We’ve all seen those stories where a careless politician gets a little too candid when speaking into a hot mic. But this one’s really in a whole different league.
[RELATED SLIDESHOW: TPM’S HISTORY OF THE SEX-SCANDALOUS FALL OF THE MODERN CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT]
Michael Duvall is a conservative Republican state representative from Orange County, California. While waiting for the start of a legislative hearing in July, the 54-year-old married father of two and family values champion began describing, for the benefit of a colleague seated next to him, his ongoing affairs with two different women. In very graphic detail.
For instance:
She wears little eye-patch underwear. So, the other day she came here with her underwear, Thursday. And⨠so, we had made love Wednesday–a lot! And so she’ll, she’s all, ‘I am going â¨up and down the stairs, and you’re dripping out of me!’ So messy!
Duvall’s sophomoric braggadocio, of course, was picked up by the microphone in front of him, and wound up on a tape for the legislature’s in-house TV station. From there it was sent to a local news station, KCAL, which ran this full report last night:
According to both KCAL and the OC Weekly, an alternative weekly in Orange County, the woman who wears the “eye-patch underwear” is Heidi DeJong Barsuglia, a lobbyist for an energy company, Sempra Energy. Duvall is vice chair of the Committee on Utilities & Commerce.
In the tape, Duvall also says of Barsuglia:
So, I am getting into spanking her. Yeah, I like it. I like spanking her. She goes, ‘I know you like spanking me.’ I said, ‘Yeah! Because you’re such a bad girl!’
The OC Weekly explains that it identified Barsuglia as the woman Duvall was talking about because Duvall also said:
And so her birthday was Monday. I was 54 on June 14, so for a month, she was 19 years younger than â¨me. I said, ‘Now, you’re getting old. I am going to have to trade you in.’ And she goes, ‘[I’m] 36.’ She is 18 years younger than me. And so I keep⨠teasing her, and she goes, ‘I know you French men. You divide your age by â¨two and add seven, and if you’re older than that, you dump us.
The hearing took place on July 8th. OC Weekly looked at voter registration records and confirmed that Barsuglia turned 36 on Monday July 6.
Separately, KCAL named Barsuglia, citing sources.
According to the OC Weekly, Duvall and Barsuglia have been seen “arm-in-arm” at fund-raising events, and even shopping for groceries together near the Capitol.
One Sacramento staffer told the paper:
Their relationship is the worst-kept secret in Sacramento. He’s old and fat. She’s hot, blonde and about 20⨠years younger. He could have never gotten a woman like that before he got⨠this job.
As for the second woman, whose identity remains unconfirmed, Duvall said in the recorded conversation:
Oh, yeah, Sher, Shar, Shar. Oh, she is hot! I talked to her yesterday. She goes, ‘So are we finished?’ I go, ‘No, we’re not finished.’ I go, ‘You know about the other one [Barsuglia], but she doesn’t know about you!’
This story, of course, just wouldn’t be the same if Duvall — a former mayor of Yorba Linda and the owner of an insurance company — weren’t known as a strict conservative and a staunch defender of family values. But alas, he is.
As the OC Weekly reports, â¨Duvall has “blasted” efforts to promote gay marriage, and got a 100 percent score from the Capitol Resource Institute, which describes its mission as to “educate, advocate, protect, and defend family-friendly policies in the California state legislature”. In March, a spokeswoman for the group called Duvall “a consistent trooper for the conservative causes,” adding that “for the last two years, he has voted time and time again to protect and preserve family values in California.”
In addition, says the paper:
He has offered a law to alter the First Amendment rights of Americans by⨠banning anti-war activists from putting the names of fallen soldiers on â¨T-shirts with messages such as “Bush lied” on the front and “They died” on the back; he observed that the dead soldiers fought to protect freedom, and “opportunists” should not be allowed to “exploit” the sacrifices with political messages opposing war.â¨
Throughout the day yesterday, Duvall evaded reporters’ efforts to talk to him about his comments, fleeing several times down the Capitol’s corridors.
The voice-mailbox for Duvall’s Capitol office was full. Calls by TPMmuckraker to Duvall’s district office, to Barsuglia, and to Sempra Energy’s public relations department were not immediately returned.
Looks like we could soon have another entry for the slideshow!
Late Update: Duvall has apologized. But that doesn’t mean he’s escaping punishment.
Late Late Update: Duvall resigns from office.
