It’s a form of corruption. The question eternally is which sort of corruption can we actually tolerate? A senator going behind his wife’s back is gross, obviously, however it does not tear at the fabric of democracy.
Raiding the treasury, selling secrets and access, offering favors for cash, all of these things are corrosive to any nation state in any era of its national project.
A nation can survive a philandering senator. It cannot survive a coward that rubber stamps the whims of a kleptocrat at every chance.
As though all this guy with an actual NAZI TATTOO ON HIS CHEST did was get caught in a cheating scandal. He's a pathological liar, a creep, a weirdo, a person with absolutely zero honor or integrity or decency. His backstory was astroturfed, he has zero relevant experience, and the fact you all are willing to abandon every last moral principle you claim to hold dear really reveals more about you than you will ever understand.
Well it’s between him or the nice dressing lady rubber stamping fascism and the erasure of democracy itself, I’ll take the marine veteran and small town farmer with personal problems ANY FUCKING DAY. You want to judge him, fine. I think he’s contrite. But, I don’t care. We need a 60 seat majority in the senate so the fettermans have to fall in line.
I guess if YOU have no chance of being taken in by ICE then you can run your purity tests all the way to the ballot box. For the rest of us, we actually know the stakes.
Hmmmm What comes to mind is an entire party of pedophiles. I can tell u I cheated on my first husband. I was 23, 2 kids there were reasons. Not an excuse but an explanation. I remarried in 1980 and never cheated again.
According to that first article you posted his wife says she's forgiven him and that they've been going to marriage counseling. That's what you're *supposed to do*. If anything 'Graham Platner Committed Infidelity, Seeks Counceling' plays better with the young energetic progressives he's trying to win over.
It's embarrassing to be forced into Platner's marriage like this. And I see no difference between this consensual adults stuff and an adult man watching porn (the normal stuff, you know what I mean). It's ick, but it's NOBODY'S BUSINESS, and people are entitled to PRIVACY - yes, even Senate candidates. I'm really sick of, because I'm disgusted by, the "jerry springerization" of today's public discourse and politics; that's real white trash, trumpian behavior.
And no, McDonald isn't just the messenger. It's really ick to betray a friend's trust by repeating and making public without prior consent information given in confidence. She intentionally chose to betray her friend, to embarrass her friend, to harm the friend's husband, and so has demonstrated her untrustworthiness and lack of judgment as much as the underlying information damages anyone else's. Shame on her, but she can deal with her shame on her own time - Maine has actual issues to contend with.
I don't know if this changes your mind on this but they weren't friends. Genevieve didn't meet Amy until August 2005, not long before the campaign launched, and she was a paid campaign staffer, albeit the only woman.
Ok. (You meant 2025, right?) But whether McDonald was Gertner's friend or Platner's staffer, Gertner should have been entitled to trust McDonald to respect and not publicize something said to her in confidence which McDonald knew might damage Platner's campaign depending on how and in the manner in which the information came out. If not a friend, McDonald was a staffer, who Platner, Gertner and other staffers should have been able to trust, to rely on not to disclose sensitive information without obtaining consent, in this case, from both Gertner and Platner.
Porn is often more than ick. However present in all places at all time, male fascination with watching sex is a sociobiologic brain function. Us men be visual brain creatures - born that way.
Very human platner vs maga most time collins. Having lived in maine, i would vote for platner in a heartbeat. I suspect behind this story is the culture war GOP attack machine - no reasons to vote for a better maine, only antiwoke reasons that do not fill ur gastank, feed ur family or pay the rent. The gop is a one hateful trick pony.
"Very human" yeah it's just a human thing to accidentally stumble into a tattoo needle repeatedly such that it turns out to be a totenkopf. My contempt for you people knows no bounds.
Resorting to the ol' trusty "hateful GOP" when your candidate sported a nazi tattoo for a couple of decades really is *chef's kiss*
Vote for collins; fafo - the gop are a culture war machine. So platner's tattoo makes him totenkopf ss oberstfuerher?. Have you ever done anything stupid you regret? I have and i suspect you have ( not ad femina). Peace and hopes for an America where all are safe. peter
Platner says he was approached by some labor organization (I think) that asked him to consider running. How about that organization gets looked at a bit more intensely for not properly vetting someone (who self admittedly was damaged-PTSD AND VETERAN DISABILITY). Could we please call out that organization and have them shoulder a bunch of responsibility for this 💩💩💩??
This was just a young newly married couple trying to make the best of their lives before some big organization with $$ decided that the way Platner talked and looked could win them some votes.
I get that folks think that you have to adopt the lying kleptocracy’s strategies in order to beat them but when you do that you’ve given up on democracy.
"I get that folks think that you have to adopt the lying kleptocracy’s strategies in order to beat them but when you do that you’ve given up on democracy."
Kant said it best: nothing straight shall ever be made of the crooked timber of mankind. Platner like all of us is crooked timber - can you find a politician or human who is not crooked timber? The gop defends true miscreants; the dems apply purity tests.
What a great way to admit you have absolutely zero standards for a senate candidate. You, the same people who have been [accurately] howling about Trump's corruption and despicable personal behavior are now like "No man's perfect" when your candidate turns out to be a despicable scumbag creep. You are vile.
Platner is a crap candidate and I don't care "what he says now." The US Senate doesn't need a guy who got a Nazi tattoo and only removed it after being hassled about it. A guy who said black people don't tip like 0 -5% and has made misogynistic comments about women and now we find is a philanderer. Guess what? Maine deserves better than this. Maine doesn't deserve Susan Collins. She's got to go. But this guy? Give me a break. I'm not a Mainer but this is an equally unqualified choice. Character matters. Neither deserve the office. Get it together people. He may say what you want to hear. Most creepers do. Now what. People are fools.
Not a Mainer so I don’t have a vote there. I’m shocked the Democratic Party couldn’t find a candidate with less baggage who wasn’t over the age of 65. I do want to see the senate turn blue, and Collin’s out but I’m not a Platner fan.
Maine Democrat here. Six years ago, the Democratic Party (and I mean THE PARTY) ran Sarah Gideon to take out Collins. She outfunded and outspent Collins by millions and had none of Platner’s supposed baggage. Those were the days of “Bye Bye Susan” decals. We know the result.
I am suddenly seeing a spate of anti-Platner posts. The timing feels like the Collins team are trying to rally in the 11th hour. Platner is an untested white guy which I'm not thrilled about, at all. But Collins is NOT the answer and her voting record has betrayed women and Mainers alike, again and again. Hard NO on Collins.
Integrity is a discarded and quaint notion these days. And in light of so many political darlings like Eric Swalwell behaving so abominably, this does not bode well.
I respectfully disagree. You're attacking the person who made public the pathetic actions of a candidate for United States Senate. Why aren't you more concerned about the candidate himself? They're HIS actions. They speak to his integrity as a human being. They speak to his thoughts about the value of women. They speak to issues with self-control. And they corroborate some pretty nasty statements he made about women in the past, and point to the fact that no, he has not changed. I don't care if Janet Mills herself let this cat out of the bag. The bag holder is GRAHAM PLATNER. Only he is responsible for his actions. The fact that you're mad at the person who let voters know about this changes nothing about who's responsible, and it's Platner and ONLY Platner.
"Character" has always been a bogus issue. We all fail. We all say and do stupid things. I do not care if Graham Platner said and did a few in his time.
Nope. Men who are sometimes arseholes (that would be just about ALL of us) can still be good Senators, policy makers, etc. What's the point of taking his occasionally moronic behaviors seriously? Character isn't the ability to live 100% free of stupidity. It's the courage to face up to your blunders with humility and dignity, apologize, ask forgiveness and make amends. But Congress is not a place where character means or does much. So, honestly I don't care. Our president raped a 13 yr old girl. You want his party to win in Maine?
Neither are an excuse, but let's not grade on a curve. I'll support anyone pro constitution. On any side. Committed, not “ thoughts and prayers” pro constitution.
I genuinely see this 2 ways. He was in serious combat. He was outside the wire killing or be killed. He was not in an aircon tent on a laptop. We talk a big game but we treat veterans like trash. I will give a lot of leeway to an imperfect person who didn't have none spurs and $400m, raped people, and has never once faced a consequence their whole life and yet is the most aggreved person on earth.
I've written about GP before. Much more negatively. My priority concern is his becoming a Fetterman. But the fact is he's now the only shot against a guaranteed fetterman.
The American people deserve better choices.
But this is the one Maine has. Libs want Shirley Tenpel x St Augustine. GTFOH.
Hopefully he has chosen this path to make right for himself, his family and neighbors. His experience is a truly American experience. But if he gets in then stabs us all in the back like Fetterman then I suspect no one will protect him. Maga will use him and libs will hate him.
Under these conditions he has a knifes edge second chance. I pray for us all he chooses correctly.
It’s a form of corruption. The question eternally is which sort of corruption can we actually tolerate? A senator going behind his wife’s back is gross, obviously, however it does not tear at the fabric of democracy.
Raiding the treasury, selling secrets and access, offering favors for cash, all of these things are corrosive to any nation state in any era of its national project.
A nation can survive a philandering senator. It cannot survive a coward that rubber stamps the whims of a kleptocrat at every chance.
As though all this guy with an actual NAZI TATTOO ON HIS CHEST did was get caught in a cheating scandal. He's a pathological liar, a creep, a weirdo, a person with absolutely zero honor or integrity or decency. His backstory was astroturfed, he has zero relevant experience, and the fact you all are willing to abandon every last moral principle you claim to hold dear really reveals more about you than you will ever understand.
Well it’s between him or the nice dressing lady rubber stamping fascism and the erasure of democracy itself, I’ll take the marine veteran and small town farmer with personal problems ANY FUCKING DAY. You want to judge him, fine. I think he’s contrite. But, I don’t care. We need a 60 seat majority in the senate so the fettermans have to fall in line.
I guess if YOU have no chance of being taken in by ICE then you can run your purity tests all the way to the ballot box. For the rest of us, we actually know the stakes.
Hmmmm What comes to mind is an entire party of pedophiles. I can tell u I cheated on my first husband. I was 23, 2 kids there were reasons. Not an excuse but an explanation. I remarried in 1980 and never cheated again.
Yes! All of this. Thanks for articulating exactly how I feel - and I don’t even live in Maine.
According to that first article you posted his wife says she's forgiven him and that they've been going to marriage counseling. That's what you're *supposed to do*. If anything 'Graham Platner Committed Infidelity, Seeks Counceling' plays better with the young energetic progressives he's trying to win over.
It's embarrassing to be forced into Platner's marriage like this. And I see no difference between this consensual adults stuff and an adult man watching porn (the normal stuff, you know what I mean). It's ick, but it's NOBODY'S BUSINESS, and people are entitled to PRIVACY - yes, even Senate candidates. I'm really sick of, because I'm disgusted by, the "jerry springerization" of today's public discourse and politics; that's real white trash, trumpian behavior.
And no, McDonald isn't just the messenger. It's really ick to betray a friend's trust by repeating and making public without prior consent information given in confidence. She intentionally chose to betray her friend, to embarrass her friend, to harm the friend's husband, and so has demonstrated her untrustworthiness and lack of judgment as much as the underlying information damages anyone else's. Shame on her, but she can deal with her shame on her own time - Maine has actual issues to contend with.
Moving on to a Blue Senate.
I don't know if this changes your mind on this but they weren't friends. Genevieve didn't meet Amy until August 2005, not long before the campaign launched, and she was a paid campaign staffer, albeit the only woman.
Ok. (You meant 2025, right?) But whether McDonald was Gertner's friend or Platner's staffer, Gertner should have been entitled to trust McDonald to respect and not publicize something said to her in confidence which McDonald knew might damage Platner's campaign depending on how and in the manner in which the information came out. If not a friend, McDonald was a staffer, who Platner, Gertner and other staffers should have been able to trust, to rely on not to disclose sensitive information without obtaining consent, in this case, from both Gertner and Platner.
Again, moving on to a Blue Senate.
You're a paid agitator against the left. Go pound sand
Porn is often more than ick. However present in all places at all time, male fascination with watching sex is a sociobiologic brain function. Us men be visual brain creatures - born that way.
Very human platner vs maga most time collins. Having lived in maine, i would vote for platner in a heartbeat. I suspect behind this story is the culture war GOP attack machine - no reasons to vote for a better maine, only antiwoke reasons that do not fill ur gastank, feed ur family or pay the rent. The gop is a one hateful trick pony.
"Very human" yeah it's just a human thing to accidentally stumble into a tattoo needle repeatedly such that it turns out to be a totenkopf. My contempt for you people knows no bounds.
Resorting to the ol' trusty "hateful GOP" when your candidate sported a nazi tattoo for a couple of decades really is *chef's kiss*
Vote for collins; fafo - the gop are a culture war machine. So platner's tattoo makes him totenkopf ss oberstfuerher?. Have you ever done anything stupid you regret? I have and i suspect you have ( not ad femina). Peace and hopes for an America where all are safe. peter
Platner says he was approached by some labor organization (I think) that asked him to consider running. How about that organization gets looked at a bit more intensely for not properly vetting someone (who self admittedly was damaged-PTSD AND VETERAN DISABILITY). Could we please call out that organization and have them shoulder a bunch of responsibility for this 💩💩💩??
This was just a young newly married couple trying to make the best of their lives before some big organization with $$ decided that the way Platner talked and looked could win them some votes.
I get that folks think that you have to adopt the lying kleptocracy’s strategies in order to beat them but when you do that you’ve given up on democracy.
"I get that folks think that you have to adopt the lying kleptocracy’s strategies in order to beat them but when you do that you’ve given up on democracy."
💯
It shows weakness of character (again).
Kant said it best: nothing straight shall ever be made of the crooked timber of mankind. Platner like all of us is crooked timber - can you find a politician or human who is not crooked timber? The gop defends true miscreants; the dems apply purity tests.
What a great way to admit you have absolutely zero standards for a senate candidate. You, the same people who have been [accurately] howling about Trump's corruption and despicable personal behavior are now like "No man's perfect" when your candidate turns out to be a despicable scumbag creep. You are vile.
Platner is a crap candidate and I don't care "what he says now." The US Senate doesn't need a guy who got a Nazi tattoo and only removed it after being hassled about it. A guy who said black people don't tip like 0 -5% and has made misogynistic comments about women and now we find is a philanderer. Guess what? Maine deserves better than this. Maine doesn't deserve Susan Collins. She's got to go. But this guy? Give me a break. I'm not a Mainer but this is an equally unqualified choice. Character matters. Neither deserve the office. Get it together people. He may say what you want to hear. Most creepers do. Now what. People are fools.
Not a Mainer so I don’t have a vote there. I’m shocked the Democratic Party couldn’t find a candidate with less baggage who wasn’t over the age of 65. I do want to see the senate turn blue, and Collin’s out but I’m not a Platner fan.
Maine Democrat here. Six years ago, the Democratic Party (and I mean THE PARTY) ran Sarah Gideon to take out Collins. She outfunded and outspent Collins by millions and had none of Platner’s supposed baggage. Those were the days of “Bye Bye Susan” decals. We know the result.
Just keep Bill Green in the woods. He threw the race last time.
Well, I’ll leave to those in Maine to decide what’s best for their state, but I’m sure hoping you don’t send Collins back.
Put all your money on Collins, she will win. Mainers too decent to elect a Nazi.
Why aren’t there any decent people running for office? Why is it that only those who are corrupt, dishonest, with no integrity running?
I am suddenly seeing a spate of anti-Platner posts. The timing feels like the Collins team are trying to rally in the 11th hour. Platner is an untested white guy which I'm not thrilled about, at all. But Collins is NOT the answer and her voting record has betrayed women and Mainers alike, again and again. Hard NO on Collins.
Integrity is a discarded and quaint notion these days. And in light of so many political darlings like Eric Swalwell behaving so abominably, this does not bode well.
Agree 💯. Another disappointment....
I can’t believe a guy with a Nazi tattoo continues to show bad judgment!
I respectfully disagree. You're attacking the person who made public the pathetic actions of a candidate for United States Senate. Why aren't you more concerned about the candidate himself? They're HIS actions. They speak to his integrity as a human being. They speak to his thoughts about the value of women. They speak to issues with self-control. And they corroborate some pretty nasty statements he made about women in the past, and point to the fact that no, he has not changed. I don't care if Janet Mills herself let this cat out of the bag. The bag holder is GRAHAM PLATNER. Only he is responsible for his actions. The fact that you're mad at the person who let voters know about this changes nothing about who's responsible, and it's Platner and ONLY Platner.
"Character" has always been a bogus issue. We all fail. We all say and do stupid things. I do not care if Graham Platner said and did a few in his time.
Do you have a daughter?
Nope. Men who are sometimes arseholes (that would be just about ALL of us) can still be good Senators, policy makers, etc. What's the point of taking his occasionally moronic behaviors seriously? Character isn't the ability to live 100% free of stupidity. It's the courage to face up to your blunders with humility and dignity, apologize, ask forgiveness and make amends. But Congress is not a place where character means or does much. So, honestly I don't care. Our president raped a 13 yr old girl. You want his party to win in Maine?
2 things.
Trump
Combat
Neither are an excuse, but let's not grade on a curve. I'll support anyone pro constitution. On any side. Committed, not “ thoughts and prayers” pro constitution.
I genuinely see this 2 ways. He was in serious combat. He was outside the wire killing or be killed. He was not in an aircon tent on a laptop. We talk a big game but we treat veterans like trash. I will give a lot of leeway to an imperfect person who didn't have none spurs and $400m, raped people, and has never once faced a consequence their whole life and yet is the most aggreved person on earth.
I've written about GP before. Much more negatively. My priority concern is his becoming a Fetterman. But the fact is he's now the only shot against a guaranteed fetterman.
The American people deserve better choices.
But this is the one Maine has. Libs want Shirley Tenpel x St Augustine. GTFOH.
Hopefully he has chosen this path to make right for himself, his family and neighbors. His experience is a truly American experience. But if he gets in then stabs us all in the back like Fetterman then I suspect no one will protect him. Maga will use him and libs will hate him.
Under these conditions he has a knifes edge second chance. I pray for us all he chooses correctly.