters Friday, before the new allegations were made public. According to CBS affiliate WGCL, the bishop didn't deny the allegations against him.
"I have never dealt with anything like this before. I have been under attack before, but everything else has been different levels and different challenges," Long said. "Know that I am also praying for the families and the young men who are accusing. I always operate in the spirit of love, and we are going to move through this," he said.
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