As anyone who reads this blog knows, I have been following the ongoing saga & scandal of Cindy Gamrat and Todd Courser since even before they were actually elected to the House of Representatives. However, since I began writing about them, this week was the first time that this site became part of the story, albeit in a small way.
In the recording made by Ben Graham when he taped his conversation with Todd Courser, one that was, in part, released to the press, Courser and Graham discussed which media outlets would release his sickening “slow burn”, “herd-inoculating” email where he accuses himself of being a bisexual, drug-addicted monster who paid for “man on man” sex in the alleyways of Lansing. It was Courser’s contention that no media outlets would print it because it was so “salacious”. However, Graham mentioned three outlets that he thought would release it. Those three outlets were Brandon Hall’s West Michigan Politics blog, Chad Selweski’s Politically Speaking blog, and, yours truly, Eclectablog.
Here’s the official transcript from the House Business Office’s investigation (where they erroneously transcribed “Eclectablog” as “The Collective Blog”):
Click image for a larger version. Hat tip to Hector Solon for bringing this to my attention.
You can read the entire report HERE. The transcript of Graham’s recording starts on page 555.
You can hear the exchange in the following YouTube video from the Select Committee to Examine the Qualifications of Representatives Cindy Gamrat and Todd Courser’s hearing yesterday. The bit where Eclectablog is mentioned starts around 1:12:15 mark:
Courser says in the exchange that it’s so salacious that anyone who printed the false flag email would see their “credibility go down” so that anything further we wrote about him and his illicit affair with Cindy Gamrat would be ignored as a smear campaign.
Of the three outlets, only Brandon actually published the email.
If you listen to the entire recording – I have and it’s nauseating – some other very interesting information is revealed. For instance, Cindy Gamrat and her husband Joe were, according to Courser, having marital difficulties. Furthermore, Joe Gamrat had planted listening devices in Gamrat’s car and office, he tracked her via GPS, and made her account for all of moves. He even waited for them, Courser says, in the parking lot behind the Radisson hotel where they had their sexual dalliances.
Courser also alludes to the fact that he and his wife were struggling and that she told him 9 or 10 years ago that she hated him. Because of this, he had at least one other affair, something he’s afraid will come out, as well:
Ten years ago she said, I don’t know, I don’t love you. I don’t love. I hate you. Not that she said it it was a big deal, it was she meant it. So we worked through a lot of that, the children, there’s never a fight, there’s never a, even a coarse word. I’m completely measured, always controlled. You guys have gotten but they’ve never, never had it at home. So along the way the rest of my life isn’t as pure as the wind-driven snow.
All of Courser’s talk of the sanctity of marriage takes on a new meaning in light of these revelations, revelations revealed by him.
Gamrat clearly didn’t expect the Committee to vote to recommend expulsion. This week she introduced four bills. Two of them, HB 4851 and 4852, ban non-emergency abortions at or beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy. Another bill, HB 4856, requires public high schools to give all of its biology students an ultrasound and PET scan image showing “the development of an unborn child.” The fourth bill, HB 4858, is a so-called “Pastor Protection Act” that would provide unnecessary legal protections to pastors and other clergy who refuse to marry same-sex couples. Hilariously, the notorious bigot Gary Glenn beat her to this, introducing his own version with HB 4855. It was, apparently, a contest to see who could be a bigger bigot first.
In addition to the four bills, Gamrat also introduced a Joint Resolution, HJR CC, which would slash the amount of the state budget coming from federal sources to just 25%. Given that it is currently 43.1%, this means that our state budget would have yet another crater blown in it were it to become law.
It’s unclear whether any of these measures would ever see the light of day but, given how regressive they are, getting Gamrat out of the legislature is something that both Republicans and Democrats alike seem to agree on.
Cindy Gamrat and Todd Courser: ringing in a new era of bipartisanship in the Michigan legislature. Who woulda thunk it?
